An elderly woman died in Guangzhou two months ago after undergoing plastic surgery that included breast implants, a face-lift, and chin and nose implants, the Guangzhou Daily reported over the weekend.

The 62-year-old woman, identified only by her surname Chen, underwent the 250,000-yuan (US$32,258) surgery July 23 at a "well-known" plastic surgery hospital on Huangpu Thoroughfare. The newspaper did not identify the hospital.

The surgery began 9 AM, and the woman began having breathing difficulties at around 9 PM, the newspaper said.

The hospital sought help from experts at No. 3 Zhongshan Hospital at about 10:30 PM but her condition continued to worsen. She was transferred to Guangdong No. 2 People's Hospital at 1:30 AM July 24 for emergency treatment. Her heartbeat stopped 10 minutes after her arrival at the hospital, the paper said.

The plastic surgery hospital apologized to Chen's family for her death and said in a written statement that "major technical problems in our anesthetic procedure caused the unfortunate death of Ms. Chen."

The family did not accept the hospital's apology, saying there were many questions left unanswered.

The newspaper quoted a senior plastic surgeon unconnected with the hospital surnamed Xie as saying Chen's surgery should have lasted five hours at most. "It's very unusual for her surgery to last 12 hours," Xie told the newspaper.

Before the surgery, Chen had told her family that she would receive minor surgery costing 6,000 yuan. However, her family found Chen had paid a total of 250,000 yuan in medical fees July 16 and 23.

The hospital said it would pay the family 160,000 yuan in compensation for Chen's death, but has refused to talk about the medical fees.

Xie told the newspaper that Chen's surgery should not have cost more than 80,000 yuan.

(Shenzhen Daily September 18, 2007)