After performing a botched Brazilian butt lift surgery that ended in the death of a 47-year-old female patient, a Florida plastic surgeon was fined $10,000 and required to give a one-hour lecture.
Tanisha Walker flew to Miami from Indiana in April of last year to have breast reduction surgery, according to the Miami Herald. Walker had the operation done at Bright Plastic Surgery first. But, due to her BMI of 38.1, her history of high blood pressure and drugs, and her pre-diabetic condition, Dr. Paul Goldberg felt she was not in good enough health for that treatment.
Dr. Goldberg is also claimed to have suggested that Walker was “not a candidate for office surgery, but she might be a candidate for hospital surgery.” But, after Dr. Goldberg denied Walker the procedure, she went to New Life Plastic Surgery, where Dr. Oliver Simmons gave her the go light for a Brazilian butt lift.
Although New Life attorneys informed NBC 6 that the procedure went well and Walker left the hospital in good spirits, her condition deteriorated as she was being taken to a rehabilitation facility. When the proprietor of the recovery home noticed Walker had fallen unresponsive in the car, he took her to the hospital, where she died.
Her death was judged to be an accident caused by a pulmonary embolism. According to the Miami Herald, an examination into the fatal treatment found Simmons violated Florida state law by injecting fat into Walker’s gluteal muscles during the procedure.
Walker, an 11-year-old grandma, was apparently the second patient to die following Brazilian butt lift surgery at New Life Plastic Surgery. Doctors also told NBC 6 that the number of patients who died after the treatment in 2021 was higher than in prior years.
In the wake of her death, Walker’s family told the news outlet they had hired an attorney and wanted someone to be held responsible for her passing.
“I would not allow my mom’s case to go cold, I just won’t. I won’t allow it to happen,” Walker’s daughter, Tierra Gosha, said at the time. “My mom isn’t supposed to be dead. She’s still supposed to be here with us,” she added elsewhere in the interview.