Authorities warned about Plastic Surgery Center safety risks in 2024

Authorities were warned about patient safety problems at Plastic Surgery Center as early as 2024, according to Yle’s MOT investigative programme, which has seen a complaint filed by specialist plastic surgeons. The complaint criticised the use of excessive sedatives before procedures and inadequate monitoring of patients.

Finland’s Licensing and Supervisory Agency suspended healthcare services at the clinic’s Helsinki location last week over suspected serious risks to patient safety.

Social media influencer Olivia Oras lost consciousness while receiving local anaesthesia before liposuction at the clinic earlier this month. She died in hospital three days later.

Police are investigating her death as suspected aggravated causing of death. MOT has no information on whether medical malpractice was involved.

According to the complaint, the clinic’s doctor Karl Johan Svedjeholm instructed staff to give patients premedication doses of diazepam that were five to 10 times higher than usual. MOT has seen messages sent by Svedjeholm that the complaint cites as evidence.

The complainants said the suggested doses were not in themselves life-threatening, but could cause adverse effects when combined with opioids such as fentanyl. They said their greater concern was the monitoring of patients and preparedness for possible adverse effects.

The combination of diazepam and fentanyl is not in itself unusual in plastic surgery, but patients should be monitored by checking factors such as blood pressure, oxygen levels and breathing. The complainants described monitoring at the clinic as “non-existent”.

The complaint said that the simultaneous use of benzodiazepines such as Diapam and opioids, combined with other shortcomings at the clinic, reduced patient safety and increased the risk of complications such as respiratory depression.

MOT has no information about which medicines Oras received during her procedure or in what quantities. Svedjeholm did not respond to repeated requests for comment over two weeks.

MOT has not been able to independently verify the authenticity of the complaint through the Licensing and Supervisory Agency. However, the names and other details in the documents match information about the clinic that the programme has confirmed through other sources.

It is not known whether the complaint led to any action. Its processing at the agency is reportedly still ongoing. MOT asked about the matter in July 2025, when it was also still under consideration.

After Oras’s death, MOT requested the complaint documents again, but the agency has not responded. In a statement last week, the agency said it was facing a backlog in processing information requests.

An unfinished complaint is not public. MOT obtained the document through another source.

Helsinki Police have said that a doctor or doctors are suspected in the investigation into Oras’s death. Police have not commented on possible arrests, detentions or interrogations.