Catherine did not want to have the operation as she was afraid but the doctors insisted that she proceed with the procedure. PHOTO: CATHERINE CANDO FACEBOOK PAGE
A young pageant queen from Ecuador died on the surgery table during a liposuction operation. She had received the procedure as a prize for winning the competition reported Al-Arabiya News. Catherine Cando Cornejo, a 19-year-old student was named as the “Queen of Duran” in October 2014.
Family members of Catherine termed the incident a case of medical malpractice. They said that Catherine was taken in for surgery at the Guayaquil clinic for waste reduction which was supposed to take off centimetres (one inch) off her body but almost 10 hours later the family members were notified of her death.
“My sister did not want the operation because she was afraid, but the doctor insisted on several occasions, and convinced her to undergo surgery,” said her brother, Daniel Zavala Cornejo.
Carlos Reyes, the family lawyer said the cause of death was cerebral edema or swelling of the brain.
“The clinic lawyer said the death was due to cardiac arrest, but we have a copy of the autopsy and it turns out the cause was stated as cerebral edema; this is presumably due to problems with anaesthesia,” Reyes told members of the press.
As per the complaint filed by the family, the surgery had been awarded to Catherine for winning the beauty pageant but a spokesman for the mayor revealed that a doctor who was on the jury for the pageant had given the winner a $1,000 coupon for the surgery.
He told AFP that, “We made it clear that the prizes we hand out, our prizes were a car and tablet.”
Authorities are said to have been investigating the matter but are yet to make any arrests pertaining to the case.
Under the laws of Ecuador medical malpractice is punishable with up to three years imprisonment. Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa had previously spoken against beauty pageants and had ordered the ministry of education in 2010 to ban the event in public schools on the basis that they were sexist and had absolutely no educational value.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 19th, 2015.
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