A woman died after liposuction caused her lung to collapse. A surgeon says it can happen when doctors are careless.

• The wife of country singer Hank Williams Jr. died after a doctor punctured her lung during liposuction.
• Many reported deaths from liposuction have occurred due to mistakes by plastic surgeons.

Choosing the right plastic surgeon can be a life or death decision for some patients.

An autopsy report recently revealed Mary Jane Thomas, the wife of country singer Hank Williams Jr., died due to complications from a liposuction.

Thomas' lung collapsed after being punctured during the surgery, according to the autopsy report.

Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Michael K. Obeng told People doctors can puncture the lungs or other organs during liposuction when they are "careless or not paying too much attention."

"So people think liposuction is a very easy operation, but it's one operation that every time I'm doing it, I have to know exactly where the tip of my cannula [the suction tube] is because I don't take it for granted," Obeng told People. "It could be dangerous."

Liposuction is a procedure where a doctor removes fat cells by vacuuming them out with a large metal instrument. The procedure ranks in the top five most common cosmetic surgeries in the US along with nose reshaping and breast augmentation, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

Though liposuction is considered relatively safe, chronic smokers, people over 45, and those with higher body mass indexes are more likely to have complications, Insider previously reported. Most doctors no longer perform high-volume liposuction — or removing more than six liters of fat — due to the higher risk for complications.

Many reported deaths from liposuction occurred at the hands of careless practitioners or in countries with lax regulations. A mother of two died after getting a botched liposuction in Spain, where the doctor punctured numerous organs. The Guardian reported at least two dozen people have died in the last decade after getting plastic surgery in the Dominican Republic, where costs are significantly cheaper but surgeries may not follow the regulations required in the US.

The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recommends liposuction patients select a board-certified doctor with at least six years of surgical training after medical school and three years of plastic surgery residency training.