A Houston mother is one of the latest to die after traveling to Mexico to get the controversial Brazilian Butt Lift (often known as a BBL) procedure.
Shyanne Medrano died after suffering from an infection following the procedure. Her mother, Nora Whitehead, is now speaking up, warning others not to get surgeries done outside of the United States.
“She was my baby…She was my baby,” Whitehead told KHOU.
Medrano, who was in an abusive relationship, according to her mother, said that her daughter had lost her self-esteem and thought the procedure would make her feel better about herself.
“She thought that she was overweight and she thought she wasn’t beautiful anymore,” Whitehead said.
So Medrano decided to travel to Mexico to have the procedure done.
“She went to Matamoros, Mexico. She went for surgery for liposuction and BBL,” her mother said.
Her mother said she paid $3,000 for the procedure at a place called Clinica K3. She did not inform her family she would be getting the surgery.
“For $3,000 my daughter paid with her life,” she said.
Following the procedure, Medrano suffered from fungal meningitis, a “life-threatening fungal infection that causes swelling of the areas around the brain and spinal cord,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which also stated that the infection is linked to other outbreaks at two clinics in the Mexican border city near Brownsville.
Earlier this year, the CDC put out a warning stating that anyone who received an epidural anesthesia at the facilities was at risk of the infection.
“When a fungus is causing that inflammation of the brain, we call it fungal meningitis,” Dr. Adarsh Bhimraj at Houston Methodist told KHOU. “[It is] extremely hard to treat.”
According to Whitehead, Medrano’s symptoms appeared right away and she deteriorated quickly.
“She went into cardiac arrest on Tuesday and she wound up on life support from there on out and never came back out from it,” she said.
Medrano died two months later.
“My daughter suffered.”
Medrano leaves behind a daughter, 8.
“She thought her mom was going to heaven and would come back,” said Whitehead.
She is now urging anyone considering getting a BBL across the border to think twice.
“Your life is really at risk. Please don’t do it. It’s not worth it.”
