TikTok influencer Rachel Tussey has died just under two weeks after being taken off life support following “mommy makeover” surgery gone wrong, her husband announced Wednesday.
She was 47.
“We are deeply grateful for the love, prayers, and generous support shown to our family during this incredibly difficult time,” her husband, Jeremy Tussey, wrote in an update to the online funding appeal launched after her transition to end-of-life care. “Last night, my wife Rachel lost her battle while in hospice care.”
The Ohio mom of three had documented her anticipation and preparation for the Feb. 25 tummy tuck on TikTok, where she had about 25,000 followers under the handle “midlifeunmuted.” The procedure performed by Dr. Shahryar Tork in Cincinnati “was completed successfully and without complications,” he said in a statement last Thursday, noting that he had since cut all ties with the private facility. The heartbroken doctor added that he last saw her in the recovery room “awake and in excellent condition.”
She was in such good shape that Tork felt safe going home. But soon after that, Jeremy Tussey said in a March 3 video message on his wife’s TikTok channel, Rachel became unresponsive after a nurse administered pain medication. Narcan and other lifesaving measures failed to revive her and she was taken to the hospital, where doctors said that she had been deprived of oxygen for six minutes, her husband said in the video filmed at her hospital bedside.
This caused a “permanent anoxic brain injury,” the couple’s lawyer, Bernard Layne, told TMZ. He said the family hired him to investigate the tragedy.
“And this is what we’re looking at,” Jeremy Tussey said in the video, panning to a view of an unconscious Rachel, hooked up to numerous tubes and surrounded by beeping machines. Two days later, on March 5, he made the “unimaginable and heartbreaking decision to remove her from life support,” according to the funding appeal, which had raised more than $36,700 of a requested $40,000 by Wednesday afternoon.
“Your donations, messages, and kindness have meant more to us than words can express. They have helped ease burdens and reminded us that we are not alone as we navigate this loss,” Jeremy Tussey wrote in Wednesday’s update. “Rachel was an amazing wife, mother, and person who touched so many lives. We will carry her memory with us always. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you for standing with our family.”