Dying in the pursuit of beauty: Six cosmetic surgeries in 24 hours leaves Chinese woman dead

Identified merely as Liu from Guangxi province, southern China, the woman—a mother of two—visited a clinic in Nanning on December 9, 2020, and took a loan of 40,000 yuan to finance the six cosmetic surgeries she had planned. They did not go as expected.

Six cosmetic surgeries in a day: while you might think that a person undergoing such an ordeal would emerge a changed person (literally), that may not always be the case, as evidenced in China.

According to a report by South China Morning Post (SCMP), a woman in China attempted such an exercise in 2020, but things went downhill for her faster than she could realize.

Identified merely as Liu from Guangxi province, southern China, the woman—a mother of two—visited a clinic in Nanning on December 9, 2020, and took a loan of 40,000 yuan to finance the six cosmetic surgeries she had planned.

The procedures began that afternoon itself, with the woman first undergoing a double eyelid surgery and a nose job, which collectively took around five hours.

The facial surgeries were then followed by a liposuction procedure on her thighs, from where excess was removed and subsequently injected into her face and her breasts the next morning. This procedure too, in total, took around five hours, SCMP reported.

With the six surgeries done, the woman was discharged from the clinic on December 11, but on making her way to the lift to exit the facility, she collapsed inexplicably.

Efforts at the clinic to help her proved to be in vain and she was subsequently transferred to The Second Nanning People’s Hospital, where she was declared dead that very afternoon.

The cause of death? “Acute respiratory failure due to pulmonary embolism after liposuction,” said the autopsy report.

At the time of the incident, Liu’s daughter was around eight years old, while her son was merely aged four.

Now, SCMP has reported that Liu’s family has sued the clinic, and has sought a compensation of 1.18 million yuan ($168,000 or Rs 1.41 crore).

Yet, the case proved to be complex for Liu’s family: for starters, investigations revealed that the clinic and its doctors had all the necessary licences and legal clearances to carry out the procedures, while the amount of fat removed during the liposuction surgery also complied with medical standards.

Liu’s husband, however, remains adamant: “The clinic offered me 200,000 yuan as compensation. I said that at least one million yuan should be given for a person’s death. Even if we split the responsibility, it should still be at least 500,000 yuan. I refused their private settlement, and I said we should just go to court,” he was quoted as saying by SCMP.

The clinic, for its part, argued in court that Liu bore the sole responsibility for the tragic outcome as she was aware of the risks associated with the procedures.

Then, in May 2021, the court initially held the clinic responsible, directing it to pay damages of over 1.1 million yuan to the aggrieved family.

The clinic, however, appealed this ruling and in August last year, the damages amount was reduced to 590,000 yuan after the court acknowledged the clinic’s partial responsibility in Liu’s fate.

“The assessment concluded that the clinic failed to assess the risk of venous blood embolism, identifying certain errors in their medical practices that were causally related to the patient’s death,” the judge at the Jiangnan District People’s Court of Nanning City was quoted as saying by the publication.

The court concluded that Liu’s own physical condition may have led to complications after the procedures, leading to a judgment that found the clinic and Liu to be equally liable.

An episode on the incident aired on Chinese television has reportedly amassed more than 50 million views on social media, SCMP reported, adding that the clinic too has faced backlash.

“Six surgeries in one day? Does the clinic have no common sense? Did they not consider the risk of complications, especially with liposuction, which can easily lead to blood clots?,” a Chinese social media user was quoted as saying, clearly critical of the lapses on the clinic’s part.

Others, meanwhile, questioned Liu: “Dying in the pursuit of beauty. This is really beyond extreme,” wrote one user.