Before plastic surgery, do homework on your surgeon, facility | Miami Herald

Q. With last week’s death of a 29-year-old woman at Encore Plastic Surgery in Hialeah, how does one know where to go and with whom to have surgery? I want to have surgery but I'm scared to death!

A. As you should be! I have been writing about how to choose an appropriate place to have surgery for over 20 years.

Here are some basic ideas as to where NOT to have surgery: Your home, in a garage, a hair salon, a strip mall or a warehouse.

And have surgery only by board-certified surgeons for each particular body part. In other words don't have a urologist do a facial plastic surgery procedure on you (a real situation).

Make sure the facility is certified by one of the certifying agencies. In addition, make sure the surgeon has privileges to do that same surgery at a hospital. Hospitals are usually more careful in certifying their physicians because of liability.

Also, check to see who owns the facility. You can check a corporation’s records at sunbiz.org.

In addition, ask who is going to be administering the anesthesia, and are there appropriate monitors in the operating room.

And finally, one last piece of advice, actually meet your doctor long before the day of your surgery. That way you’ll know who is operating on you. Do not have a surgical consultant make the decision of what surgery you’re going to have, and who is going to operate on you. Choose your surgeon and facility wisely.