Miami Brazilian butt lift doctor with a history cut a woman’s colon, state says
A Brazilian butt lift surgery ended with a woman’s colon cut open and the patient’s “prolonged stay” in intensive care. The state of Florida said not only did a West Miami-Dade BBL end that way, the surgery shouldn’t have been started.
That is what’s alleged in the Florida Department of Health administrative complaint against Dr. Algird Mameniskis, who still works out of Avana Plastic Surgery, 8700 W. Flagler St., where the surgery occurred in 2020.
Administrative complaints start the process toward discipline or exoneration by the state Board of Medicine. Mameniskis is familiar with the process, after being fined $5,000 in 2023 for ignoring a liposuction patient as the patient tried to contact him about her post-surgery swelling and fatigue.
READ MORE: A Miami doctor got fined $9,450. He ghosted a patient having post-liposuction problems
That’s the only discipline on the Florida license Mameniskis has held since Aug. 24, 2018. His Florida Department of Health online profile states he’s also licensed in Illinois, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, buthis New Jersey and Pennsylvania licenses expired in 2013.
Mameniskis has been certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery since Nov. 23, 1996.
Neither Mameniskis nor Avana Plastic Surgery, managed then and now by Pedro Alonso, returned a Miami Herald email asking for a response to the complaint.
READ MORE: Dr. John Nees has not been disicplined for his role in BBL surgery death
Before and during surgery
What follows comes from the administrative complaint:
A 56-year-old woman, “NW,” planned to have a Brazilian butt lift at Avana on Sept. 29, 2020. The surgery colloquially called a “BBL” starts with liposuction from the abdomen, sides and back, with that fat being transferred into the buttocks.
But, the complaint said, “NW was obese (Body Mass Index 30.28) and had a history of poorly controlled diabetes without long-term current use of insulin.”
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Mameniskis didn’t do — or, at best, didn’t document doing, the complaint said — a pre-surgery consultation with NW, clinical evaluation of the patient, including a “physical assessment of NW’s abdominal wall” to check for abdominal hernia that the liposuction cannula could poke through. Also, there might be scar tissue in the tissue around the organs.
NW’s preoperative blood work showed hyperglycemia with “nearly three times the normal bloop glucose levels. Uncontrolled diabetes is a known risk factor for surgical infections, including necrotizing soft tissue infection.”
This meant, the complaint said, “NW was not an appropriate candidate for an elective cosmetic procedure in an office setting given her uncontrolled diabetes and obesity, and [Mameniskis] should have denied her surgery.” Mameniskis cut on NW later that day.
“During the liposuction procedure, [Mameniskis] failed to use proper technique and deliberate control of the cannula,” the complaint said, “perforating multiple loops of the small bowel and causing lacerations to the colon and mesentery.
Mameniskis “did not recognize the intraoperative complication, and NW was discharged following a period in recovery.”
After the surgery
Two days later, a nearly fainting NW showed up at Jackson North Medical Center with shortness of breath and heart palpitations.
Exploratory abdominal surgery on Oct. 2, 2020, showed perforations to the small bowel; a deep laceration through the part of the colon that connects to the rectum; a deep abdominal laceration; abdominal lining inflammation; a soft tissue infection of the abdominal wall; and a bacterial skin infection of the buttocks.
“As a result of her injuries, NW experienced a prolonged stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) and underwent several additional surgeries,” including damage control abdominal surgery, removal of part of her bowels and creating space for a breathing tube.
Other surgeries in 2020 that didn’t go well
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation says Mameniskis had two other 2020 surgeries at Avana that didn’t go as planned.
March 18, 2020: After a liposuction of the abdomen, back, sides and arms, the patient suffered infections from reduced blood flow. She claimed she needed eight weeks of wound care. The insurance regulation entry says Mameniskis’ “reviewing expert says such injuries are rare, but are a known risk and complication of the procedure and can and do occur in the absence of negligence.” Mameniskis’ insurance paid $235,000.
June 25, 2020: After an abdominoplasty and Brazilian butt lift and follow-up visits on June 26 and July 6, the woman was cleared by fly home. When she went to her primary care doctor on July 7, 2020, she collapsed and was hospitalized. In the ER, she was diagnosed with “septic shock relating to a left buttock abscess and she tested positive for COVID-19.” The abscess, once drained, was found to have a staph infection. She died on July 25, 2020. Mameniskis’ insurance paid $250,000.
