She died a day after cosmetic surgery. Two years later, her family wants justice

Traci Clardy was 41 and the mother of three children when decided to enhance her abdominal appearance. So she went in for cosmetic surgery at the Elite Plastic Surgery clinic in Aventura.

On the morning after her operation, she was found dead.

Nearly two years after her death, the law firm Cohen, Blostein & Ayala, representing the Clardy family, has filed suit against Elite Plastic Surgery; the recovery center where the woman lived her last hours, Serenity Recovery Retreat, and the doctor who performed the abdominoplasty and liposuction, Moisés Salama.

According to suit, Clardy was operated on Monday, June 6, 2016, at the cosmetic clinic at 21097 NE 27th Ct. and then transferred to a recovery center at 4327 Jefferson St. in Hollywood, which had been arranged through the same clinic.

The woman was to remain at that center until Thursday, June 9. During her stay, she was supposed to get, among other things, medical attention around the clock, according to the agreement, the document alleges.

On June 7 near 1:40 a.m., Clardy called the assistant on duty, but got no response. She and another patient even called the cellphone of the employee, who did not answer, the lawyers claim.

After 2 a.m., Clardy began to complain that her lower lip felt numb and that she was worried that she had an allergic reaction, the notice adds.

The incident report provided by Hollywood Police Department mentions that around 3 a.m., Clardy asked a friend, who was also a patient in the recovery center, to help her go to the bathroom. The friend tried to help her, but could not. So Clardy said she was fine, that she was going to stay in bed.

This police report does not mention the previous attempts indicated by the victim's lawyers, but both documents agree on the same tragic ending.

Minutes after 8 a.m., an employee of the recovery center entered Clardy's room and noticed that the woman was unconscious.

"Mrs. Clardy was not responsive and unable to be arouse. Mrs. Clardy was cold to the touch," says the lawyers' notice. The medical assistant called 911 and, following the operator's instructions, measured the woman's blood pressure. The reading was low, so the 911 operator recommended placing the patient on the floor and doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

When the paramedics arrived, the woman had died.

The autopsy report indicates that the cause of death was undetermined, with "no evidence of infections or neoplastic process to account for her demise."

The coroner believes in the report that it is possible that Clardy may have died of complications from abdominoplasty or of an underlying mild cardiomegaly (abnormal enlargement of the heart).

According to lawyer Jay Cohen, the woman, born in Alabama and then a resident of Lake Worth, was encouraged to pay a little more for a healthcare service, but when she started having problems, no one was there to help her.

On behalf of Dr. Salama, the lawyer Julia Ingle said that they continue to "offer our deepest condolences to the patient's family" and added that they are unable to comment or provide more details about that case due to privacy and confidentiality laws.

"Dr. Salama provides the highest level of care and treatment to all of his patients, as he did with this patient, and denies any allegation of medical negligence," Ingle said in an email to the Nuevo Herald.

Ingle further stated that Dr. Salama has "no business relationship or ownership interest with NCN Recovery, Inc. (ie, Serenity Recovery Retreat), which is where the incident occurred."

While Traci Clardy was pronounced dead, her husband, Lawrence Clardy, left the four children of the couple - two of both, one of a previous relationship of her and one of a previous relationship of him - at a daycare and was driving in his vehicle to Miami to visit his wife in the center where she should be recovering.

On the way, his cellphone rang. It was an employee of the medical center to inform him of the death of his wife.

In a telephone interview with the Nuevo Herald, Lawrence said that he had taken his wife to the clinic in Aventura the day before her death, had waited for her while she was being operated on and then left her at the recovery house on Jefferson Street.

He could not stay with her because he had four children to take care of and, in addition, the recovery center did not allow men to enter his compound.

The last two years have been difficult for him and his family, especially for the youngest son, who is now four years old. "He always asks about his mother," the man said. He tells her "that I understand because I miss her too and we have to make mom proud, we have to be good for mom".

Before meeting Jay Cohen, his lawyer, the man says he "was at a lost point" because he wanted to dig deeper into the case and "seek justice," and stressed that his wife "was perfectly healthy."

The Clardy couple met in 2009, seven years before the operation, in the state of Minnesota during a party of the basketball team of which Lawrence Clardy was the coach.

The woman had been invited by the wife of the assistant coach who, according to Lawrence, had been insisting that he would love her.

At the party there was an immediate crush. They exchanged their phone numbers and then began to date. A year later they got married. They moved to Florida years later, when Traci obtained a job offer at Office Depot.

Lawrence remembers his wife as a hard-working, soft-spoken woman who was always willing to help everyone and who was also a great mother with her children and with the daughter he had from a previous relationship.

The Clardys went on vacation every year to some heavenly place with another couple of friends. His last trip was on a 10-day cruise through the Caribbean. They never managed to plan the next destination.

The man now lives in Minnesota with his children.

After the notification of intention to sue, the Elite Clinic and Dr. Salama have three months to conduct an investigation and come to their own conclusions. From there it will be determined if the case will end in a trial or settlement.

This story was originally published June 6, 2018 at 11:29 AM with the headline "She died a day after cosmetic surgery. Two years later, her family wants justice."