Budding Kannada TV actor dies after a fat removal surgery goes wrong

In a tragic incident of body shaming and the obsessive pursuit of near-impossible standards of beauty, Chethana Raj, a 21-year-old Kannada TV actor, died due to a failed fat removal surgery. Her family alleged that the budding actor died because of the hospital's negligence.

Chethana Raj reportedly went with her friends to Dr Shetty's Cosmetic Clinic in Rajajinagar for a cosmetic surgery, without telling her parents. Her friend reportedly signed the consent form before she was taken into surgery. Soon after the procedure, her lungs reportedly filled up with fluid and she died of a cardiac arrest within hours.

A case has been filed against doctors on a police complaint by her parents and the hospital has been shut.

"This is a medical negligence case. An unnatural death report is awaited, and a case has been registered against Dr Shetty's Cosmetic Centre over suspicion of her death. We have registered a case, however no arrests have been made yet, because action will be initiated after the medical report is submitted," said Vinayak Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police, North Division, Bengaluru.

Her parents complained that the hospital did not take their consent before the surgery and the procedure was done in an ICU that lacked proper facilities.

"Without any precautions, they conducted this surgery. The doctors should have suggested a surgery only if there was a real need for removal of fat. It was her friend who signed the consent form before she was taken into surgery," said the actor's father Varadaraju. 

According to reports, doctors tried to revive her through CPR for 45 minutes but couldn't. When the actor was unresponsive, the doctors reportedly took her to the nearby Kaade Hospital and tried to force the doctors there to treat her. The Kaade hospital said that the patient was already dead by the time she was brought.

Chethana Raj was a known face in Kannada daily soaps like "Geetha" and "Doresani". Her death has left her friends, colleagues and fans in shock.