A South Florida teenager who was captain of her high school
cheerleading squad and had everything going for her and a bright future ahead, died
after corrective breast surgery, a family attorney said Tuesday.
Stephanie Kuleba, 18, a student at
“She went in for surgery at 8:05 in the morning, by 9:45, an
hour and 40 minutes later, the paramedics had been called and she had been
rushed to
According to the medical examiner’s office, Kuleba died from malignant hyperthermia, a condition that can be triggered by certain anesthesia where the body heats up to dangerous levels, Stanziale added.
“This was something that was believed to be a routine procedure. There was
never any indication that she was not going to walk out of that surgical suite.
It's obviously devastating,” said Stanziale who added it was too early to
determine if any legal action would be taken.
Board-certificate plastic surgeon Stephen Schuster who
preformed the surgery at an outpatient facility in
“It’s hard to believe she’s gone. She just made everybody’s
day by having a good attitude about life,” said Kuleba’s classmate Vanessa
Villegas for the New York Daily News.
Kuleba’s family is still waiting for a definite answer about their daughter’s death, but they cannot ignore the cruel irony that their daughter aspired to become a plastic surgeon.
Kuleba's funeral will be held Wednesday at 10 a.m. at
St. Jude's Catholic Church located at