Amy Lee Rickhuss may have suffered anaesthetic overdose before breast enlargement cardiac arrest
AMY Lee Rickhuss, 20, who nearly lost her life during breast enlargement surgery at a Sydney clinic, suffered a massive adverse reaction, an inquest heard.
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A WOMAN who nearly lost her life during breast enlargement surgey at a Sydney clinic in January could have been administered too much local anaesthetic.
Amy Lee Rickhuss went into cardiac arrest while undergoing the procedure at The Cosmetic Institute in Parramatta and was rushed to Westmead Hospital by paramedics who were called to the Smoth Street clinic on January 30.
The Institute’s managing director told The Daily Telegraph at the time that Ms Rickhuss had suffered a reaction to the anaesthetic, something that he said “can happen with any procedure”.
But Dr Phillipa Hore, of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists, told Fairfax Media that the drug that was administered to Ms Rickhuss - intralipid - was used to treat patients who had been given the wrong dosage of anaesthetic.
“Intralipid is used for treatment of an overdose of local anaesthetic,” she said. “It is either an overdose or a smaller dose that has been inadvertently injected into a blood vessel.”
Despite going into cardiac arrest, surgeons completed Ms Rickhuss’ breast enlargement before she was taken to hospital.
“The operation was completed. The incident happened halfway through the operation, so I was stabilised and then the paramedics and my surgeon made the decision to finish the surgery rather than leave me with gaping wounds and one breast implant,” she told The Sunday Telegraph at the time.
“Despite everything, I’m so happy that they finished the surgery. I would have been very upset to end up with one boob!”
But the 20-year-old isn’t as upbeat about her experience now, telling Fairfax she intends to sue The Cosmetic Institute and claiming she had been administered anaesthetic since the incident without issue.
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