A 25-year-old woman died when undergoing breast implant surgery at a hospital in Nanshan District on Wednesday, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported on Friday.

    The Dongguan woman, surnamed Huang, worked as a model in Guangzhou. Huang had a 3-year-old daughter with her husband, surnamed Cai, who brought her to the Tianmei medical cosmetic hospital on Wednesday for eyelid surgery and to get breast implants.

    Cai said Huang’s surgery began at around 11 a.m., and a hospital employee told him Huang had “difficulty breathing” around 5 p.m., but Cai said she actually had already died by that time.

    On Thursday morning, Huang’s family members gathered at the hospital demanding a settlement, with Huang’s body still on the operating table 20 hours after her death.

    Huang’s mother, surnamed Tian, said her daughter died at around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, but the hospital didn’t notify the family about her death, only saying that Huang needed emergency treatment at about 5 p.m. on the same day.

    “But the emergency medical staff already came and confirmed my daughter’s death before the hospital notified us,” Tian said.

    A medical record provided by the family shows that Huang’s eye surgery began at 11:15 a.m. and finished at 12:55 p.m., and the breast surgery started at 1:30 p.m. under local anesthesia. Huang was given epinephrine and had a tube inserted in her throat to help breathing after her pulse dropped to 40 beats per minute at 3:10 p.m. Her pulse stopped at 3:30 p.m. and at 4:11 p.m. was the last time doctors made an effort to save her life.

    A hospital spokesperson, surnamed Shao, said the emergency medical staff in Nanshan District arrived at the hospital around 3 p.m. on Wednesday and tried to save Huang’s life. The hospital wanted to transfer Huang to another hospital for medical treatment, but the medical team said it was too dangerous to transfer the patient.

    Shao said Huang’s death was caused by an accident with the anesthetic. He said the two doctors and four nurses who performed the surgery were licensed and the hospital is legally registered and has been open for 10 years.

    Shao said the hospital would take full responsibility and cooperate with the family, but will wait for a police investigation before saying whether the doctors are at fault.

    According to health inspection department in Nanshan District, the surgeon surnamed Xie and the anesthetist, surnamed Yi, are both registered at the hospital, while the police are investigating the cause of the patient’s death.

    Tian said Huang had nose surgery at the same hospital in the middle of last year.

    A hospital document shows that the two surgeries cost Huang 45,600 yuan (US$6,995) in total. Tian added Huang paid the surgery fees without telling the family, otherwise she wouldn’t let Huang to undergo these surgeries.

    (Zhang Yang)