CINCINNATI — TikTok personality Rachel Tussey's husband has filed a lawsuit against the surgery center where she went in for a tummy tuck operation and died in hospice care nearly three weeks later, according to a new court filing.
Rachel Tussey went in for her tummy tuck operation on Feb. 25 at JourneyLite of Cincinnati, a surgery center. She had been documenting her journey and preparation on TikTok for her nearly 84,000 followers in the weeks leading up to the operation.
“OK, here it is, it’s my turn,” the 47-year-old mom of three said in her final TikTok video filmed from her hospital bed right before her surgery. “I feel a big range of emotions, but mostly absolute excitement and gratitude."
The negligence suit, filed by Jeremy Tussey Thursday in the Hamilton County Court of Common Pleas, names JourneyLite, Associated Anesthesiologists of Springfield and others, including nurses.
Tussey states in the lawsuit that a nurse administered an opioid overdose to his wife after her tummy tuck surgery, resulting in her death on March 17.
According to the complaint, the amount of fentanyl given to Rachel after her surgery exceeded the amount she was given throughout the duration of the 9-hour operation itself.
The complaint alleges the lethal combination of 150 micrograms of fentanyl and 0.5 milligrams of Dilaudid, within 30 minutes after surgery, caused opioid toxicity that led Rachel to have no oxygen flowing to her brain for six minutes.
The lawsuit also states that JourneyLite's nurses failed to properly respond when Rachel became unresponsive.
According to the complaint, Rachel was taken to Bethesda North Hospital, where staff ruled out other causes of death, including surgical complications. The hospital said Rachel died as a result of anoxic brain injury caused by a lack of oxygen to her brain following an overdose and acute respiratory failure.
JourneyLite's "systemic failures" and "regulatory violations" led directly to Rachel's death, the complaint states.
The lawsuit says JourneyLite failed to ensure that their nursing staff "possessed the demonstrated competencies and specialized post-anesthesia training" required by Ohio law to manage an airway emergency.
Last month, Rachel's surgeon, Dr. Shahryar Tork, filed a lawsuit over her death.
“Rachel’s death was completely unnecessary and caused by a JourneyLite nurse recklessly overdosing Rachel on narcotics, and by a JourneyLite anesthesiologist abandoning their patient,” Tork told WCPO.
Watch our interview with Tork in the video below:
Jeremy Tussey did not name Tork in his complaint.
