American man dies during surgery at Saigon beauty clinic

By Son Hoa, Quoc Thang   July 19, 2017 | 06:36 pm PT
Officers suspect that he died of a heart attack during surgery to remove loose skin.

Police in Ho Chi Minh City are investigating the death of an American man who reportedly suffered cardiac arrest during a cosmetic procedure at a local clinic on Wednesday afternoon.

An initial investigation found the man, identified as Edward Hartley, 53, was at the clinic on Su Van Hanh Street in District 10 to have some loose skin removed from around his hip.

During the procedure he went into a fit and died shortly after.

Officers suspect that he suffered an anaphylactic shock.

Police at the beauty clinic where an American died on Wednesday. Photo by VnExpress/Son Hoa

Police at the beauty clinic where an American died on Wednesday. Photo by VnExpress/Son Hoa

Nguyen Viet Thanh, the clinic’s owner who oversaw the procedure, said Hartley had lost a lot of weight and wanted the excess skin removed.

He was given an anesthetic at around 4 p.m., but started having a heart attack 15 minutes later.

Thanh tried to resuscitate the man and called doctors at Trung Vuong Hospital for help, but they were unable to save him and Hartley died 20 minutes later, he told the city’s health inspectors.

Thanh has more than 20 years of medical experience, and is a respected expert in his field. He studied medicine in Ho Chi Minh City and plastic surgery in South Korea.

It’s not the first time plastic surgery has gone fatally wrong in Vietnam.

In October 2013, a woman in Hanoi died during a liposuction and breast enhancement procedure. Her surgeon was sentenced to 19 years in jail in December 2014 for malpractice and dumping her body into a river.

 
 
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