Houston Woman Dies After Getting Cheap BBL in Mexico
Complications from a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) procedure led to the death of a Texas woman.
Texas public health officials are reaching out to people who have had the procedure at clinics in Matamoros
By Merdie Nzanga
Complications from a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) procedure led to the death of a Texas woman.
Shyanne Medrano, 31, crossed the border to a clinic in Matamoros, Mexico, a city a little over five hours by car from Houston, to have liposuction and a Brazilian butt lift surgery for a low cost of $3,000.
“She thought that she was overweight and she thought she wasn’t beautiful anymore,” Nora Whitehead, Shyanne’s mother, told KHOU. “She was my baby … she was my baby.”
Medrano’s death comes at a time when the Centers for Disease Control and Texas health officials have cautioned people to cancel plastic surgeries in Matamoros after at least 17 people who had the surgery came back to the U.S. with fungal meningitis.
“For $3,000 my daughter paid with her life,” Nora added.
According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, liposuction surgery in Mexico is around $3100, while the median cost of the surgery in the United States is $3,637, not including anesthesia and other related expenses.
The CDC suggests that people who have had plastic surgery, including liposuction in Matamoros this year, seek medical attention and be examined for potential fungal meningitis infection. The illness can be life-threatening, and detecting it early is necessary for treatment.
The CDC said symptoms include but are not limited to fever, headache, nausea, and vomiting.Eight cases have been declared in Texas, twelve people have died from the surgery in the U.S., and eleven of those deaths occurred in Texas.
A BBL is a procedure where surgeons put more fat from the stomach and back to the hips to give a patient the desired “hourglass” figure. It rose to prominence in the 2010s as many sought the body shape made famous by stars such as Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj.
The procedure is known to be risky, with some patients who receive it dying from a fat embolism, when fat used in the transfer gets into the blood stream and leads to a potentially deadly blood clot.
