A Florida plastic surgery clinic with more than half a million social media followers has been accused of killing two patients within three weeks through gross medical malpractice.
One victim, Kenly Millan Aponte — a 35-year-old mother from Kentucky — was undergoing a “mommy makeover” at Svelta Plastic Surgery in Miami as a birthday gift when she suffered “horrible” complications and went into cardiac arrest “on the operating table,” according to her husband, Jefferson Carrasco.
The other victim, Endrys Elian Martinez, 19, of Tennessee, went in for a rhinoplasty, or nose job, and was left “irreversibly brain dead” after suffering “a complication that was unrecognized,” according to his parents’ attorney, George Silva.
The families of both Aponte and Martinez are represented by Silva and have decided to pursue legal action against Svelta Plastic Surgery. Aponte died on April 29; Martinez died on May 26.
“It was supposed to be her birthday present,” Carrasco told local NBC affiliate WTVJ, referring to Aponte’s “mommy makeover,” which included a tummy tuck, breast augmentation and Brazilian butt lift.
“I received a call from the clinic telling me that she had complications, that her oxygen saturation dropped, and that they were taking her to the hospital,” Carrasco recounted. “When she arrived at the hospital, my wife had already died.”
Like Aponte, Martinez — a Memphis resident — had traveled from out of state to South Florida after seeing Svelta’s ads on social media. The clinic counts more than 400,000 followers on Instagram and 100,000 on TikTok, with influencers routinely giving them an “awful amount of advertising,” according to Martinez’s family.
“Their followers are just trusting what they say because they have this inordinate amount of following on social media,” Martinez’s father, Endrys Martinez Sr., said in an interview with the Miami Herald.
“From the very beginning, he set his eyes on this one, and this is where he was going to have his surgery,” the teen’s mother, Iblin Martinez, told the newspaper.
According to Silva, Martinez suffered a complication “right before the surgery commenced” after his anesthesia had taken effect. “[Martinez] remained without oxygen for countless minutes,” Silva told local CBS affiliate WFOR. “Eventually, he was declared irreversibly brain dead this past Memorial Day.”
Silva said both families are withholding specific details about the complications Martinez and Aponte suffered due to patient privacy laws. He has, however, been able to share information about some of the alleged negligence that followed the procedures.
In Aponte’s case, “no CPR was in progress” when first responders arrived and found the mother in cardiac arrest, according to fire and medical records obtained by WTVJ. Additionally, “staff was unable to provide an exact time” of when Aponte went into cardiac arrest, per Silva.
“I have read probably 5,000 to 10,000 fire rescue reports in my career. And I’ve never seen one like this,” the Coral Gables attorney told WTVJ. Silva said first responders were delayed “due to a slow elevator” and the fact that “no staff member was holding” one for them.
“A young woman is hanging on to life, and that when fire rescue arrived, that there wasn’t even an elevator available for them,” Silva said. He also noted that first responders documented no crash cart — the lifesaving equipment used in medical emergencies — in the operating room where Aponte went into cardiac arrest.
“It is mandatory by the state of Florida for an ambulatory surgical center to have a crash cart readily available,” Silva told WTVJ.
Svelta has issued a statement in response to the families’ legal action against the clinic. According to the statement:
Svelta Plastic Surgery is aware of the recent reports circulating in the media and on social media platforms regarding our practice. We take these matters with the utmost seriousness and share the public’s desire to understand and address what is being reported in the news. First and foremost, we extend our deepest condolences to the families affected during this painful time. We want to be transparent with the public: the information currently being reported does not fully or accurately reflect the facts of what occurred. Every patient under the care of Svelta’s plastic surgeons is important to us. That is why we are gathering information to conduct an analysis of the true causes, so that we may better understand these outcomes.
“We are doing this out of respect for the families involved and to ensure that Svelta provides the safest possible environment for plastic surgery patients,” the statement added.
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