Linda Perez is currently unable to move or speak due to extensive brain damage caused during a breast augmentation surgery.
Perez, 19, underwent breast augmentation last August in Miami, where she experienced brain damage only an hour into the procedure. The surgery was at an alleged discount, $2,100, at the Coral Gables Cosmetic Center. She fell into a coma for months. Fast forward six months, and Perez is frail and stick thin, barely recognizable, and requires 24-hour care. According to her family, Perez, a mother of one, is aware of her condition and often cries and falls into depression. ”I’m sick that she can’t be like she used to be,” said her mother, Mariela Diaz, to the Miami Herald.
According to an attorney for the cosmetic center, there may have been some past medical problems with Perez that she wasn’t forthcoming about. But the family’s attorney blames the clinic. “A healthy 18 year old should be able to undergo a routine surgical procedure and not end up in a vegetative state,” argues Mark Eiglarsh.
Perez’s family is still holding onto hope, despite the possibility the young woman may never recover. The family is planning to file a medical malpractice suit against Coral Gables Cosmetic Center.