The death in January of the popular Mexican influencer Magnolia Morales has put cosmetic procedures in Mexico under the microscope: the 29-year-old died after undergoing some 30 operations between July and December last year after an initial surgery to Losing weight will leave holes in your digestive system.
Morales underwent a stomach reduction using the gastric sleeve technique on July 21, 2022 at the Clínica Hospital María del Mar in Mazatlán, in the state of Sinaloa.
[They warn that in clandestine aesthetic clinics "the risk of dying is very high"]
But soon after, he suffered a series of medical complications that began with abdominal pain, shortness of breath and high blood pressure that, over the months, would only worsen until he died of cardiac arrest on January 6, the newspaper reported. Spanish El País, who spoke with Esmeralda Morales, the young woman's sister.
On the Instagram social network, where he still had more than 57,000 followers,
Morales recounted his weight loss process: he had lost 242 pounds
(110 kilos) with a first successful gastric sleeve surgery, but he wanted to lose another 45 pounds with the operation. that cost him his life.
In many of his publications, he recounted each step of the process, even with photographs of his surgeries.
"I never thought I would look like this, I am aware that there is a way to go," she wrote in an image from November 2021.
After his death, his family denounced Hernán Lizárraga, the doctor who performed the surgery in July and followed him for another two months, for manslaughter and malpractice.
Lizárraga, El País indicated, continues to practice as a doctor and promotes his services on social networks.
The State Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risks of Sinaloa confirmed that the clinic where Morales was operated on had been sanctioned, but the specialist continued to operate.
What does the surgery consist of?
Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy or vertical laparoscopic gastric sleeve, popularly known as gastric sleeve,
is a surgery to lose weight
.
The operation is laparoscopic, that is, minimally invasive, and with it up to 80% of the stomach is removed, which "takes the shape of a long tubular bag, the size and shape of a banana," explains the Mayo Clinic.
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Reducing the size of the stomach also reduces the amount of food a person can consume
.
In addition, surgery promises to achieve hormonal changes that will help lose weight and alleviate problems such as high blood pressure or heart disease.
The intervention is recommended if people have first tried to lose weight with other less invasive methods such as diet or exercise, says the Mayo Clinic, which says that "in very rare cases, complications from laparoscopic gastric sleeve can be fatal."
Risks cited by doctors include bleeding, infection, lung or breathing problems and leakage from the cut edge of the stomach, which is what Dr. Lizárraga said Morales suffered after the procedure in July.
What went wrong with the operation?
According to her sister's account, after the first symptoms after the surgery, the influencer went to Lizárraga, who told her that she had a gastric leak, which "is the most feared complication in the MLG postoperative period," according to the Mexican Association of Endoscopic Surgery.
To repair it, "re-operation and very long periods of hospital stay are needed," the association explained.
As of July 26, Morales was admitted to the clinic where she had been initially operated on.
In the following two months,
they performed 20 surgeries "to try to repair the leak and the perforation that he had"
, many of them carried out by the same doctor, according to what his sister told the Spanish newspaper.
When transferring her to another hospital, they explained to the family that the young woman "had multiple perforations throughout her digestive system and many lacerated organs."
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After more operations, the influencer seemed to recover.
She came out of the coma, spoke and walked again, "but she had many sequelae and her organs inside her were not good," her sister told El País.
On January 6, he died after suffering a cardiac arrest.
He turned 29 years old before the first operation.
Her family now uses her Instagram account to denounce the alleged medical negligence of which she was a victim.
[Aesthetic surgery that is popularized on social networks and why many refuse to undergo it]
His case led last November to close an operating room and a maintenance room at the María del Mar Hospital Clinic for non-compliance with health regulations, reported the State Commission for Protection against Sanitary Risks (COEPRISS).
Mexico is the third country with the most cosmetic surgeries in the world.
Brazil and the United States occupy the first two places.
Last August, the Mexican government warned that "the increase in the demand for cosmetic surgeries and the insufficient number of certified specialists in plastic surgery has caused the proliferation of clandestine clinics that
put the health and even the lives of people who request them at risk. "
those services
”.
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