In March, 2012, 37-year-old Karima Gordon died eight days after receiving Buttocks Injections. This week, Karima’s injector, 54-year-old Tracey Lynn Garner was sentenced to life in prison for a callous disregard for human life that causes death, i.e. depraved-heart murder. In February of this year, the woman who introduced Karima to Tracey for a $200 referral fee, 40-year-old Natasha Stewart, aka Pebbelz Da Model, was convicted of manslaughter and is currently serving a seven-year prison sentence.
Underground, Bargain Basement Butt Enhancement
Lured by the $1500 cosmetic procedure to enhance her buttocks, Karima Gordon drove from her home in Georgia to Tracy Garner’s home in Jackson, Mississippi. The $1500 price tag might sound like a good deal, but Karima had little chance of surviving. Ms. Gordon became ill within 30 minutes of the illegal procedure, performed by an interior designer. The silicone-like substance that was injected into her buttocks caused blood clots in her lungs that killed her.
Too Expensive at Half the Price
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident. The same year that Karima died, 20-year-old Claudia Aderotimi from London arranged online to receive injections to enlarge her buttocks at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport. Aderotimi died shortly after her life-changing procedure, complaining of chest pain and difficulty breathing.
Just two months after Karima’s death, a 35-year-old Kasia Rivera of East Orange, New Jersey, pleaded not guilty to giving a man a fatal dose of silicone during a penile enhancement procedure. 22-year-old Justin Street died the day after going to Ms. River’s apartment, when the silicone injections were delivered directly into his bloodstream causing his organs to shut down. Ms. Rivers advertised her skills on a flyer posted at local businesses. Like Karima Gordon’s killer, Kasia Rivera also had no medical license or training.
In 2011, a woman walked into Apryl Michelle Brown’s beauty salon in California and told her she could make her butt bigger with injections. The 46-year-old Brown had been teased as a child about having a “pancake butt,” and the offer was too good for her to resist. It was also too good to be true. It wasn’t long before the injection sites got hard and excruciatingly painful. Brown eventually began looking for doctors to remove the material, which she learned was an industrial silicone available at a home improvement store. After surgery in 2011, a staph infection left her near death. Both hands and feet were amputated. Compared to Karima and Claudia, Apryl was lucky, and she discusses her life after buttocks injection on her web site, including completing the Pasadena Triathlon on March 23, 2013.
So What Can You Do To Keep Safe?
Above are just a few of many tragic stories. If something sounds to good to be true, it’s more likely that it is false. Many things that we can imagine do not exist. There is no off-the-shelf, FDA approved filler available for body enhancement. Not one. So if someone is offering a “safe”, “permanent” filler to fix your “pancake butt” with a few simple injections, run away. IMHO buttock implants do not look good or work well. Even the best current treatment, fat grafting to the buttocks, only works if you have the extra fat on your body to transplant. Even then, most patients still wish they could go larger.
Avoid the Impossible
And for my male readers, there is no effective, safe and predictable way to enlarge the penis. Cutting the dorsal ligament was proposed a way to lengthen the penis. Cutting the ligament does cut the support for the penis, so you might hang a little lower, but it will not increase the size of your erection, and your erection will no longer point upwards. Injections will not work, and if you survive, your penis will likely be lumpy. This includes fat injections to the penis. The American Urological Association (AUA) and the Urology Care Foundation consider subcutaneous fat injection for increasing penile girth to be a procedure which has not been shown to be safe or efficacious – medical jargon for, “It doesn’t work!”
Seek a Qualified Medical Professional
Whenever you are seeking medical care, seek a qualified professional, preferably one Board Certified in the area of care you need. For Cosmetic Surgery or Plastic Surgery, no one is more Qualified than a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon who has experience with enhancing the part of your body you want enhanced. Finding the “best” method on the Internet, is not as good as finding the best doctor, and letting them explain your options.
There is rarely a perfect solution for any problem, and sometimes the best choice is to do nothing, but you owe it to yourself to ask the questions and get the best information possible. On the other hand, if you are having plastic surgery in a house, an apartment or a hotel room, rather than an accredited surgery center or hospital, you can bet you have wandered far from your best option.
Dr. Mele is Board Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery
If you are considering any cosmetic procedure, take the time to find a well trained and experienced surgeon in your area who shows his dedication to his or her field by achieving Board Certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. There is a lot of debate in Medicine right now about the worth of Renewing and Maintaining Board Certification. As it has becomes increasingly onerous, time consuming and expensive, there may be a revolt from within the medical ranks, but for now, it the simplest way for you to know if a doctor has the right training and has passed both written and oral examinations given by their peers.
About the Author
Dr. Joseph Mele is a Board Certified Plastic Surgeon who has been in solo private practice for over seventeen years. He has published in many of the most prestigious Plastic Surgery Journals and he has and does continue his interest in furthering Plastic Surgery as a primary investigator for several of the latest plastic surgery devices, including the latest generation of Breast Implants. Dr. Mele appears regularly on KRON 4’s Body Beautiful. His next appearance is Wednesday, September 10th at 11AM, live on the Bay Area’s News Station, Channel 4.
Call (925) 943-6353 to schedule an in-person consultation with Dr. Mele.
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