Usher's Ex-Wife Tameka Foster Says 2009 Liposuction Gone Wrong Made Her Want to 'Do It the Natural Way' (Exclusive)

"I still care about looks and vanity, but I plan to do it the natural way,” the fashion stylist, who previously went into cardiac arrest while under anesthesia for liposuction, tells PEOPLE

Usher's ex-wife Tameka Foster is reflecting on the liposuction surgery that never happened.

The fashion stylist, 53, recently opened up to PEOPLE about a health scare in 2009 when she went into cardiac arrest while under anesthesia for liposuction.

“I never had it,” she tells PEOPLE of the cosmetic procedure. “I went in an attempt to have liposuction and I went into a cardiac arrest with the anesthesiologist. The doctor never even entered the room.”

Foster  — who was married to Usher from 2007 to 2009 — admits that the medical emergency ultimately shifted her outlook on beauty after previously letting scrutiny and negative comments “get to me a bit” while she was married.

"I still care about looks and vanity, but I plan to do it the natural way. That's all. Totally,” she says. “It made me be a little less lazy about getting to my goals, and I just changed my diet and now I do intermittent fasting and things like that.”

“So I lost probably 20 lbs. before we started filming the show [Bold & Bougie]. In the past year, I've been really diligent about keeping my weight to a certain number,” she adds. “I mean, I go up and down, but yeah, I do care less about it. I'm not as anal about it.”

Related: Usher Felt 'Attacked' by Negative, 'Judgmental' Public Opinion When He Married Ex-Wife Tameka Foster (Exclusive)

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Back in 2009, the Brazilian plastic surgeon who was set to perform Foster’s liposuction revealed details about the cardiac arrest and how she was temporarily in a medically induced coma. At the time, Foster traveled to Brazil to have liposuction on her stomach, said Ellen Dasptry, a rep for Sao Paulo plastic surgeon Dr. Silvio Sterman, who was to have performed the surgery.

“Tameka Raymond came here on Friday to do a liposuction. Shortly after she went under [general] anesthesia, she suffered a cardiac arrest,” Dasptry told PEOPLE.

According to Dasptry, after her cardiac arrest, Foster was immediately revived and placed in an induced coma.

“When an attack like this happens, the doctors put the patient to sleep… and make sure that everything is okay and that there has not been any damage,” explained Dasptry. “This is the protocol every time and this is what was done.”

After a day in the ICU, Foster was transferred to a larger facility, Sao Paulo’s Hospital Sírio-Libanês, considered one of the finest in Brazil, said Dasptry. After nearly a week of recovery, she was “doing very well.”

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