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The family of a Tennessee mother of five who died after she had an illegal Brazilian butt lift has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her doctor and the surgery center.
The 33-year-old Erica Russell died on June 16, 2021, after Dr. John Sampson punctured her intestines, bladder, liver, and abdominal wall during her surgery. Russell died after a fat deposit blocked her bloodstream and ‘triggered fatal cardiac arrest.’
According to a press release from Stewart Tilghman Fox & Bianchi & Cain, the law firm representing her family, Russell’s procedure started at 8.31pm, and a little over two hours later, she was dead.
‘What happened to Ms. Russell should have never happened. This is assembly line medicine and that’s what killed her,’ Attorney Michael Levine said.
Sampson has since been banned from performing Brazilian butt lift surgeries at Seduction Cosmetic Center in Coral Gables, Florida, was fined $20,000, but was able to keep his license.
Seduction Cosmetic Center offers this procedure for $3,500 and also advertises other cosmetic surgeries such as breast augmentations, tummy tucks, liposuction, vaginal rejuvenation, and a plethora of other options.
Prior to starting Russell’s botched surgery, Sampson has performed six procedures for a total of 14 hours at the cosmetic center, according to the lawsuit.
Further investigation found that Sampson was not approved to perform surgeries at the cosmetics center, despite Russell signing off on paperwork before her procedure that said he had plastic and cosmetic privileges at Seduction as ‘Designated Physician.’
During Russell’s procedure, Sampson punctured the mother’s intestines, liver, bladder, and abdominal wall with a cannula- a tube used for sucking fat out of the body.
State investigators say the doctor violated the ‘minimum standard of care’ as he also injected fat under her gluteal muscle and ‘deep gluteal planes,’ during her surgery.
At 10.50 pm, the fatal injuries caused severe bleeding in her abdominal cavity and she suffered a pulmonary fat embolism, the law firm said.
She died after a fat deposit blocked her bloodstream and ‘triggered fatal cardiac arrest.’
Sampson has since been removed from the cosmetic center’s social media and website, but on his personal Instagram, his bio still says that he works at Seduction.
‘It’s unbelievable that a surgery center could allow this to happen. This doctor should have never been performing this surgery, much less seven surgeries in one day,’ Stephan Cain, another attorney for the family said.
Her devastated family held a funeral service for Russell after her passing, where many relatives, friends, and co-workers from her job at T-Mobile spoke highly of her.
‘Erica was a person, that if you didn’t know her, you probably wish you did,’ one of her co-workers said.
Another woman, who said she was her best friend, cried and said that she ‘was the last person’ Russell talked to before her surgery.
‘She texted me “I love you bestie,” I said, “I love you too, talk when you come out.” I been waiting on my baby to call me since June 16,’ the friend said as she tried to hold back tears.
Many of her loved ones remembers Russell as a devoted mother who constantly spoke about her children and made sure she did everything she could for them.
‘To know Erica was to love Erica. Erica went above and beyond. And when I say she was the representation of strong, no matter what, or despite whatever she was going through, she made sure everybody was good- everybody,’ another friend said at the service.
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