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Lebanon: Prominent Plastic Surgeon’s Image Shook by Arab Patient’s Death | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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AFP file photo on surgeons in an operations room.


Beirut – The death of an Arab woman after undergoing plastic surgery for an amount of $50,000 in Lebanon has kept the public busy.

Health Minister Ghassan Hasbani said that the woman was transported from a hospital owned by a famous Lebanese plastic surgeon in Metn district to another hospital after suffering complications resulting from a liposuction operation.

But the woman died on her way to Notre Dame Hospital in Jounieh that lies in Kesrouan district.

Hasbani on Friday gave beauty clinics a total of six months to settle their legal status.

A bill imposing more stringent regulations on beauty clinics became law in February, Hasbani said. Businesses have until Aug. 16 to comply with the new rules.

But the minister did not name the plastic surgeon, who owns the hospital in the Metn town of Naccache.

The doctor already has differences with the Lebanese Order of Physicians over his appearances on TV stations for the purpose of marketing his plastic surgery techniques.

The Order has reportedly more than once sought to suspend him over several botched medical practices but it failed to do so because of his ties to some political figures.

His hospital also lacks the needed equipment to deal with post-op complications.

Last week, a video of him with one of his patients made the rounds on social media. He was widely criticized for giving the impression that a woman is a product rather than a human being.

Reports have said that an Arab doctor has come to Lebanon to follow up on the autopsy of the dead woman, who is a mother of two, based on a request from her parents.

They said her father is a wealthy businessman.

President of the Lebanese Society of Plastic, Reconstructive, and Aesthetic Surgery Dr. Elie Abdel Hak told Asharq Al-Awsat that the LSPRAS plans to issue a statement on the matter next week.

Abdel Hak, who spoke to the newspaper by telephone for being abroad, said that the LSPRAS will brief the Lebanese public opinion on the details of the woman’s death as soon as it receives the results of the investigation.