Ohio
Woman Who Documented Tummy Tuck on TikTok Dies
Rachel Tussey, 47, of Ohio, who documented a tummy tuck on TikTok, has died from complications following the procedure.
On February 25, Rachel Tussey shared her preparations with her more than 25,000 TikTok followers, including her doctor’s appointment. “Please pray. I know it’s going to be great. I’ve waited a long time for this,” Tussey, 47, said in a video before the surgery. “I’m in good hands, I know God has my back. Let’s do this!”
Tussey was seen sitting on a hospital bed in a gown in the video, captioned “#midboobbrightness #boobmakeover.”
On Tuesday, March 3, her husband, Jeremy Tussey, revealed in a TikTok update that the surgery’s aftermath did not go as planned. After waiting for his wife to finish the procedure, he recalled receiving a call around 5:45 p.m. telling him to return to the recovery room.
Jeremy said his wife’s doctor was about to leave and reportedly assured him that the surgery had gone perfectly as he entered the recovery room.
Jeremy remembered hearing his wife call for him before a nurse joined them in the room and reportedly asked Tussey how she was feeling after she was given pain medication. “Suddenly, I looked down and her face was pale,” Jeremy recalled about Tussey. “I assumed it was from the surgery, you know, from the lack of blood.” He said Rachel lost consciousness when her name was called, prompting a nurse to start CPR.
“I’m just a construction worker, but I noticed something was wrong,” Jeremy said. “But there was no emergency.”
He recalled that the nurses called Rachel’s plastic surgeon, who “assessed the situation” and instructed them to call 911. Jeremy said an ambulance took them to TriHealth Bethesda North Hospital, where Tussey was placed on life support.
“She was without oxygen for more than six minutes,” Jeremy said in the TikTok video. “…Last night they told me she was brain dead.”
A GoFundMe campaign for Rachel and her family was launched on Thursday, March 5. The description announced that Jeremy made the “heartbreaking decision to remove her from life support.” “Rachel was truly full of life. She loved adventure, deeply cherished her family, and lived as an example of community and compassion,” the fundraiser’s description read. “Whenever someone needed help, Rachel was always the first to step up.”
The family told the local news station that they have hired a lawyer but have not yet filed a lawsuit against the plastic surgeon.
Jeremy promised in a TikTok video on March 3rd to find out how such a tragic outcome could have occurred. “To me, it looks like incompetence. Someone failed,” he said.
Rachel is survived by her husband, Jeremy, and their three children, Tristan, Alec, and Livi.
