SAO PAULO (AP) — The wife of R&B singer Usher continues to recover in a Sao Paulo hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest shortly before undergoing plastic surgery, the spokeswoman of the doctor who was to perform the procedure said Thursday.

Ellen Dastry, spokeswoman for plastic surgeon Silvio Sterman, says Tameka Raymond checked into the Sao Rafael Hospital last Friday for a "simple liposuction." Dastry said that Raymond suffered a cardiac arrest while being anesthetized for the procedure "but was revived in less than a minute by heart massage." She was then placed in an induced coma before being taken to the intensive-care unit, a procedure Dastry said was "absolutely normal" and performed in order to "avoid unnecessary complications."

That same day Raymond was transferred to Sao Paulo's posh and better-equipped Sirio-Libanes Hospital where she is recovering, Dastry said without providing further details.

At Sirio-Libanes, a spokeswoman would only say that Raymond remains hospitalized. She explained that Raymond's family requested that no information regarding her condition be divulged by the hospital. She did not give her name, per hospital rules.

Usher was supposed to perform at music mogul Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party last Saturday, but backed out to come to Brazil to be with his wife.

The 30-year-old R&B star and his wife were married in August 2007. They have two young sons, 2-year-old Usher Raymond V and 2-month-old Naveid Ely Raymond.