When Heather Meadows called her friend Suzanna Wilson on the morning of May 12, Wilson did her best to reassure her friend that the surgery she had planned later that day would go smoothly.
"I thought, in my mind, that her fears were like those of any other person going into surgery," Wilson said. "She was scared, yes; I tried to calm her. I told her everything was going to be okay - but yes, she was scared."
Meadows' surgery did not go smoothly, and a few hours later she was dead, after what was meant to be routine cosmetic surgery turned into a medical emergency. According to Darren Caprara, director of operations for the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office, the 29-year-old Princeton woman died after fat particles clogged arteries in her lungs and heart. Meadows' death was ruled an accident, the result of a botched "Brazilian butt lift" performed at Encore Plastic Surgery in Hialeah, Florida.
In the days that have followed, details about the doctors and other clinics affiliated with Encore have begun to surface that paint a concerning picture. Last year, a woman fell into a coma for nearly a month after undergoing the same procedure as Meadows from a doctor with ties to Encore, according to the Miami Herald. Patients were discharged from Encore and two other Florida clinics for recovery at private homes, hotels and a even horse farm, according to the Herald.
"They advertise their clinic like they're doctors and they've done these surgeries so many times; we didn't hear any of these other horror stories until after Heather," Wilson said. "If you go on their website, it looks professional. It's misleading ... I don't understand how they're doing this. I don't understand how their clinic is still open after this. I don't understand what doctor in their right mind would want to keep doing procedures there after what happened in this facility."
For her family and friends, Meadows' death has sparked both sorrow and outrage, especially at the negligence that preceded her death.
"Women around the world have this surgery all the time, and Heather was in perfect condition," Wilson said. "She was perfect and happy and her kids were her life; it just doesn't make sense. We want justice, and we want peace."
Jeanifer Rumley, Meadows' cousin, hasn't lived in West Virginia for several years, but kept up with her cousin and said she remembers Meadows as a bright and happy woman who doted on her children.
"Heather is the reason I even have the life I have now; when I was getting ready to move out of West Virginia, I was thinking about moving to Atlanta and she said, 'You should move to Wilmington, North Carolina.' She took me there on a weekend trip. I ended up moving there, I met my oldest daughter's father there, I had her, we moved to Connecticut, I had another child," Rumley said. "I wouldn't even have my kids if it weren't for Heather. One little thing that changes your entire life, and she did that."
Wilson, who had been friends with Meadows for 16 years, describes her as the perfect mother and a dedicated friend. Meadows had been working at Saunders Staffing in Beckley for the last six years, and was set to graduate next year from Bluefield State College with a degree in social science. But it was her two children - Malakhi, 6, and Maliya, who was born in February - that were the center of her world, Wilson said.
"Her kids were her life," Wilson said. "She worked for those kids, she went to school so she could better her life and make sure those kids never went without, that they were never going to go without."
Those kids are living with family members now, Wilson said, and will be well cared for, but Wilson and others want to see that justice is served in their mother's death. A petition on Change.Org that seeks to require Florida doctors be licensed and certified to perform cosmetic surgery has already garnered more than 750 signatures. A Go Fund Me account has also been set up to help cover the costs of Meadows' funeral expenses, and has raised about $1,700 of its $15,000 goal.
"We have lost a best friend, we have lost a mother, we have lost a sister, we have lost a daughter. She was everything to her family and if, by any means necessary, we can open eyes to this problem, that is our goal," she said. "If we can save another life ... it's hard enough that we've lost her, but if we can save another life, her death won't be so in vain."
Reach Lydia Nuzum at lydia.nuzum@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or follow @lydianuzum on Twitter.