Man who died after liposuction

QX179R SG

Man who died after liposuction could be Singapore's first case

SINGAPORE: The recent death of a 44-year-old man who had undergone liposuction at a general practitioner's clinic could be Singapore's first such case.

Franklin Heng, CEO of YTL Pacific Star, died recently after a liposuction treatment.

Singapore's Ministry of Health is unable to provide the latest figures, but media reports have said there were no such deaths in 2008 and 2009.

The Singapore Medical Association said on Thursday that since July 2008, it has received three complaints related to aesthetics treatment, but none were about liposuction.

Generally, liposuction has a 90 per cent success rate, according to plastic surgeons. But the surgery is not as easy as it seems because mastering the procedure requires years of training.

Dr Woffles Wu, a plastic surgeon, said: "I don't think liposuction should be done by a non-surgical specialist. I think GPs need to get a surgical degree if they want to do a surgical procedure."

Currently, licensed general practitioners can only remove 1 kilogramme of fat, and Dr Wu said proper training is needed to overcome any complications that may occur.

He said: "It has to come from training, learning how to do liposuction. We studied how to do this when we were in plastic surgery residency, which goes on for four to five years.

"You learn how to put the fluids in, you learn how to maintain the equilibrium of the patients, you know when the patient is losing blood. You know when to put back blood, you know where the dangerous areas are... these things all come into play.

"It's when you get aggressive, or when you start thinking that liposuction is a very easy procedure, that's when you run into a mistake."

Complications include fat embolism, where fats enter the circulatory system during surgery, as well as electrolyte imbalance, where the lack of salts could cause seizures in a body.

Experts said inexperience can also result in the tube - used to remove fats in liposuction - puncturing a vital organ, resulting in internal bleeding.

- CNA/so