Another young, vibrant woman died in late September during a recent liposuction procedure in Toronto. How sad that this talented, successful, single mother lost her life hoping to rid her tummy of a little mound of fat.

It is most bizarre that her surgeon had no specialties and no hospital privileges. She, the surgeon, was training in family medicine but she is not listed as an accredited family practitioner with the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

The scenario of allowing untrained and unqualified practitioners to call themselves cosmetic surgeons that actually perform surgeries is repeated many times a day in many areas of the world.

In the US plastic surgeons must undergo licensing and adhere to strict regulations, but there's little to stop general practitioners from calling themselves cosmetic surgeons and performing the same procedures that licensed plastic surgeons perform.

Family doctors, physicians, not trained in plastic surgery are performing cosmetic procedures because injections that plump and paralyze, liposuction, surgery and other procedures are very, very lucrative to their bottom line. They are in it for the money.

This is a growing public health risk and lax standards permitted this death to happen.

It is vitally important to your health and well being to scrutinize the qualifications and training of a practitioner if you are considering any invasive procedures. This absolutely includes injections as well as surgery because injections are invasive.

Do not be intimidated or flustered to ask when, where and how extensive the doctor has been trained in any procedure. Some physicians are trained only hours over a weekend in certain procedures. You must remember that cosmetic surgeon is a misnomer, there really isn't such a distinction in the medical community.

Oh sure there are physicians who call themselves cosmetic surgeons but their training may have been in dentistry, internal medicine or proctology. In other words you really need to think carefully about allowing anyone the opportunity to fool with your long-term health and well-being.

This includes physicians who are practicing in foreign countries. There have been incidents of botched procedures and even deaths directly attributed to untrained and unlicensed, unscrupulous people vying for your dollar. They seem to smell desperation like sharks swimming after blood. Shame on you if you fall for their under-handed ploys. You must perform your due diligence and ask the hard questions before you consider booking your travel or their services.

Liposuction, breast augmentation, brow lifts, facelifts, injections and more lure unsuspecting aging men and women into believing that nothing untoward could ever happen to them.

The statistics of procedures that have been botched or resulted in death are not easily obtained. This is not surprising when you consider how long the industry has gone unregulated. These are toxic secrets that have been hidden from view for a very long time.

There are reported deaths in 2007 from Arizona. The circumstances are so bizarre but you must know how people parade themselves as surgeons when they are not. The Arizona Republic reports on July 12, that a massage therapist performed a liposuction procedure in which a woman died.

A homeopathic physician who was denied a medical doctor's license by the state board did another procedure in which a patient died. Others who performed cosmetic surgery did not have formal medical training; include a bookkeeper and a former restaurant owner. Egads!

Cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, stroke, paralysis, blood clots, adverse reactions to anesthesia, unqualified and untrained personnel are serious complications that most likely can be avoided if you wisely understand that fooling with Mother Nature's handiwork can have dire consequences.

What about those shysters who inject fake serums into their unsuspecting clients? This was reported in Florida when four people went into a coma after receiving botulism and again in Las Vegas when a doc and his wife knowingly injected patients with botulism toxin type A – a cheaper form of Botox®. In Queens, NY, a beautician was arrested after administering fake cosmetic injections into her spa patients.

These and other sad stories are repeated many times during a year. No one intends to become a statistic.