Celebrity plastic surgeon Sharon Giese agrees to pay widower $2.5m after liposuction death

HER appearances on TV shows The Doctors, Dr Oz and Real Housewives made her famous but then this plastic surgeon to the stars fatally screwed up.

DR SHARON Giese is a household name in America, starring on hit medical shows Dr Oz and The Doctors and making regular appearances on CBS News, CNN and NBC.

She even enjoys a cameo on The Real Housewives of New York City as star Ramona Singer’s favourite surgeon.

Real Housewives of New York City star Ramona Singer (left) and Dr Sharon Giese attend Hollywood Reporter’s party for The 35 Most Powerful People in Media in New York. Picture: Larry Busacca

Dr Giese is ranked among the best in her field but, as one family discovered — with tragic consequences — even the best make mistakes.

In June 2009, 32-year-old mother-of-two Adriana Porras underwent liposuction, a fat reduction procedure performed by Dr Giese. Ms Porras died two days later of a pulmonary embolism.

Her husband Pablos Balzola then sued Dr Giese for negligence, claiming she did not return their frantic calls when Ms Porras showed signs of severe post-surgery complications, complaining of chest pains and shortness of breath.

Dr Giese (right) dining with well-heeled friends at The Hamptons.

In court, pathologists testified that had she received treatment for those symptoms, her chance of survival would have been much higher.

It was later found out that Dr Giese had not performed the procedure in a hospital but in her own home office.

This week she finally reached a settlement with Mr Balzola, agreeing to pay US$2.3 million (AUD$2.5 million)

The money will reportedly be split between the widower, his six-year-old daughter Maia and nine-year-old son Nicholas. Mr Balzola’s lawyer Elise Hagouel Langsam will get $365,000 in legal fees.

A screen grab from a recent appearance on the Dr Oz show. Picture: YouTube

Dr Giese has appeared recently on Dr. Oz to showcase a procedure known as a “miracle shot” to fix the sagging jowls on a patient.

According to her website, Dr Giese has been leading cutting edge research on the effects of liposuction and cardiac risk factors. Her findings have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, CBS News and NBC News.

Dr Giese has refused to comment on Ms Porras’ death.

On her website, Dr Giese still boasts that she has an ‘operating room in the comfort of her own office’, which was where she performed liposuction on Adriana Porras, who died two days later from a blood clot that travelled to her lung.