Facelift victim's plight went unnoticed says prosecutor

A man applying a chemical facelift failed to notice his client had stopped breathing until an untrained bystander pointed it out, a prosecutor said in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

Leanna Steven, aged 57, of Christchurch, suffered a heart attack during the procedure, done in front of a photographer from a women's magazine to promote the cosmetic face-peeling method.

The name and occupation of the accused, who is charged with manslaughter, and the brand of chemical facelift are suppressed in the meantime.

The prosecutor, Mark Zarifeh, told the depositions hearing that the facelift involved burning off the top layers of skin with chemicals including phenol, which was known to cause heart problems.

The accused had allegedly been advised by the manufacturers to use a machine to warn of falling blood-oxygen levels but instead had asked an aide to use her finger to check the woman's pulse from time to time.

Once Mrs Steven's condition became known, there was little emergency equipment near and the man had to send a staff member to get more from his car.

Meanwhile, the bystander, who had no resuscitation experience, was called in to perform chest compressions in a bid to revive her, said Mr Zarifeh.

Mrs Steven did not get bottled oxygen or a defibrillator until paramedics arrived after about 10 minutes. She never regained consciousness and died three weeks later, on March 15, 1999, of complications following the "total brain degeneration" caused by lack of oxygen.

The police claim the defendant caused Mrs Steven's death by failing properly to monitor her condition during the application of the face-peeling solution and by failing to have adequate resuscitation equipment on hand.

The court heard evidence from Edward Van Backer in California via a satellite videophone link.

Mr Van Backer said he had performed between 50 and 60 facelifts himself and had trained others in his area in the use of that brand of chemical facelift.

He always had a trained anaesthesiologist on hand to constantly monitor the subject during the process and for half an hour after.

His monitoring equipment included "at the bare minimum" blood-oxygen and electrocardiogram machines, and he had backup machines in case the originals failed.

Mr Van Backer said about one in every 10 to 15 patients suffered arrhythmic heart problems from the phenol and constant monitoring was needed. Subjects were kept sufficiently conscious to talk during the facelift.

The New Zealand distributor of the chemical facelift, Bat-Zion Susskind, told the court that at an earlier demonstration of it by the defendant on a Timaru woman for the Holmes television show, the subject had sworn and flailed her arms during the operation.

Before the chemical was applied to Mrs Steven for the New Idea magazine feature, a sedative was used that left her unresponsive when spoken to. She was apparently in a "deep sleep."

Towards the end of the application, she "gasped then gave a little sigh," said Ms Susskind.

"As [the accused] went to raise Mrs Steven's back, I noticed her breast wasn't going up and down. Unfortunately our eyes were the only means of telling whether she was still breathing as she was not monitored.

"I pointed it out that she didn't seem to be breathing and I think he started to monitor the same thing. He asked [his aide] to monitor her pulse and she said Mrs Steven didn't have one."

The New Idea photographer was ordered from the room, while the defendant asked another staff member to get an airway device from the boot of his car.

Ms Susskind said she asked if she could help and was asked to do chest compressions on Mrs Steven, even though she had never done resuscitation before.

After the paramedics took Mrs Steven to hospital, Ms Susskind said the defendant "was afraid of bad publicity and wanted me to keep it quiet."

- NZPA