HIGH RISK? The death of Ms. Hall (pictured) came less than a year after Heather Meadows died following a similar procedure at Eres Plastic Surgery, which was then known as Encore Plastic Surgery.

Questions linger after a 25-year-old Missouri woman died following a popular cosmetic procedure — with an increasingly dubious reputation — performed at a Miami-area surgery center.

Police in Hialeah, Fla., said that Ranika Hall of Kansas City, Mo., died last Thursday after undergoing gluteal fat-grafting procedure — also known as the Brazilian butt lift, in which fat is taken from the stomach or back and injected into the buttocks — at the Eres Plastic Surgery clinic in Hialeah. After receiving a call that Ms. Hall was not breathing, emergency responders arrived at the clinic at about 9 p.m., and took her to a nearby hospital, where she died a short time later.

Surgeons familiar with the procedure suggest it can have potentially fatal complications — most notably, a fat embolism, in which fat enters the bloodstream and travels to the lungs and can stop a patient's breathing. The Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation last year formed a Gluteal Fat Grafting Task Force to investigate these risks. Of more than 17,500 surgeries reported, the task force found 5 fatal fat embolisms and 12 non-fatal fat embolisms.

Ms. Hall's death came less than a year after Heather Meadows died after a similar procedure at the clinic, which at that time was known as Encore Plastic Surgery. An autopsy report for Ms. Meadows, a 29-year-old West Virginia mother of 2, established the cause of death as fat clots in the arteries of her heart and lungs due to complications from the procedure. According to the autopsy, Ms. Meadows also had a medical condition known as patent ductus arteriosus — abnormal blood flow between the aorta and pulmonary artery — which contributed to her death.

Florida Department of Health records from an inspection conducted about 5 months before Ms. Meadows' death underscored a number of failures, according to a Miami Herald report. Records show the clinic failed to properly monitor patients under general anesthesia, did not have requisite information on consent forms and, in some instances, neglected to perform pre-operative medical screenings in violation of state safety standards.

Eres Plastic Surgery issued a statement, regarding Ms. Hall's death in which it expressed its "deepest condolences." It also described Daniel Calva, MD, who performed the surgery, as "a highly skilled and caring surgeon that is dedicated to providing the highest level of care to his patients."

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health said the department is aware of the incident, but had no further comment. Attempts to reach the surgery center and its attorney for comment were unsuccessful.

Bill Donahue