A woman’s Brazilian butt lift in Miami became 2 weeks in Jackson with a tube inside her
What should have been a two-hour Brazilian butt lift at a Miami office surgery center turned into two weeks in the Jackson Memorial Hospital intensive care unit for a woman after a doctor injected fat where state law prohibits, a state complaint said.
Reached for a response to the allegation in a Florida Department of Health administrative complaint against him, Dr. Rafael Salas emailed the Miami Herald: “I am unable to discuss patient care and treatment due to patient privacy laws.”
The complaint starts the discipline process that can end in no action, a fine, suspension or license revocation by the Florida Board of Medicine. A common punishment for doctors who have no previous disciplinary actions includes a fine from $5,000 to $10,000, continuing education classes and charged with case costs.
Salas has been licensed in Florida since Sept. 16, 2010, with no previous discipline issues, according to the Department of Health. His official address is the Pembroke Pines’ address of Salas Plastic Surgery & The Love Medspa, but the Brazilian butt lift in question — and one from the year before — happened at 305 Plastic Surgery, 564 SW 42nd Ave.
MORE: 1 Miami area plastic surgeon, 2 Brazilian butt lift deaths, 3 state complaints
A day at 305 Plastic Surgery, two weeks in Jackson
A Brazilian butt lift, commonly called a “BBL,” is a form of liposuction in which fat is taken from the abdomen, sides and back and injected into the gluteal area — but not the glute muscles. Injecting fat in the glute muscles can kill a person by causing blood clots that block arteries in the lungs, a pulmonary embolism. That’s why it’s prohibited in Florida.
The administrative complaint says a 28-year-old woman went to 305 Plastic Surgery on April 28, 2021, for a BBL and Salas injected fat into her glute muscles.
After the surgery finished, her condition deteriorated quickly and she was transferred to the Jackson Memorial Hospital emergency room.
The complaint said a chest scan “showed pulmonary emboli in the right upper lobar pulmonary artery, right middle lob, right lower lobe and left lower lobe segmental arteries” while a pelvic scan showed “extensive fat deposits in the bilateral gluteal musculature.”
She was put in the intensive care unit, the complaint said, and was intubated there until May 13, 2021.
“Intubation is a process where a healthcare provider inserts a tube through a person’s mouth or nose, then down into their trachea (airway/windpipe),” the Cleveland Clinic explains. “The tube keeps the trachea open so that air can get through. The tube can connect to a machine that delivers air or oxygen.
“Intubation is necessary when your airway is blocked or damaged or you can’t breathe spontaneously.”
Salas, the complaint said, violated the Florida administrative code rule “when he injected fat into the gluteal musculature during the fat grafting procedure on April 28, 2021.”
The next month at 305 Plastic Surgery
Alice Cooper, a mother of two children, came to 305 Plastic Surgery in May 2021 for what a civil lawsuit filed in Miami-Dade Circuit Court called “a gluteal augmentation procedure” by Salas. The lawsuit accused Salas of injecting fat too deep into Cooper’s buttocks and causing Cooper’s July 5, 2001, death by “massive pulmonary fat embolism.”
The lawsuit, filed June 23, 2021, ended in a settlement with Salas and 305 Plastic Surgery for Cooper’s children. The final judgment says “no portion of those sums represent pre-judgment interest, post-judgment interest or punitive damages” against Salas or 305 Plastic Surgery.
There was no disciplinary action by the state against Salas or 305 Plastic Surgery, which was run then and now by Preisdent Reynier Lara, concerning Cooper’s death.
This story was originally published October 24, 2024 at 7:28 AM.
