The widower of a US woman who died after undergoing a mammoth 10-hour plastic surgery session that included a BBL and breast augmentation is suing the doctor and the outpatient facility, accusing them of negligence, reports People.
Peter Ginnegar, from North Carolina, said he wanted to alert people to the dangers of “these types of surgeries in a non-hospital setting”, after the death of his wife, Joy Barbera (48).
He said he had been awaiting a phone call from the clinic for news after her 10-hour surgery the day before, but instead, had received a call to say she had stopped breathing. They had revived her with CPR, but the situation was dire.
Before he even got there, he said, his phone rang again. They said his wife was brain-dead, and doctors needed his permission to stop reviving her. He gave it.
Like many who have lost significant weight with the help of a GLP-1 medication, Barbera had been looking for a solution for her excess skin, and was seeking out a slew of procedures, including a Brazilian butt lift (BBL), brachioplasty (arm lift) and breast augmentation.
Eager to complete her transformation, she had interviewed multiple doctors with the request of having all of the procedures done at once – but each had turned her down.
“They said it was too dangerous,” Ginnegar told People.
She then came across Dr Kendall Roehl of Memorial Plastic Surgery in Houston, Texas, on social media.
Roehl agreed to conduct all six of the procedures in one day, so the mother-of-two travelled from North Carolina to Houston. The surgery, which cost $53 000, took place on 13 August 2025.
At the time, Ginnegar was on a motorcycle trip in Colorado that he and his wife had planned to take with another couple. Her surgery date was originally scheduled for a later time, but another patient of Roehl’s cancelled and Barbara was slotted in earlier.
“I had already invested a lot of money into the trip, and she was adamant that I still do it,” Ginnegar said.
So, Barbera reserved a spot in a recovery centre in Houston after the surgery, where a nurse would care for her 24/7 for one week. Ginnegar planned to fly in to take over her care for the second week of recovery. The couple would then return home to North Carolina.
But things didn’t go as planned.
According to a petition filed by Ginnegar and his attorney in Texas, the surgery began at 8.26am, and things quickly went awry.
Data from Memorial Ambulatory Surgery Centre contain two anaesthesia records – the “revised” record shows that vasoactive agents (or vasopressors), which are used to artificially increase and maintain blood pressure, were started at 9.30am and never discontinued, the filing alleged.
It also alleged that Barbera had low blood pressure as early as 11.55am, falling from a stable 130/70 to 90/60 by 12.30pm, while being artificially maintained by the vasopressors.
By 4pm, her body temperature had dropped from a normal 98.96 degrees Fahrenheit to 90.32, which is considered moderate hypothermia, per the petition. The conflicting reports also show that she lost a significant amount of blood during the procedure but was not given a transfusion, as reported in the court filing.
Ginnegar’s petition claims that the surgery centre was not equipped to offer a transfusion. When the surgery ended at around 6.12pm, Roehl had allegedly operated on approximately 41% of Barbera’s body. She was transferred to a recovery unit where she began experiencing complications.
A nurse was supposed to call Ginnegar at noon with an update on how the surgery was going, but that call never came.
He started to worry and at 3pm, texted the nurse. He finally received a reply from Roehl at around 5pm saying that Barbera was in recovery and doing well.
A few hours later, however, he received another call saying Barbera was experiencing low blood pressure, but, he claimed, they assured him it was not uncommon. Still, Ginnegar decided to cut his trip short and head to Houston the next morning.
At around 1am, his wife phoned, and spoke in a “very faint” voice.
“She said, I’m in the hospital. There’s something wrong with my stomach’,” Ginnegar recalled his wife saying. “And I hear nurses in the background, machines beeping. And that’s the last time I heard from Joy.”
The next day, doctors called to say his wife was having trouble breathing. He immediately headed to Houston – and en-route was phoned to say she had been revived several times but that she was now brain-dead.
He then received a call from Roehl, whom, he claims, was placing blame on the anaesthesiologist, Dr Yiu-Hei Ching, during the conversation.
In March this year, Ginnegar filed a lawsuit against Roehl, Ching, the surgery centre and two nurses. His hope is to bring awareness to the risk of going under the knife at ambulatory surgery centres, as such outpatient facilities have limited capabilities when it comes to emergencies.
“Obviously nothing will bring her back… but the first thing is to bring attention to the dangers of these types of surgeries in a non-hospital setting. And also, social media makes these things look so glamorous.”
Lawyers for Roehl, two nurses and the surgery centre declined to comment, and Ching did not immediately respond to the request for comment.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Brazilian butt lift: Behind the world’s most dangerous cosmetic surgery
Warning over the dangers of ‘Brazilian butt lift’ surgery
Celebrity Brazilian plastic surgeon on the run after woman’s death