FAMILY SUING IN COSMETIC SURGERY DEATH; $3 MILLION SOUGHT BY SIMI WOMAN'S HUSBAND, DAUGHTER.

Byline: Don Holland Daily News Staff Writer

The family of a 25-year-old Simi Valley mother who died after breast-augmentation surgery filed a $3 million lawsuit Thursday against a Westlake Village clinic, claiming that negligence by the staff caused her death.

The suit accuses the medical staff at Plastic Surgery Partnerships of negligently administering anesthesia to Tania Pfefferman, who underwent surgery Feb. 16. The suit also claims that staffers did not immediately detect that Pfefferman went into cardiac arrest in the recovery room and that when they did, they negligently performed resuscitation efforts.

Pfefferman slipped into a coma and was transported by ambulance from the clinic to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where she died Feb. 28. An autopsy determined she died of a possible negative reaction to the painkiller Demerol, which doctors say could have resulted in a lack of oxygen reaching the brain.

The suit was filed by Pfefferman's husband, Michael, and the couple's young daughter, Nicole, against Dr. Theodore R. Corwin, Plastic Surgery Partnership, anesthesiologist Lois Remely, Anesthesia Services and Lorie A. Salamati, a nurse anesthetist.

Corwin's office declined comment on the case. His attorney could not be reached.