Sometimes patients are lured by low prices traveling to third world countries for cosmetic surgery, sometimes with tragic results.
Just last week I saw a patient who came in to show me deformities all across her back and abdomen where every ounce of fatty tissue had been liposuctioned away for a fat harvest, a total of 7 quarts of fatty tissue in all. Her skin was adhered down to the muscle muscles underneath in stiff patches with ripples and waves of irregularity, and she was still experiencing constant pain six months after her surgery in Mexico. Right after surgery, she went into shock from blood loss and had to pay cash before the doctors agreed to give her a blood transfusion. (A check or credit card would not suffice). A man arrived with a small cooler pulling it on a wagon with the bag of blood she was about to receive. Unfortunately, with her skin stuck down to the tissues underneath, her deformity cannot be relieved. Whether her pain will abate is still up for question
