TikToker Rachel Tussey has died after a “mommy makeover” surgery took an unexpected and tragic turn.
Tussey, who went by the username @midlifeunmuted_,” detailed her life as an Ohio mom of three, a wife and a woman on social media.
In recent months, she began documenting her journey to getting a tummy tuck on her platform, with her surgery scheduled to take place in February.
“I’m doing it for me, not for anybody else. This is what I want for myself,” Tussey said in a video discussing her surgery. “So I’m excited for that. I’ve got my husband’s support, that’s amazing, but mamas, this is our time.”
In her posts prior to the surgery, Tussey asked for prayers and said she was nervous, but also excited.
“Here it is. It’s my turn. I feel a big range of emotions, but mostly it is absolutely excitement,” she said in her final video before her death, posted on Feb. 25 from a hospital bed.
Followers were surprised when Tussey’s husband shared an unexpected video to her page several days later, revealing something went terribly wrong.
“I sat out in the parking lot all day waiting on her to finish and I got a phone call about 5.45 p.m. that I could come into the recovery room,” he said, noting that her surgery was scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. that day.
He said Tussey received pain medications while he was in the room, but things took a turn as he began talking to one of the nurses.
“Next thing you know, I look down and her face is off color,” he said in the video.
Jeremy Tussey detailed the heartbreaking series of events that followed as his wife was without oxygen for several minutes and “suffered severe brain damage,” leaving her sedated and on a ventilator.
A lawyer representing the family said in a statement that Tussey “suffered a permanent anoxic brain injury, for which she will never recover.”
A GoFundMe page for her family revealed that on March 5 Jeremy Tussey “faced the unimaginable and heartbreaking decision to remove her from life support.”
“While Rachel is still breathing at this time, neurology evaluations have confirmed that her brain is in a vegetative state resulting in an unfortunate likelihood of slowly passing away,” the GoFundMe read. “Rachel’s family holds out hope while staying by her side, but they are also aware of the medical prognosis they have been given. Rachel is currently receiving end of life care in hospice.”
In a Wednesday update, Jeremy Tussey wrote that on Tuesday evening “my wife Rachel lost her battle while in hospice care.”
“Rachel was an amazing wife, mother, and person who touched so many lives. We will carry her memory with us always,” the update read. “From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for standing with our family.”
The doctor who performed the surgery, Dr. Shahryar Tork, told PEOPLE in a March 12 statement that he was “heartbroken for Rachel Tussey and her family.”
“My thoughts remain with her loved ones during this devastating time. Like them, I am struggling to understand how this could have occurred,” he said in the statement via a spokesperson, “It is important to clarify that the surgery did not take place at my private practice, Tork Plastic Surgery, nor do I own or operate the independently owned ambulatory surgery facility where the procedure occurred.”
Tork stated that the surgery was “completed successfully and without complications” and Tussey was “recovering as expected ahead of her planned overnight stay for monitoring.”
“Because Rachel was scheduled to remain overnight, her post-operative monitoring was overseen by staff contracted by the independent facility, not by my practice,” the statement read. “I was later notified that her condition had unexpectedly changed and immediately returned to assist with her care and transfer to Bethesda North Hospital, where I remained with the family and continued to offer support. I have discontinued all procedures at that surgery center. Out of respect for Rachel and her family, and due to patient privacy laws, I will not comment further.”
The family’s lawyer, Bernie Layne, said they will not currently comment on “any aspect of culpability or liability in this matter, but instead we will focus upon providing full support to Rachel Tussey’s family, which is deeply grieving their wife and mother in the wake of this tragedy.”
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