A couple who made a living performing unlicensed liposuctions in the basement of a family home in Massachusetts may face charges of manslaughter or murder after a woman died during a procedure.
Luiz Carlos Ribeiro and Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, both 49-year-old Brazilian citizens, have been charged with practising medicine without a licence. They were being held on Tuesday in custody in Framingham, Massachusetts, after surrendering their passports, and are awaiting the results of an autopsy on Fabiola DePaula, a 24-year-old who was rushed to hospital on Sunday by the Ribeiros after she fell unconscious.
Prosecutors said the Ribeiros’ illegal operation, apparently run from a friend’s condominium, was common knowledge in Framingham’s 14 000-strong Brazilian community. ”There are probably a large number of individuals who learned of them by word of mouth who have sought and obtained treatment,” said the district attorney, Martha Coakley.
She said the Ribeiros had commuted between Brazil and Massachusetts, entering the country on 30-day work visas and charging between $1 800 and $3 000 in cash to perform stomach liposuctions, along with surgery to plump customers’ lips and sculpt their noses. The liposuction took place on a massage table covered with sheets, and patients were sedated using prescription drugs. A prosecutor, Lee Hettinger, told reporters that investigators had discovered a set of surgical tools in a rubbish skip and ”a tremendous amount of blood protein” on the floor of the basement room. ”There are much more substantial charges that can be lodged against these two individuals,” he said.
Denise Speziale, a Brazilian immigrant who owns a local day spa, told the Boston Globe the pressure to look good in the immigrant community was fuelling an underground market in illegal cosmetic procedures.”There are people who will take advantage of women who can’t travel to Brazil or who don’t have the resources, because aesthetics are so important in Brazil,” she said.
Ribeiro told investigators that he is a licensed doctor in Brazil; only last week, he appeared on a Massachusetts cable television show warning against unlicensed medical care. But his Brazilian licence does not entitle him to practise in the US.
One Framingham woman, Renata Lagares, said the Ribeiros had done work on her lips but she had needed to go to hospital for antibiotics after her mouth turned black. – Guardian Unlimited Â