Miami

Friend Describes Day Woman Died After Brazilian Butt Lift

Heather Meadows and Amanda Rogers had been friends for years. Even after Amanda moved to Detroit, the two kept in close touch.

"She was one of my go-to people if I was having a bad day," Rogers said about her friend.

The two made plans to get the popular Brazilian Butt Lift together at a clinic in South Florida.

"It wasn’t her idea or my idea. It was something we agreed to do together," Rogers said.

In May 2016, Meadows and Rogers met in South Florida. They had heard about Vanity Cosmetics in Miami from friends. But when they arrived, they were told their procedures would be done at Encore Plastic Surgery in Hialeah by plastic surgeon James McAdoo. Encore was owned by the same company as Vanity Cosmetics. Encore has recently shut its doors. An operator who answered the phone said it’s temporarily closed.

Rogers says on May 11, the day before the surgery, they showed up at Encore Plastic Surgery for a scheduled pre-op meeting.

"We assumed the pre-op meeting was going to be with the doctor. But when we got there, the pre-op only consisted of filling out paperwork, paying the rest of our money, and being weighed in. That was it. They said Dr. McAdoo was too busy and we’d just speak to him in the morning," Rogers said.

NBC 6 Investigators reached out to Dr. James McAdoo. He no longer works at the clinic, saying he left for another clinic that had a better accreditation. By email, he wrote "As with all patients, I did see the patient at least a day before surgery."

Rogers says she and Heather didn’t meet him until the morning of their surgeries.

"I did not see (Dr.) McAdoo until he came into the room to mark me up to prepare me for surgery. That’s the first time I ever saw Dr. McAdoo," Rogers said.

She says Heather’s surgery was first. While she waited for her turn, she was told about a change in plans.

"A nurse comes in and tells me they’re going to have to reschedule my appointment for tomorrow because there was an emergency and Dr. McAdoo had to go to the hospital," Rogers said.

She had no idea the emergency involved her friend until another woman came in to talk to her.

"It was like a look she had on her face that I knew something was wrong. I asked, 'Where’s Heather?' And she said they had to take her to the hospital. They made me believe everything was okay."

But when she got to the hospital, she found out Heather had died.

"That was one of the worst experiences of my life," she said. "I was left in the city full of pain."

By email, Dr. McAdoo said because of patient privacy, he could not discuss specifics of the case. He did stress that Meadow’s emergency started when the surgery was completed and she was in the recovery unit. A spokesperson for Vanity Cosmetics referred questions to Dr. McAdoo. In a recent statement regarding a death of another patient at Vanity Cosmetics, the company emphasized there is risk to any surgical procedure.

The NBC 6 Investigators have found that since 2013, four women have died following a plastic surgery procedure at either Vanity Cosmetics or Encore Plastic Surgery. That includes Maria Christianson, 32, who died September 7, 2016.

Heather Meadows left behind two young children.

"She was a beautiful young lady that had so much life left to live," Rogers said. "Her children and her family was her world. She was snatched away from us. She’s not here with us anymore but she’s always going to be with us in our spirits and in our hearts."

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