When she woke up hours later she knew something was not right.

"I remember waking up at this hospital, saying 'am I alive,' or something. 'Do I have boobs, are they there?' I can't really remember," she said at Westmead Hospital on Saturday.

Halfway through the routine procedure at The Cosmetic Institute in Parramatta, Ms Rickhuss, 20, had gone into cardiac arrest.

The clinic had immediately called an ambulance and she had been taken to Westmead Hospital in a serious condition. She regained consciousness and was put under observation.

Ms Rickhuss was visited on Friday by her doctor, Dr Niro Sivathasan, who told her the complications were believed to have been related to the anaesthetic.

"He put my right implant in and then they think that some local anaesthetic that they injected might have got into my artery, they're not too sure, and that caused my heart to stop," she said.

"As they started on the left that's when my heart started to get irregular, and then my heart stopped while I was on the table and they performed CPR and then gave me that defib, where they shock me."

"He got me stable ... where I was fine and responsive, or whatever, and then he carried on with the procedure, which he was nearly finished anyway."

The procedure was carried out using sedation and injections of local anaesthetic, rather than general anaesthetic.

Dr Erez Ben, an anaesthetist at The Cosmetic Institute said, while it was possible, it was highly unlikely the local anaesthetic was injected into a blood vessel.

"If that happened you would see immediate reaction. In this instance it didn't happen immediately, her reaction was towards the end of the procedure," he said.

"The presumed diagnosis at this stage is that she had a reaction to the local anesthetic," said Dr Ben, who spoke on behalf of the clinic but was not present for Ms Rickhuss' procedure.

For the past year, Ms Rickhuss, originally from Victoria, has been working as a fly-in fly-out catering worker at a mine site in Western Australia.

She travelled to Sydney this week to get breast implants, which she has been "wanting ever since I was young."

It was through friends at the mine site that she first heard about The Cosmetic Institute.

"I looked into them and looked into their surgeons and their responses and they just seemed really good," Ms Rickhuss, who had initially considered travelling to Thailand for the procedure, said.

Her surgeon, Dr Niro Sivathasan, specialises in aesthetics and breast implant surgery, with a focus on plastic and burns surgery.

"I have 200 per cent trust and faith in Dr Niro. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't be alive. That place is so prepared for whatever. Literally, they saved my life," Ms Rickhuss said.

Ms Rickhuss is the third patient of The Cosmetic Institute to go to hospital in the last six months.

Two patients have previously been admitted to hospital after epilepsy and seizure-related instances during and after cosmetic procedures.

President of the Australian Society of Plastic Surgeons Dr Tony Kane said there is one message to take home from Ms Rickhuss' story.

'Any surgery carries risks and some of those are potentially life threatening. People need to need to consider that before having cosmetic surgery," he said.

The ASPS has previously raised concerns with government that local anaesthetic theatres should meet similar criteria as general anaesthetic facilities.

"Previously we've provided what we think are reasonable guidelines as to what's an adequate or safe dose of anesthesia," he said, adding.

The institute, which also has offices in Bondi, advertises a number of procedures on its website, including liposuction, breast augmentation, eyelid rejuvenation and labiaplasty.

It is advertised as the largest healthcare provider of cosmetic surgery in Australia.

Ms Rickhuss said she doesn't want her experience to discourage other women from having cosmetic surgery.

"I don't want this to scare other girls. Every surgery has a risk and I'm proof of how good this company is."