Tag Archives: doctors

Woman undergoes quaruple amputation after black market silicone butt injections

Apryl Michelle Brown had black-market silicone injections which turned out to be bathroom sealant. It left her in agony and led to her losing her hands and feet, as well as her buttocks. The 46-year-old former hairdresser blames “vanity” and wants to warn others of the terrible dangers of such illegal treatments. Teased as a child about her “pancake” bum, Brown vowed to buy a shapelier one when she was older. The moment that changed her life came in 2004, when two women walked into her successful beauty salon to get their hair done. One of them ran “pumping parties” — where unqualified practitioners inject illegal silicone into “patients” at their home. Brown, from Los Angeles, Calif., said: “One of the women told me how she had given bottom injections to the friend who was with her. “I remember thinking it was a miracle she’d walked into my life. Her friend showed me the work she’d had done and it looked great. “In a split second I made the decision that I was going to go to this woman and let her inject silicone into my behind.” That decision nearly killed her. Brown paid the woman, who had no medical background for two lots of injections. Doctors later discovered the substance used was industrial-grade silicone. Brown admitted: “I didn’t do any research. A combination of naivety, misplaced trust and insecurity led me to take this disastrous decision. “I trusted her because she seemed so professional, and I had no reason to think anything awful was going to happen. “She carried out the procedure in her daughter’s bedroom. She assessed my bottom and said, ‘You’ll need three or four sessions to get the result you want’. “The first procedure took an hour. I remember asking, ‘Is it meant to be so painful?’ and she said, ‘Yes’. It felt like it was squeezing through my nerves.” Within weeks Brown returned for her second treatment. She said: “After going through it again I had an epiphany. As I left her house I thought, ‘What am I doing? I have no idea what she’s putting in my body’. “I never returned. But though I didn’t know it then, my life had already changed forever.” Over the next two years the area where she’d been injected became hard and the skin blackened. Brown, mother to daughters Danye, 22 and Courtney, 21, said:  “Within a few months of the second injection my buttocks began to harden. I knew something wasn’t right. But shame stopped me seeking medical help. As time went on it got worse as the skin blackened. I developed hard lumps. Then the searing pain started. I had to tell my doctor what I did. I was so ashamed.” Brown spent the next four years in constant pain. Two surgeons told her it was too dangerous to remove the silicone. She said: “I was in so much agony I became a regular at hospital asking for medication to ease what was like a combination of a migraine, childbirth and toothache localized in one area. “I suffered day and night, so I was willing to do anything — including remove my buttocks.” In February 2011 a surgeon operated unsuccessfully. Brown developed a hole in her buttocks — thought to be the trigger for an infection that in June was nearly fatal.  She said: “I was 24 hours from dying. I didn’t think of leaving my family. It was a relief I’d finally be free of pain.” Doctors put her in an induced coma for two months while performing 27 surgeries — starting with amputating her buttocks — and doing extensive skin grafts. She said: “They saved me but gangrene set into my hands and feet. I was brought out of sedation shortly before I became a quadruple amputee. “My hands looked like those of a dead person. I knew then I was going to lose them.” She added: “At first you try to register your new limbs. The real comprehension comes when you start to live this new life. “I had dark times. I cried a sea of tears. I had to face the fact I’d lost my hands, feet and buttocks because of complications from bottom injections. I was overwhelmed by shame and guilt... all because I wanted a bigger bottom. “I was six months in hospital. By the time I was discharged I was determined to turn this terrible thing into something positive. “I decided to do a triathlon. I told myself if I could achieve that I could do anything. “I took my first steps again by the end of 2011. I built up to training six days a week, learning to walk, cycle then swim again using my residual limbs. “I’d be crying in pain but I’d push through it. And six weeks ago I did it — completing a three-mile walk, ten-mile cycle and a 150-meter swim. “When I crossed that finishing line with my family cheering me on, I cried tears of joy.” She added: “I haven’t sued or sought compensation. I just want to move on. There are things I miss dearly — I’ll never be able to do my girls’ hair or feel sand between my toes. “But I believe I survived to share my story. “I want to warn others of the dangers of black-market surgery. We were born whole, perfect and complete. “My greatest message is we have to learn to love and accept ourselves for who we are.” Click for more from The Sun. source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/29/woman-becomes-quadruple-amputee-after-black-market-silicone-injections/

Man dies after toothpick gets stuck in throat

A Swedish man has died after doctors failed to spot a toothpick stuck in his throat. The man, who was in his 60s, accidentally swallowed a toothpick while eating a sandwich, The Local reports. The next day, he was taken to the emergency room after having trouble swallowing. However, the doctors who examined him failed to find any problem and sent him home. Ten days later, he developed a hole in his windpipe and an infection that required emergency surgery. The man hemorrhaged during the operation and died the next day. Click for more from news.com.ausource : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/man-dies-after-toothpick-gets-stuck-in-throat/

New approaches give women more options for breast cancer surgery

CHICAGO – & Treating breast cancer almost always involves surgery, and for years the choice was just having the lump or the whole breast removed. Now, new approaches are dramatically changing the way these operations are done, giving women more options, faster treatment, smaller scars, fewer long-term side effects and better cosmetic results. It has led to a new specialty -- “oncoplastic” surgery -- combining oncology, which focuses on cancer treatment, and plastic surgery to restore appearance. “Cosmetics is very important” and can help a woman recover psychologically as well as physically, said Dr. Deanna Attai, a Burbank, Calif., surgeon who is on the board of directors of the American Society of Breast Surgeons. Its annual meeting in Chicago earlier this month featured many of these new approaches. More women are getting chemotherapy or hormone therapy before surgery to shrink large tumors enough to let them have a breast-conserving operation instead of a mastectomy. Fewer lymph nodes are being removed to check for cancer's spread, sparing women painful arm swelling for years afterward. Newer ways to rebuild breasts have made mastectomy a more appealing option for some women. More of them are getting immediate reconstruction with an implant at the same time the cancer is removed rather than several operations that have been standard for many years. Skin and nipples increasingly are being preserved for more natural results. Some doctors are experimenting with operating on breast tumors through incisions in the armpit to avoid breast scars. There's even a “Goldilocks” mastectomy for large-breasted women -- not too much or too little removed, and using excess skin to create a “just right” natural implant. Finally, doctors are testing a way to avoid surgery altogether, destroying small tumors by freezing them with a probe through the skin. “Breast surgery has become more minimalistic,” said Dr. Shawna Willey of Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Women have more options. It's much more complex decision-making.” Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women around the world. In the U.S. alone, about 230,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Most can be treated by just having the lump removed, but that requires radiation for weeks afterward to kill any stray cancer cells in the breast, plus frequent mammograms to watch for a recurrence. Many women don't want the worry or the radiation, and choose mastectomy even though they could have less drastic surgery. Mastectomy rates have been rising. Federal law requires insurers to cover reconstruction for mastectomy patients, and many of the improvements in surgery are aimed at making it less disfiguring. Here are some of the major trends: IMMEDIATE RECONSTRUCTION Doctors used to think it wasn't good to start reconstruction until cancer treatment had ended -- surgery, chemotherapy, radiation. Women would have a mastectomy, which usually involves taking the skin and the nipple along with all the breast tissue, followed by operations months later to rebuild the breast. Reconstruction can use tissue from the back or belly, or an implant. The first operation often is to place a tissue expander, a balloon-like device that's gradually inflated to stretch the remaining skin and make room for the implant. A few months later, a second surgery is done to remove the expander and place the implant. Once that heals, a third operation is done to make a new nipple, followed by tattooing to make an areola, the darkened ring around it. The new trend is immediate reconstruction, with the first steps started at the time of the mastectomy, either to place a tissue expander or an implant. In some cases, the whole thing can be done in one operation. Nationally, about 25 to 30 percent of women get immediate reconstruction. At the Mayo Clinic, about half do, and at Georgetown, it's about 80 percent. SPARING SKIN, NIPPLES Doctors usually take the skin when they do a mastectomy to make sure they leave no cancer behind. But in the last decade they increasingly have left the skin in certain women with favorable tumor characteristics. Attai compares it to removing the inside of an orange while leaving the peel intact. “We have learned over time that you can save skin” in many patients, Willey said. “Every single study has shown that it's safe.” Now they're going the next step: preserving the nipple, which is even more at risk of being involved in cancer than the skin is. Only about 5 percent of women get this now, but eligibility could be expanded if it proves safe. The breast surgery society has a registry on nipple-sparing mastectomies that will track such women for 10 years. “You really have to pick patients carefully,” because no one wants to compromise cancer control for cosmetic reasons, Attai said. “The preliminary data are that nipple-sparing is quite good,” but studies haven't been long enough to know for sure, Willey said. “It makes a huge difference in the cosmetic outcome. That makes the woman's breast recognizable to her.” Dr. Judy Boughey, a breast surgeon at the Mayo Clinic, said the new approach even has swayed patients' treatment choices. “We're seeing women choosing the more invasive surgery, choosing the mastectomy,” because of doctors' willingness to spare skin and nipples, she said. It helped persuade Rose Ragona, a 51-year-old operations supervisor at O'Hare Airport in Chicago. She had both breasts removed on April 19 with the most modern approach: Immediate reconstruction, with preservation of her skin and nipples. “To wake up and just see your breasts there helped me immensely,” she said. She chose to have both breasts removed to avoid radiation and future worry. “I felt it was a safer road to go,” she said. “I can't live the rest of my life in fear. Every time there's a lump I'm going to worry.” FREEZING TUMORS Attai, the California breast surgeon, is one of the researchers in a national study testing cryoablation. The technique uses a probe cooled with liquid nitrogen that turns tumors into ice balls of dead tissue that's gradually absorbed by the body. This has been done since 2004 for benign breast tumors and the clinical trial is aimed at seeing if it's safe for cancer treatment. “The technology is amazing. This is done in the office under local anesthesia, a little skin puncture,” Attai said. In the study, women still have surgery at some point after the freezing treatment to make sure all the cancer is destroyed. If it proves safe and effective, it could eliminate surgery for certain cancer patients. “I'd love to see the day when we can offer women with small breast tumors a completely non-operative approach, and I do think that's coming soon,” Attai said.source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/05/14/new-approaches-give-women-more-options-for-breast-cancer-surgery/