•Late Paloma
A 14-year-old girl in Mexico, Paloma Nicole Arellano Escobedo, passed away days after undergoing a breast enlargement and butt lift without her father’s knowledge, with her mother’s plastic surgeon boyfriend now under investigation for possible negligent homicide.
She died on Saturday in a hospital in Durango, Mexico, after being in a coma with a swollen brain and heart problems following the surgery a week earlier, according to El Siglo de Durango, reports New York Post.
Her father, Carlos Arellano, while saying his final goodbyes, said he was told she died from complications from Covid-19, but later discovered she had undergone surgery.
“At the funeral, some relatives told me her breasts were larger than what she had before, and when I mentioned it to her mother, she told me it wasn’t true, that she didn’t know anything,” he told prosecutors, according to AZ Central.
He said he asked his ex-wife’s family to leave the room so he could examine his daughter’s body with the help of his mother, sister, and sister-in-law.
“Sure enough: she had breast implants. We have photographs of the implants and the scars. We immediately requested an autopsy,” he said in the complaint.
Arellano said his ex-wife had approved the surgery, which was performed by her partner, a 45-year-old plastic surgeon identified as Víctor “N,” who owned the clinic. He accused them of a “cover-up” and blamed them for his daughter’s death.
Mexico does not have specific age limits for plastic surgery, but the procedures are normally carried out on those under 18 only with both parents’ consent.
“We are investigating a probable lack of care on the part of the mother” for “placing a minor who was under her care and custody in risky situations,” Durango Attorney General Yadira de la Garza Fragoso said, according to AZ Central.
The surgeon’s licence has been suspended, and he is under investigation for malpractice. Prosecutors said more serious charges may follow depending on the final autopsy report, which could take at least 10 days.
“There could be a crime of negligent homicide, and probably medical-professional liability,” the attorney general said.
