Many attribute the trend to Kim Kardashian: Since the US superstar showed his strikingly large buttocks on the front page of the magazine “Paper” in 2014, more and more women with the desire for a bigger buttocks have been appearing at cosmetic surgeons.
In Düsseldorf, two patients probably paid for this wish with their lives.
Now her surgeon stands before the Düsseldorf regional court: for bodily harm resulting in death in two cases and negligent bodily harm in a third case in which the patient survived.
This Tuesday the process begins.
The doctor has been offering buttock enlargements ("Brazilian Butt Lift") using autologous fat implantation for several years.
A popular method that is viewed critically by many plastic surgeons because of its risk.
In his social media channels, the accused doctor frankly showed some of the bloody interventions during which he was filmed.
Very high death rate
"With a mortality rate of 1: 3000, such an operation is actually hardly justifiable," said Professor Dennis von Heimburg, President of the Association of German Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, after the allegations became known.
The death rate is very high.
The main reason is the risk of fat embolism when fat tissue gets into the bloodstream of the muscle tissue.
Nevertheless: The International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery reported at the end of last year that buttock surgery showed the highest growth in all surgical interventions worldwide: the number of buttock augmentations increased by 38.4 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year.
The indictment is based on expert opinions accusing the surgeon of several medical errors.
In several cases, for example, insufficient information was provided about the risks involved in the interventions.
Inadequate education, wrong treatment
On July 2, 2019, the doctor is said to have sucked off fat from a 42-year-old and injected it into her buttocks. The education was inadequate. The operation and the subsequent treatment against thrombosis should have been carried out on an inpatient basis and not on an outpatient basis. In addition, the procedure should only have been performed with an anesthetist. Neither liposuction nor injection was done properly. Follow-up observation and aftercare was missing. The woman died of complications from the operation. The cause of death was blood loss in combination with a fat embolism.
At the time, the doctor denied bleeding to death as the cause of death when asked by the dpa: “She definitely did not bleed to death.
Your circulation was stable after the operation. ”He had said that he suspected sudden cardiac death rather than the cause of death, for example from congenital cardiac insufficiency.
According to the indictment, the doctor had already performed liposuction of more than twelve liters of liquid on August 6, 2018, followed by autologous fat implantation in the breasts and buttocks.
In an outpatient operation, however, only a maximum of five liters are allowed.
In addition, the anesthetic was dosed in an unacceptably high dose.
The 20-year-old died on the same day as a result of high blood loss and a fat embolism, i.e. fat penetrating the pulmonary arteries.
On June 12, 2018, the doctor sucked off six liters of liquid from a patient in his practice in Düsseldorf, 4.7 liters of which were fat, of which he injected 2.2 liters into both buttocks.
Then he released the woman without the necessary aftercare.
The doctor also used an unapproved drug during the operation.
The defendant should continue to deny the allegations.
The defense invokes several counter-opinions.
Until further notice, the medic is not allowed to practice as a doctor.
The 49-year-old is not in custody.
His arrest warrant had been suspended against conditions and a bail of 100,000 euros.