Tue, Feb. 8, 2011

Woman dead after buttocks-enhancement procedure

STEPHANIE FARR
Philadelphia Daily News

A British woman who came to Philadelphia to enhance her buttocks met an untimely end when the illegal injections she received at an airport hotel room this week caused complications that led to her death Tuesday, according to police.

Now, local and federal authorities are looking for the two young women who administered the injections at a room in the Hampton Inn on Bartram Avenue. Authorities don't yet know who they are, let alone if they were licensed, said Southwest Detectives Lt. John Walker.

Felmont Eaves III, president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, said it's highly unlikely that they were.

"No physician that cared about being safe and providing care would do a procedure in a hotel room," he said. "That is just a huge red flag."

The victim, identified by a source as Claudia Adusei, traveled to America Saturday with three friends from England, all of whom are in their early 20s, Walker said.

Adusei and one of her friends received injections. The surviving woman, who has been medically cleared, received hip and buttocks injections, while the victim received only injections to her buttocks, according to police.

It's unclear when the injections were administered, but around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday medics responded to the hotel when the victim experienced chest pains and trouble breathing, Walker said.

She was taken to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital, in Darby, where she was pronounced dead. As of last night, the Delaware County Medical Examiner's Office had not released an official cause of death.

It also will be up to the Medical Examiner's Office to determine what Adusei was injected with, police said. That will most likely be determined by toxicology reports, which can take anywhere from six to eight weeks.

Buttock-enhancement procedures typically involve silicone injections, but Eaves, who is based in Charlotte, N.C, said that he's heard horror stories in which unlicensed people who administered buttocks-enhancement injections have used substances like caulk. He said that the most likely cause of death could be if the injected substance got in to the blood stream and traveled to the heart or lungs.

Walker said that it's unknown how big of an industry underground body enhancements is in Philadelphia.

"It's the first one we've had, we're looking into it with other agencies  . . . to determine how big this problem actually is," he said.

A message board on an online forum is full of people seeking to get enhancements in Philadelphia, or who claim to have already done so.

"I'm so happy I finally got mine done Friday in philly," wrote Beautiful 2010 in a forum on Sept. 29. "I'm so happy with my results going back for more soon can't wait."

While the British tourist's death here may be the first authorities can recall, deaths have occurred across the world from bad buttocks enhancements. The most notable was a former Miss Argentina, Solange Magnano, who died from complications of a procedure in Buenos Aires in 2009.

In January, a Bronx woman, who was not licensed, was charged with illegally injecting liquid silicone in women's breasts and buttocks in her home.

"It's just sad people get preyed upon," Eaves said. "Because done in the right way, the risk is incredibly small."

He said that there is no way of knowing just how many of these illegal and highly dangerous procedures go on in this country.

"Sadly enough, we only hear about this when a tragedy like this happens," he said.

LINK TO PHOTO AND UPDATED STORY:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1355080/British-woman-20-dies-flying-America-illegal-buttock-enhancement-surgery.htm