Country superstar Kenny Rogers had liposuction twice by 1990, and says he’s completely satisfied – but others have horror stories.
“I’ve never had any problems with it at all,” Rogers told The Post from Rome, where he was taking a short break in a European tour that next hits England, Scotland and Wales.
Experts are less enthusiastic.
“It’s time to tell the truth to our patients,” Dr. Frederick Grazer of Newport Beach, Calif., said.
“People need to be warned … You can teach a orangutan to do liposuction. What you need is good judgment.”
Grazer says there is at least one death for every 5,000 people who undergo liposuction.
He thinks doctors need to be alert to potential overdoses from too much lidocaine being injected into patients also receiving intravenous anesthesia.
Here are just a few cases where a supposedly safe procedure went horribly awry.
*Brazilian supermodel and soap-opera star Claudia Liz slipped into a coma while having liposuction on her stomach. She eventually recovered.
*Floridian Daniel Parish, 51, died in January 1998 of an overdose of anesthetic during liposuction to take fat from “love handles” around his waist to enlarge his penis, medical records say.
*Florida school teacher Jeanette Mordica, 44, died in March 1997 after undergoing a tummy tuck and liposuction to remove fat from her thighs and hips. Officials found a blood clot had formed in her lungs and caused her to stop breathing – a known complication of both surgeries.
*A doctor removed nearly 10 liters of fat from 5-foot-3, 150-pound Judy Fernandez, 47. She died as a result of the 12-hour, $20,000 procedure in March 1997 from what California investigators called an overdose of anesthesia, fluid overload and a fatal dilution of the blood.