State blames Miami-Dade doctor flouting of rules for Brazilian butt-lift surgery death
Florida’s surgeon general on Friday directly blamed a West Miami-Dade plastic surgery clinic doctor for the September death of a patient after Brazilian butt-lift surgery.
In the emergency restriction order that came down on Xiluet Plastic Surgery’s Dr. Stephanie Stover, state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees wrote: “As a result of Dr. Stover’s failure to operate in a manner that is correct and safe, Patient G.R. died.”
“Patient G.R.” is 46-year-old Gia Romualdo-Rodriguez from College Point, New York. The emergency order said Romualdo-Rodriguez came to Stover on Sept. 15 for breast augmentation, abdominoplasty, liposuction and gluteal fat transfer/fat grafting (Brazilian butt-lift).
Brazilian butt-lift surgery, a popular procedure in South Florida, have enough of a body count that the Aesthetic Surgery Education and Research Foundation formed a task force in 2017 to examine the risks involved.
After the task force’s report, which recommended doctors refrain from injecting fat into the deep muscle, the Florida Board of Medicine issued an emergency order in 2019 that stated “Intramuscular or submuscular fat injections are prohibited.”
After it was formally adopted on March 2, “the Department of Health notified all medical doctors of the new rule, in addition to the change being widely publicized in the media.”
Fat and muscle
Stover has been certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery since 2006 and licensed in Florida as a doctor since April 12, 2001. No previous discipline actions are listed on her Florida Department of Health license page.
But the emergency restriction order says during surgery “Dr. Stover repeatedly inserted fat into and under [Romualdo-Rodriguez’s] gluteal muscles.”
After the surgery, Romulado-Rodriguez “stopped breathing and her heart rate dropped to 39 beats per minute.”
She was taken to Kendall Regional Hospital, where died.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner ruled the tragedy an accidental death. But the medical examiner also saw fat emboli in Romualdo-Rodriguez’s pulmonary arteries and thought she died from pulmonary embolisms, a blockage of the pulmonary arteries.
The emergency restriction order said a member of the task force looked at the autopsy results.
“The expert opined that Dr. Stover improperly injected fat into [Romulado-Rodriguez’s] gluteal muscle,” the ERO said. “The expert opined that based on the number of channels through the gluteal muscles and the amount of fat in and under her muscles, Dr. Stover’s conduct was either intentional or recklessly negligent.”
Rivkees wrote, “Dr. Stover’s conduct of using an inherently dangerous and illegal fat grafting technique despite the known risks of increased mortality indicated that Dr. Stover is not capable of performing surgeries in a manner that is correct and safe.”
Stover is prohibited from “performing any procedure involving fat transfer or fat grafting.” She’s allowed to perform other surgeries No criminal charges or civil suits have been filed.
Neither Xiluet nor Stover responded to a phone message or an email message.
A nurse was charged in her abused child’s death in 2019. She lost her license Sept. 1
