Naked British socialite leaps to her death after facelift
‘Lethal reaction to anaesthetic’
A BRITISH socialite stripped off her clothes and jumped to her death from a 15- storey building in Beverly Hills after undergoing a facelift.
She allegedly suffered a bad reaction to an anaesthetic used in the operation by ‘A-list’ plastic surgeon Dr Brian Novack.
Sandra D’Auriol, 53, a jeweller who had worked for the Royal Family’s supplier Asprey, was reportedly recovering from the nip and tuck procedure when she threw off her clothing and ran up to the roof of the building.
Police spent three hours trying to talk the mother-of-two down as she sat naked with her legs dangling over a ledge.
Mrs D’Auriol, who lived in Hong Kong, was known for making one-of-a-kind jewellery and often donated profits from her business to charity.
She is said to have undergone a facelift at the Camden Medical Arts Building
‘Agitated and aggressive’
office of Dr Novack in Beverly Hills last Tuesday and was kept there overnight for observation.
The patient woke the following morning ‘agitated and aggressive’ and, according to an office worker, was pulling at her hair before dashing up to the roof at 7am.
‘She sat on the ledge naked, then got up and walked around the edge of the building as if on a tightrope. She sat back down again before getting up and jumping off,’ said a witness.
Beverly Hills police confirmed they are investigating the death, but refused to comment further.
A rare post- operation complication known as ‘emergence delirium’ can result in a state of heightened emotion or excitement in the hours or days after anaesthesia and affects around 5 per cent of patients. Sufferers may also experience temporary ‘psychomotor agitation’ – restless movements that stem from mental tension – including pacing around a room, removing clothing and, in some extreme cases, self-harming.
There was no comment yesterday from Dr Novack, who has been credited with performing facelifts and other cosmetic operations on some of the biggest stars in the entertainment business.
He was once described as the ‘best plastic surgeon no one will recommend’ because his famous patients pay high prices to look as if they have had no work done at all.
Avi Rai, a former colleague of Mrs D’Auriol at the Child Welfare Scheme in Hong Kong, where she was a director, said: ‘It was a tragic incident. It has been a very difficult time for her family.
‘She was British and married with two children. It would not be appropriate for me to say anything more as the death is still under investigation.’
The jeweller was born in India to British parents and grew up in Singapore and Ibiza. Her French husband Yan D’Auriol, a former L’Oreal executive, runs a cosmetics business from Hong Kong.
Mr D’Auriol’s 12 year- old son, Teo, drowned in a swimming pool in Bali in 2004, according to a 2008 article in the South China Morning Post.
Mrs D’Auriol’s biography on the Child Welfare Scheme website states she had been involved with CWS since 1999 and ‘despite being a wonderful and busy mother, wife and friend, she always has plenty of time to help anyone in need’.
In 2006, 21-year-old James Went worthStanley, son of the Marchioness of Milford Haven, committed suicide ten days after a minor operation. The student told his mother he ‘didn’t feel right’ after the surgery and became severely depressed before killing himself.