A 41-year-old nursing assistant from New York has died during surgery in Colombia to remove toxic biopolymer fillers from her buttocks.
Paula Andrea Beltran Sandoval, originally from Medellín, travelled home to undergo the £8,300 procedure after suffering health complications linked to fillers she had previously received.
According to reports, surgeons had successfully removed part of the biopolymer when she suffered a cardiac arrest around 70 minutes into the operation. Despite more than 40 minutes of intensive resuscitation efforts, she could not be saved.
Authorities say she had no known pre-existing medical conditions that would have suggested she was at higher risk before surgery. An investigation is now underway, with forensic specialists carrying out a full post-mortem while health officials review the clinic’s records, licences and staff credentials.
Her death is the second linked to cosmetic procedures in Medellín in recent months, prompting increased inspections of aesthetic clinics. So far, 64 establishments have been shut down over regulatory breaches.
Biopolymer injections are banned in Colombia and the UK due to the serious health risks they pose, including tissue death, migration of the material and life-threatening infections.
