Clinic owner arrested after British woman died during £6,000 boob job

The director of a private clinic in Majorca has been arrested over the death of a British woman during a £6,000 boob job.

Officers held the 69-year-old, who sources said flouted a ban on participating in the operation as an anaesthetist, on suspicion of the Spanish equivalent of gross negligence manslaughter.

The woman passed away at a hospital in the island capital Palma following complications linked to the cosmetic surgery at the unnamed private clinic.

A second man described as a ‘helper’ and said to have played a less active role in the surgery has also been placed under investigation, although he wasn’t formally arrested.

The main surgeon who performed the op passed away late last year in Switzerland after an illness and no further action can be taken against him.

The British patient, who was in her early thirties, died on September 13 last year following the operation a fortnight earlier.

A spokesman for the National Police in Majorca, which made the arrest, confirmed this morning: ‘National Police officers have arrested a 69-year-old man responsible for managing a clinic in Palma where he also worked as a practitioner, for crimes of gross negligence manslaughter and breaching a medical ban following the death of a patient.

‘A young woman of British origin underwent cosmetic surgery at a clinic in Palma.

‘During the operation and for reasons which are still being investigated, the victim went into cardiac arrest and had to be transferred urgently to Son Espases University Hospital.

‘After being admitted to intensive care for almost two weeks, she died on September 13 last year as a result of the serious injuries she suffered during her cardiac arrest.’

Saying the family had lodged a complaint for mala praxis against the health professionals involved, the National Police in Majorca added in a statement: ‘Our homicide unit began an investigation and after gathering together all the documentation related to the medical intervention and taking statements from health professionals, arrested the director of the clinic who was also a medical practitioner.

‘Investigators have accused one of the other two health professionals who participated in the surgery of the same type of manslaughter crime as the clinic director.

‘The other man cannot be accused of any crime due to his sudden death two months after the surgery.’

The force said it had detected several irregularities during its investigation.

It added: ‘One involved the victim asking the health professionals to practice a second cosmetic procedure as she went into the operating theatre, something they agreed to perform without the patient having been properly informed of the risks.

‘It was when they were preparing to perform that second surgery that the victim went into cardiac arrest.

‘Another irregularity detected was that the patient signed consent forms for the scheduled surgery the morning the surgery took place and they were written in Spanish when the British woman according to her family didn’t know how to read Spanish.’

Confirming the arrest occurred in prison, the National Police spokesman said: ‘The practitioner who was arrested was in prison for another issue related to the exercising of his profession.

‘Officers had to ask for his release from prison so he could be informed of this new charge before he was returned to jail afterwards.

‘He had been disqualified from practicing medicine and holding positions of responsibility in health centres and despite that ignored the ban to take part in the surgery the dead woman underwent.’

Well-placed sources confirmed reports the British woman had suffered complications after travelling to Majorca for breast implant replacement surgery.

Reports last year before news of the recent arrests emerged said she had paid £6,000 for a boob job.

Island paper Ultima Hora reported last December when it emerged a court in Palma was probing the British woman’s death that she had a congenital heart defect which meant 25% of her heart didn’t work properly.

The dead woman was described at the time as a ‘young’ PR specialist who was planning to move to Australia for work for three months following the op.

The surgeon who died was described as a ‘foreign’ man who flew to Majorca where he had ‘worked for decades’ to perform the surgery but his nationality was never made public.

In September last year a UK coroner warned of cosmetic surgery abroad after the death of a British woman in Turkey.

Melissa Kerr, 31, from Gorleston in Norfolk, died in Istanbul after injected fat entered a vein during a Brazilian butt lift procedure.

She had travelled to the private Medicana Haznedar hospital for the procedure in 2019. She died on the day of the surgery.

Jacqueline Lake, the senior coroner for Norfolk, said at the inquest she would write to the health secretary expressing concern about people travelling overseas for cosmetic surgery.

She said: ‘Ms Kerr wasn’t seen by a surgeon or clinician prior to the date of the procedure and underwent a limited assessment prior to the procedures.

‘There has been the release of an international alert to surgeons regarding the high mortality rate associated with this procedure. There has also been the introduction of a voluntary moratorium on this type of procedure in the UK.’

She added: ‘These are clearly not being followed in Turkey.

‘I’m concerned patients are not being made aware of the risks or the mortality rate associated with such surgery. I do have concerns there will be future deaths and I’m of the view future deaths can be prevented by way of better information.’

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