March 26, 2008

Cheerleader Stephanie Kuleba dies in breast surgery

Stephanie Kuleba, an 18-year-old cheerleader from South Florida died of a rare and potentially deadly genetic reaction to general anesthesia known as malignant hyperthermia, which sends the body into shock.

Kuleba was a nearly straight-A student and a soon-to-be pre-med freshman at the University of Florida.

Paramedics were summoned to the teen's aid at the Boca Raton outpatient surgery unit where she'd had reconstructive breast surgery Friday, and they rushed her to Delray Medical Center. She died there the next day.

According to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the number of women 18 and younger who have had breast enlargements has risen nearly 500 percent over the past decade -- a sharper climb than the 300 percent increase in breast augmentations among all age groups.

Dr. Stephen Greenberg, a plastic surgeon in Woodbury, estimated he has seen a 20 percent to 30 percent rise in cosmetic procedures among young people. Often, he said, a girl will come in with her parents, who are buying her a breast augmentation as a birthday or high school graduation gift.

"There are girls and women who are devastated by the fact that they don't have breasts and their friends do," Greenberg said. "They don't play gymnastics and they don't go on dates or they can't wear certain clothing, and I hear these things every day."