CAMAGÜEY .- We almost coincide that the person’s internal beauty is the most important, but the packaging of certain virtues sells the entire package. As it is said in the Cuban popular slang: what it does not enter through the eyes…

The beauty norms change constantly according the region and the epoch around the planet even though the concept for beauty dates from the beginning of humanity.  The obese woman in Mauritania is considered the perfect one while in the Nordic countries, the women that are thin and blond have leverage among the others and get compliments form the men. Maybe the causes for the different patterns of beauty are involved with the evolution of the specie, the increasing migration of people or the globalization’s effects. Indeed, the thin woman of great height, physically attractive with prominent gluteus, hips and breasts, regular nose and full lips that participates in beauty conquests like Our Latin Beauty and Miss Universe are the representation of the perfect in our society.

The ideal of feminine grace that the media constantly promote worldwide influence in the woman’s appearance no matter race, age, or physical complexion. In the attempts to look like a mannequin and a Barbie of the Hollywood industries everything can happen, from the exaggerated make up and accessories to the steroids consume, even the most absurd of the diets and the way to the surgery.

“Miss Camaguey” To surgery.

The Greek phrase “sound mind, sound body” is part of the promotion of Cuban social welfare in which the government gives priority. The Public Health system also includes free all the aesthetic surgeries or cosmetic surgeries (as there are also known in other countries).

The liposuction has been made in the province of Camaguey since 1994, surgical procedure that has benefited, up to the moment, to thousands of people.According to the doctor María del Carmen Rodríguez, chief of the Provincial Staff of Aesthetical Surgery and Burns Unit, that the service they give to the population is composed of seven specialists and eight interns of different nationalities, included three from Cuba.

As this surgical procedure of fat extraction of the abdominal region and other parts of the human body continues reaching acceptance, the liposculpture (that is commonly known by the people as lipoinjection) also became in the star of the aesthetic surgeries.

According to Cebrián Rodríguez, women come to their offices everyday (from Monday to Thursday) because they want to undergo to a lipoinjection.This doctor examines them and then gives them guidance for the procedure previous to the surgical intervention. Then, if everything is in order and the patients do not suffer from a chronic disease or aresmokers, thepatients can receive the lipoinjection. They arrange the operation’s date and complete the detailsaccording to the physical characteristics of the patients because not everything they request can be done. He advises that women over the 40s should not undergo to this procedure.

Jesús Oliva de Céspedes, specialist of Aesthetical Surgery and Burns Unit explained to the newspaper Adelante that they work according to the techniques oriented by the international specialists for this kind of surgery who had many years of experience in the field. He insisted that the entire surgical instruments used in the procedures are completely sterile.

A scientific contribution to the field will be an analysis of this procedure in the gluteus.  The research is realized by the Colombian resident Jaime Zuluaga López, whose tutor is the doctor Robin Álvarez Gutiérrez.

Dr.Orlando Rodríguez, specialist of Aesthetical Surgery and Chief of the Aesthetical Surgery and Burns Unit Staff at the Provincial Hospital Manuel Ascunce Domenech,Fotos: Orlando Durán HernándezDr.Orlando Rodríguez, specialist of Aesthetical Surgery and Chief of the Aesthetical Surgery and Burns Unit Staff at the Provincial Hospital Manuel Ascunce Domenech,Fotos: Orlando Durán Hernández

A surgery is like an aggression.

The doctor Orlando Rodríguez, specialist of Aesthetical Surgery and Chief of the Aesthetical Surgery and Burns Unit Staff at the Provincial Hospital Manuel Ascunce Domenech, declared that a surgery is like an aggression making allusion to the impact a surgery can have in the body. He emphasizes that these procedures require the consent signing of the patients after being informed of the risks.

Other doctors that were interviewed state that sometimes is difficult to supervise all the patients’ previous medical tests because those tests were done by other medical institutions. “There have been cases in which the patients lie about their real conditions and classify to the procedure without knowing how fatal this can be for them, even the group blood in case of making a transfusion,” said the doctor Rodríguez Salazar.

They are in favor of long-term recovering of the patients in the hospital because of the complexity of the surgery, which is, up to the moment, outpatient. “Our staff is improving the techniques to give a service of more quality. Even though we made the prophylactic work, we are not free from the surgical complications in this procedure”, they said.

 From more than the 8000 liposuctions and 100 of liposculptures made in the province, only four people died in surgery, up the moment the newspaper started the research about it. These numbers speak by their own about the quality of the services taking into account that the deaths were described during the corresponding prophylactic work and the rumors of dozens of deaths are not reliable.

How does the public think about it?

The Adelante’s journalists want the people’s opinion about it and almost the 80% stated that they would like to undergo to an aesthetical surgery at certain age while the other 20% that if their lives do not have any risks, there is no need of a surgery, practicing exercises is the best option.

Practicing exercises is an option that Yeisel Acosta Mendoza, owner of Acosta’s Gym, stands out making allusion to the wide number of women who go to his gym to be in good shape.

The women’s attendance to the gyms has to do with the specific circumstances of their lives: the teenager’s time, the maternity, to be almost in the thirties or forties and the stress. ”In the service of aesthetical surgery we give to women, the abdominal pathologies ,caused by the pregnancy that provokes a straining in the abdominal cavity and the skin, is the more common” , said Olivia de Céspedes. 

However, not only women but also men want to undergo to an aesthetical surgery. Apart from certain taboos and women take advantage in the field, there is a slightly increase of men attendance for a surgery. A young good looking appearance is the Holy Grail for both women and men.

The specialists assure that individual’s nonconformities with their cosmetic appearance result from their self-esteem complexes that affect the psychological balance of the people. “Thenonconformities with the physical appearance are considered as complaints, and this kind of surgery can better people’s lifestyle, even though others see it as pure vanity, people like to be good looking, and the man is a bio-psycho-social  being and the psychic does affect ”, said Olivia de Céspedes.

Apart from the Worldwide Health Organization (WHO) declares that health is the complete state of physical, psychic, and social wellbeing and not the absence of illnesses; such definition does not make the difference of choosing between beauty and health. Others think that both are walking together as one. What do you think? 

A testimony.

“After the surgery I have done anything that I had done before”, said Irelys García Rodríguez, whounderwent to a liposculpture last February. “Anyone could not take her the idea from her mind, even her father that works as specialist in Anesthesiology and Reanimation”, said her husband Addiel Ruano Soto. “I was always in love of her before the surgery because I chose her just like she was and I am happy the way she is”, he also said.

  Irelys is a 28 -year old woman whose decision was made to look better among the society. In fact she does not want to remember for what she had to have been through: the pain, the nights without sleeping, the reducing massages trauma (she stands only 60), the lack of air that the abdominal corset caused her during three months, the bruises and even the complications. “Six days after the surgery I had fever and my hemoglobin levels were low, so I had a transfusion of blood. Because of the hormonal movement  I had in my body I started to pour milk from mi breasts,” she said.

The surgery lasted approximately 3 hours and almost seven pounds of fat were removed and she has already lost 15 pounds. According to the procedure, she considers that patients have to stay more time in the hospital after going out of surgery. She was also worried about the blood transfusions because during surgery lots of blood is lost, so the transfusion stipulated in the protocol is beneficial.

Even now Gabriel de Jesús, her four -year old son, said to her: “mommy you are apululu”, because of the undeniable transformation she suffered; She would rather not to have that dangerous moment that would have lost the chance to see her child to group up. “It is true, my clothes now fit on me and I feel comfortable with myself, but I do not advice it “, she said with tears in her eyes remembering again the possibility of not having the chance of seeing her Gabrielito again.

Translated by : Daynier Díaz Suàrez ,Student of English Language