God bless Stephanie Kuleba. I saw her story in the news today – she passed away during a breast correction surgery – and it touched me in so many ways, because I got very sick last year from breast implants.

I had the same exact surgery as Stephanie on December 26, 2006, when I was only 26-years old. She was undergoing surgery to correct asymmetrical breasts and inverted areolas – which were the same procedures I had. From what I have read today on the Internet and in the news, the surgery was very personal to her, just like it was to me. Stephanie was a happy girl who had a lot to look forward to in life. She had wanted to pursue a career in medicine and she died tragically yesterday from breast surgery. Why is life so ironic and sad sometimes?

Even if she had been older and been able to study more medicine, she still may not have learned the real risks involved in cosmetic procedures. None of us think it will happen to us and I have talked to several medical professionals who are still not convinced that the dangers of surgery are real. Kanye West’s mom didn’t deserve to die from plastic surgery and neither did this beautiful 18-year old girl, who was a cheerleader and was getting ready for her prom.

I was a fitness lover and competitor and breast implants made me fatally ill. I had a seizure and went into a coma; my family thought they might lose me completely. I lost my job, my memory, and for a long time I could barely walk or talk. After I removed my implants, all of my symptoms started disappearing. Every day, women are getting breast implants all over the world and having numerous procedures done to their bodies – in the “pursuit of physical perfection,” I call it. My story is online here at My Implant Story, along with other women’s stories about how the decision to undergo surgery changed their lives. We suffer everything from arthritis to heart conditions, and to memory problems, disabilities, and deformities – the list goes on. Please check it out.

I wish I had heard more horror stories before deciding to get surgery in 2006. I wish I had been Stephanie’s “friend” on Facebook so I could have warned her or influenced someone close to her. I wish that she had seen my story or other young women’s stories, like Kacey Long, a 19-year old woman who got sick from saline implants and was featured on MTV – all of these stories that are out there, but that I only discovered after getting sick from implants.

Young women should not be dying for beauty. They should be properly warned that very scary things can happen as a result of cosmetic procedures. This girl from Florida did not deserve to die and her family and friends do not deserve to suffer at the hands of the people who are not properly warning women what can really happen.

They tell you when you are signing those forms at the doctor, “Well, you could have reactions to surgery, there are risks – but it is so rare – we just have to tell you that.” So, you think – every celebrity is doing it, my friends and peers are doing it – why shouldn’t I? But when the “I” turns into a tragedy for someone you know or know of – that is the person you should be looking at and saying to yourself, “Hey, something bad happened to them and, yes, it could happen to me, too, so I don’t want to take that risk. I am thankful for what I was born with.”

I wish Stephanie still had her whole life ahead of her, but I hope that her story will help tons of other women in the world make healthier decisions and choose not undergo dangerous surgeries. She was so young and didn’t think anything could go wrong. I hope that other women resist the seductive advertising for cosmetic surgeries, ignore the success stories, and really start becoming smart, smart women by doing their research and learning that this is a very real, untold story that is happening more and more every day.