Illegal medical spas and filler injection services are up and running, and actually killing people.
If it weren't bad enough that there are websites marketing "do it yourself Botox injections" and "filler injection kits" for home use, there are still people out there who are willing to go to a motel room and have non-physicians inject them will industrial silicon.
Two sisters who were selling Botox, filler injections, and butt augmentation in motel rooms are now on the run. Police say they performed illegal cosmetic surgery from inside their residential home and are the cause of one woman’s death.
Some of their patients (victims) went to police after experiencing infections and hardened body parts after receiving silicon injections. One woman, 22-year-old Mayra Lissette Contreras, would die from respiratory failure a day after getting some silicone shots in her buttocks. The sisters were arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license but were released on bond and have probably fled to Mexico (see below).
There's always plenty of smartass advice to give to anyone who may ever contemplate injecting themselves with fake botox or getting cosmetic surgery while bent over someone’s kitchen counter, but I just couldn’t do better than the advice given by by Deputy Chief Kirk Albanese. “If you are receiving an injection at a home in a residential area, that should be the first warning sign that you shouldn’t be there.” But I will add that whether or not a facility is residential or not, it’s normally not a good idea to receive cosmetic treatment from a 50-year-old woman who looks like a creature commonly seen in movies being chased around by villagers with pitchforks.
Sisters sought after woman dies from silicone butt injections
Sisters Guadalupe Viveros, left, and Alejandra Viveros, above, allegedly ran an illegal cosmetic filler injection service and squirted silicon into anyone with a check book.
Guadalupe Viveros, 53, and Alejandra Viveros, 50, may have fled the country after Mayra Lissette Contreras, 22, of Pacoima died Friday after receiving the injection, police said. An autopsy was pending Wednesday, said Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Initial reports indicated that Contreras died from respiratory distress.
The Viveros sisters were investigated last month by the Los Angeles Police Department after other patients complained that the fillers, typically injected in the face or the buttocks, made them ill. The sisters were taken into custody June 21 for practicing medicine without a license, police said. They were held on $20,000 bail before being released.
They were supposed to be arraigned on Monday, but they skipped their arraignment. Police realized that they are probably on the run, and since the two women have connections in Mexico, authorities suspect they have fled south.
Police say the Viveros sisters are not doctors. Neither is licensed to perform medical procedures in the United States.
They have been allegedly operating an illegal cosmetic surgery business and performing expensive procedures in their home rather than in a licensed operating room, cosmetic clinic or doctor`s office. Patients told police they developed infections and said the silicone used by the sisters turned to hard plastic once inside their body.
LA police are searching for these two women and believe they could be in Mexico. People with information on their whereabouts as well as victims are asked to come forward and contact the Los Angeles Police Department.
LA Times article
And if you thought this was a one-of-a-kind event...
San Diego transgender woman dies after illegal silicone injections.
A 45-year-old transgender woman who received illegal silicone injections at a party in a private home in San Diego has died after nearly a month on life support, the county medical examiner said on Monday.
Patricio Gonzalez, who police said received silicone injections to her hips, buttocks, cheeks and lips, died on Sunday. Gonzalez and at least nine other people were injected at a so-called "pumping party" on June 19, police said.
"Pumping parties," where people seeking a more feminine appearance have silicone injected into their bodies, have been on the upswing in the last few years, experts say. The silicone used at the parties is often industrial-grade material like floor sealant.
The Food and Drug Administration banned direct injections of silicone in 1992 and the substance has been known to migrate within the body and cause chronic, degenerative illnesses.
Gonzalez and another transgender woman received more silicone than the other party guests and suffered immediate respiratory problems, prompting the Los Angeles-area woman who was administering the silicone to flee, police said.
Police have issued an arrest warrant for Sammia "Angelica" Gonzalez, 39, who was injecting the party guests with silicone, is believed to have fled to Mexico.
Transgender women often have humiliating experiences with traditional surgery clinics, and surgeons often require a psychological exam before they will consider treatment.
Article
Bio-identical hormone therapies, cosmetic surgery, aerospace medicine and battling insurance policies with Dr. Kevin Light.
