Updated Tue. Mar. 25 2008 10:13 PM ET

The Associated Press

BOCA RATON, Fla. -- A South Florida teenager who was captain of her high school cheerleading squad and had plans to become a doctor died after corrective breast surgery, a family attorney said Tuesday.


Stephanie Kuleba, 18, died Saturday, about 24 hours after her surgery. Kuleba was rushed to Delray Medical Center about two hours into the procedure to correct asymmetrical breasts and inverted areola, family attorney Roberto Stanziale said.


"This was something that was believed to be a routine procedure," said Stanziale who added it was too early to determine if any legal action would be taken. "There was never any indication that she was not going to walk out of that surgical suite. It's obviously devastating."


A message left after-hours at the clinic where Kuleba's surgery was performed was not immediately returned and a telephone listing for the Kuleba family was not available.


Grieving friends turned Kuleba's parking space at a Boca Raton high school into a makeshift memorial with flowers, candles and a teddy bear. Friends called Kuleba "Sunshine" because of her blonde hair and smile.


"I have chills right now just thinking about it," Ashley Gutknecht, 18, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. "It doesn't seem real."

Sad
I hope for their parents peace of mind she really needed that surgery and it was not the deviated septum kind of excuse to have a nose job done

PANDURITO said:

it is sad. u leave jen aniston alone!

I was thinking if it was corrective breast surgery then it was to correct a problem with implants?

Prayers to the family for their loss.

Regarding implants, though; I will never understand how we've gotten to such a high rate of cosmetic surgery in the US. I remember when I lived in Miami Beach many years ago there were always horror stories on the news similar to this, and usually even worse. Several times a year they would always bust some underground, back door operation where doctors (or people posing as doctors) were operating in the most unsanitary circumstances with the most rudimentary of tools. Occasionally you would find people operating out of makeshift offices in garages with tools from Home Depot. I always wondered what pushes as as human beings to strive for such unrealistic, idealized standards of beauty no matter what the cost or risk...? And it seems like our obsession with doing so is beginning at younger and younger ages

Ottensen said:

wow.

I saw this news story last night. They said she had an adverse reaction to the anesthesia. I was afraid of that when I went.

I feel for her family.

Very sad.....All surgery has very real RISK involved.