Thando Thabethe and friend face death during liposuction surgery in SA

Thando Thabethe and her friend Tumi Maimela had a near-death experience while undergoing liposuction at a Joburg aesthetics in 2022.

Tumi who is the producer of Thando’s reality show, Unstoppable reportedly suffered heart failure allegedly due to excessive bleeding from breast reduction, 360 liposuction, and Brazilian Butt Lift surgeries at Vivari Aesthetics.

According to Sunday World, Vivari issued R5-million lawsuit against Tumi and her company Redwood Productions, at the Joburg High Court for refusing to pay the bill for the procedures.

The aforementioned publication read Maimela’s complaints which revealed how the procedure lasted 8 hours instead of 4 hours.

Recounting Thando’s ordeal, Tumi said, “My best friend, Thando Thabethe, had her lipo done the day after mine. She ended up extremely swollen and they opened some stitches to let the liquid that looked like blood run out. She panicked and thought she was bleeding to death (sic).”

“Dr Anushka called me to the side when my friend was bleeding and asked me why she was acting up and as if she was going through PMS as her period had just started.”

“I was in the room when my friend was bleeding and it looked like a little waterfalls of blood gushing out of her. This was extremely traumatic for me to witness. She needed me. That is when Dr Anushka said that Vivari is not a hospital. If I had known it was not a hospital I wouldn’t have [undergone the procedures}.”