February 16, 2009

Usher's Wife Suffered Cardiac Arrest During Plastic Surgery

By Gil Kaufman (MTV.com)

The exact nature of the "family emergency" that forced Usher to miss the Grammys last Sunday has been revealed: As many had speculated, his wife, Tameka-Foster Raymond, suffered as a near-fatal plastic-surgery complication in Brazil.

People magazine reported that when Foster-Raymond traveled to Brazil to have liposuction on her stomach two months after giving birth to the couple's second son, she had a dangerous reaction to the anesthetic.

"Tameka Raymond came here on Friday to do a liposuction. Shortly after she went under [general] anesthesia, she suffered a cardiac arrest," said Ellen Dasptry, a representative for Sao Paulo, Brazil plastic surgeon Silvio Sterman, who was to have performed the surgery. Foster-Raymond was revived after less than a minute using heart massage.

Foster-Raymond, 38, never had the procedure, and after the cardiac arrest, doctors immediately put her into a medically induced coma to stabilize her. "When an attack like this happens, the doctors put the patient to sleep ... and make sure that everything is OK and that there has not been any damage," Dasptry said. "This is the protocol every time and this is what was done." Foster-Raymond spent a day in the intensive care unit and was transferred to another hospital, considered one of Brazil's finest. After a week of recovery, she is "doing very well," according to Dasptry.

Upon learning of his wife's condition, Usher, 33, canceled his performance at Clive Davis' annual pre-Grammy gala on Saturday night and flew to Brazil to be by Foster-Raymond's side. Davis had told the crowd at the party that Usher had to leave town due to a "serious injury in the family."

The couple has two sons, 1-year-old Usher Raymond V, and 2-month old Naviyd Ely Raymond, and Foster-Raymond has three sons from a previous relationship. The surgery mishap - which comes less than two years after the death of Kanye West's mother, Dr. Donda West, due to complications after plastic surgery - has created a debate in the medical community over whether the two-month wait between giving birth and undergoing liposuction is long enough.

"The general feeling is no abdominal surgery should be performed within eight weeks, because of the distension and inflammation of the abdomen/uterus due to pregnancy," New York City cosmetic surgeon and dermatologist Neil Sadick told People. "[Women] should wait at least three months postpartum before undergoing any type of procedures to the abdomen. ... They would need to get clearance from their OB/GYN and internist."

According to Dasptry, Foster-Raymond met with her Brazilian surgeon on February 6 to undergo tests and was determined to be "in good health."