Deaths Related to Botched Booty Work Still on the Rise

I don’t have the words to express how sad this makes me:

The Miami Herald reports the official autopsy indicates [Betty] Pino died from complications sustained after an operation to remove silicone implants placed in her buttocks back in 2009. A month after the removal procedure, the radio host was diagnosed with sepsis, a potentially life-threatening internal response to infection which causes inflammation throughout the body.

She was hospitalized to treat the condition at least twice, and eventually lapsed into a coma where doctors used machines to maintain her organ function.

During the last days of her life, Betty Pino had to have her hands and feet amputated in an effort to prevent the spread of infection, but she ultimately lost the battle and her life.

The doctor responsible for the cosmetic procedure denies it had anything to do with Betty Pino’s death, but the autopsy report indicates Pino had been experiencing complications related to her butt implants since receiving the original “hard” implants 20 years ago.

She eventually switched to saline implants which also caused her trouble, and, in an effort to find a more suitable way to enhance her curves, Pino opted to have silicone injected into her buttocks.

“Over time the tissue in the buttocks hardened and deformed, causing pain,” stated the 17-page autopsy report obtained by el Nuevo Herald.

Betty Pino, who was then in pain due to her cosmetic procedures, sought to have the silicone removed and eventually underwent surgery for that purpose, performed by Dr. Constantino Mendieta, a buttocks reconstruction specialist who is certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.
After several hours Pino was sent home, and the autopsy report states she eventually began to suffer from surgical wounds, which became infected and would not heal.

“She was admitted to the hospital with sepsis due to infection of her surgical wounds, and after a period of hospitalization with multiple medical and surgical complications, she died,” states the autopsy. [source]

I want to highlight a handful of things, here:

1) She’d been dealing with complications from these implants for twenty years. When people get implants or injections, do they even think about what that’s going to look or feel like 20 years from now? Or are they simply saying “Oh wellsies, I had the money to get them now, I’ll have the money to fix them later?” (Take it from someone whose Mom just raked up a $700,000USD hospital bill – some stuff, you just may never have enough money to handle.)

2) Pino had to have her hands and feet amputated in order to prevent spread of the infection. Sound like someone else we know?

3) She went to a specialist who is certified by the board, and still suffered greatly, eventually leading to her death. She was hospitalized twice. Is the risk seriously worth it?

4) Here’s my last question – she was dealing with this for twenty years. The question needs to be asked – was it common knowledge that she’d had this done? How many other women are secretly getting booty injections, contributing to a false aesthetic and causing women to envy a “natural booty” that isn’t quite naturally homegrown at all?

At what point do we simply take the steps to opt out of a beauty aesthetic that requires us to put ourselves in this much danger? How many different ways should we be expected to alter ourselves in order to meet an unnatural standard? Who sets these standards, anyway?

I’m curious, though, I’m disheartened. What’s going to have to happen, is the number of success stories are going to have to be outnumbered by the number of reported deaths due to this. The body is resilient, but not this much.

What do you think?

For more on booty work:

• Woman Becomes Multiple Amputee After Botched Booty Injections
• AP Highlights Risks and Dangers of Booty Injections
• Another Woman Dies From Botched Booty Injections
• Shot Girls: Read An Excerpt From A Video Vixen’s Book About Booty Injections