One Miami area plastic surgeon, two Brazilian butt lift deaths, 3 state complaints

Cooper City Dr. Harry Intsiful’s current situation, by the numbers: licensed in four states; hit with three administrative complaints by the Florida Department of Health; two deaths of Brazilian butt lift patients; and one Brazilian butt lift patient who received a near $1 million payment from Intsiful’s malpratice insurance.

And while that last patient survived her BBL experience with Intsiful, Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation put under “Severity of Injury” the summary “Permanent: Minor — loss of fingers, loss or damage to organs.”

Administrative complaints start the discipline process, something Intsiful hasn’t had to deal with since becoming licensed in Florida in January 2018. He’s also licensed in New York, Texas and California. The Department of Health’s online profile of him also lists Georgia and Virginia as his licensed places. An online check of those states’ records say his Georgia license lapsed in 2011 and Virginia license expired in 2003.

Although Intsiful is licensed in many places, Broward County real estate records say he lives in Cooper City. Intsiful’s official address on his Florida and Texas’ licenses is that of Aventura’s Dolls Plastic Surgery, which no longer lists him in state records among its surgeons. Before he used the Dolls address, he used 8570 Stirling Rd., which he, Google and the state of California placed in Hollywood, but Broward County says is in Davie.

He’s board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

READ MORE: Doctor knew the gas passer was unqualified. The BBL patient died. He’s still licensed

A ‘penetrating wound to the liver’ and other holes

In the form of liposuction known as a “Brazilian butt lift” or “BBL,” the surgeon inserts a tube called a “cannula” into the abdomen and back, sucks fat from those locations and inserts that fat into the buttocks. The surgeon must make sure to avoid all organs. Also, the fat cannot be inserted under or into the gluteal muscles in the buttocks.

S.A. went to Intsiful for a BBL on June 28, 2022.

“After the liposuction, S.A. began to deteriorate while she was in the prone position,” the complaint said. “She was subsequently transferred to a local hospital and passed away. As a result, fat transfer of the trunk was not done on S.A.”

The autopsy found:

▪ “Evidence of liposuction and associated injuries,” including a loss of blood and brain injury.

▪ “Lacerations and trauma” to S.A.’s back muscles with “copious liquid blood and fat droplets” under the skin of the back.

▪ “Multiple incisions in the abdomen” and the deepest layer of skin in the abdomen and back with “extensive, markedly dense hemorrhage underlying the incision with ill-defined, slender tracks of the lacerated tissue coursing into the back” and side of the torso.

▪ “A bleeding puncture site in the left upper abdomen with an underlying puncture of the abdominal wall.” A “penetrating wound into the liver” measured 6.5 centimeters (about 2.56 inches). There were 375 ml of blood and fat droplets in the abdominal cavity.

The complaint said Intsiful caused “deep and severe trauma” to back muscles and abdomen muscles; put holes in the anterior abdominal wall; caused multiple organ injuries; got under the muscles instead of just the skin when doing the liposuction.

Fat in muscles, blood clots in lungs

S.N.G. went to Intsiful’s office surgery center for a BBL on Aug. 22, 2022. The complaint said after the BBL, she was transferred to a hospital. That’s where she died.

The autopsy done two days later, the complaint said, “found evidence of multiple injuries as a result of liposuction.” Among them:

▪ The right and left pulmonary arteries, which carry blood from the heart to the lungs, were clogged with a marbled blood clot.

▪ The liver had subscapular hematoma, which a 2020 Science Direct article says is spontaneous bleeding between the connective tissue surrounding the liver and the functional tissue of the liver. Also, there was bleeding in the abdominal cavity.

▪ There were hemorrhages in the deep muscles of the back, the soft tissues of the arms and soft tissues of the abdomen.

▪ Fat graft in four different gluteal muscles.

The autopsy blamed S.N.G.’s “sudden death” on blood clots flowing back to her lungs, “a collapse of both the circulatory and respiratory systems.”

The complaint said Intsitul lacerated S.N.G.’s liver, ruptured her blood vessels to the arms and abdomen, caused “multiple organ injuries” and inserted the fat under the muscles.

Not the ‘New Life’ she wanted

The third complaint concerns a BBL that Intsiful did while one of the surgeons in West Miami-Dade at New Life Plastic Surgery, 8400 SW Eighth St.., a surgery center with three liposuction deaths from 2020-2022.

Before that deadly stretch, Dawn Bumphus came to New Life on July 23, 2019, for a BBL. She had checked out Intsiful for a year online. She didn’t know some of the credentials he listed on his New Life website biography weren’t accurate, according to officials at those institutions spoken to by a Miami Herald reporter a month later.

READ MORE: Doctor accused of botching butt lift had dubious credentials on website bio

“Post-op, the patient returned in follow-up,” the state’s Office of Insurance Regulation said. “She was noted to have swelling and was not feeling well, for which she was given IV hydration and felt better.”

But two days after the surgery at New Life, abdominal pain pushed Bumphus to go to Memorial Regional Hospital West in Pembroke Pines. The lawsuit filed by Bumphus against Intsiful and New Life said Bumphus went into septic shock and had to have “emergency, life-saving stabilization procedures in intensive care before abdominal surgery.”

“While in the hospital, [Bumphus] was found to have eight perforations in her small intestine with gross contamination” of the abdominal cavity,” the complaint said.

The lawsuit said that and the infection of the abdominal wall led to Bumphus’ kidney and lung failure; 134 days in Memorial Regional hospital; 12 operations to deal with “persistent leakage from her bowels and the abdominal wall defects; and a tracheostomy “through which her respiratory system was supported for over 100 days.”

READ MORE: The plastic surgery and prescription violations that’ll cost a Miami doctor $26,000

State records say in the settlement of the lawsuit, Intsiful’s insurance, Physicians Insurance Group, paid $995,000. The “Severity of Injury” was stated as “Permanent: Minor — loss of fingers, loss or damage to organs.”

This story was originally published October 16, 2024 at 11:28 AM.

David J. Neal

Miami Herald

305-376-3559

Since 1989, David J. Neal’s domain at the Miami Herald has expanded to include writing about Panthers (NHL and FIU), Dolphins, old school animation, food safety, fraud, naughty lawyers, bad doctors and all manner of breaking news. He drinks coladas whole. He does not work Indianapolis 500 Race Day.