By Afsun Qureshi

Some of these qualifying societies that accredit plastic surgeons include the Canadian Society for Plastic Surgeons and the American Society for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons – qualifications that patients should be looking for when seeking a doctor.

Ms. Tran a healthy 36-year-old woman with a teenage daughter, worked as a manicurist at the Marca College of Hair Design and Esthetics at the Dufferin Mall.

According to police, others were in the clinic's waiting area as Tran

was taken into a room to prepare for surgery, when someone appeared and injected her with a medication.

Police say she began to have seizures, quickly lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. She was then rushed to Toronto Western hospital, and died the following day on March 20.

The case is off the map in terms of the fact that Ms. Lee may well have been just a hairdresser, but Ms. Tran’s death has re-ignited a debate within the medical community of whether non-plastic surgeons should be allowed to perform procedures such as breast augmentation.

“I don’t agree that general practitioners should perform cosmetic surgery – they don’t have the training. Sure, they may have taken a weekend course on liposuction, but it is not enough.” says Dr. Bernier, who trained for over 13 years to specialize in plastics.

“Family doctors who do cosmetic procedures can have good results – but, if something goes wrong, there is a complication, they may not have the training to treat it. A weekend course does not substitute ten years in plastic surgery training.”

“Also, if there is a complication, the patient may need to be hospitalized and treated – and these GPs may not have hospital privileges. We as plastic surgeons often see this problem where GPs have complications and their patients are taken to a hospital – and it is the plastic surgeon on call that has to take care of it.”

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