A couple in Framingham, Mass. were busted for running a basement cosmetic surgery clinic after liposuction surgery they performed killed one 24-year-old "patient" and hospitalized another. Luiz Carlos Ribiero, who claims to be an MD in Brazil, is charged with practicing medicine without a license. He and his wife, Miranda Ribeiro, who acted as a nurse, are also charged with illegal distribution of narcotics. For several years, the Ribeiros, who pleaded not guilty, have offered liposuction, lip augmentation, and nose jobs on the down-low. From the Boston Globe:
Illegal cosmetic surgery by unlicensed doctors appears to be a growing problem in the United States, and authorities have discovered similar underground clinics in California and Florida in recent years. They are especially prevalent in immigrant communities, where women may not have the money to pay for surgery from a licensed physician and where strong community networks easily circulate the names of illegal practitioners who speak the immigrants' language…
Renata Lagares, 28, said in an interview conducted in Portuguese that a friend told her about the illegal clinic. Luiz Carlos Ribeiro injected her lips, did a procedure on her nose, and performed liposuction on her midsection Saturday, which took two hours.
"My lips turned black, and they began to hurt, so I went to the MetroWest [Medical Center] Sunday night," she said. She said that doctors gave her antibiotics for an infection and that the Ribeiros charged her $1,400. "I never heard of anything bad happening to anyone in the whole time he's been doing this," she said.
Lagares said the basement was tidy and contained a small brown sofa and a washer and dryer. In the middle of the room was a massage-style table covered with white sheets. "A friend of mine, she had the liposuction done while I was there, and she bled a lot," Lagares said. "The sheets were covered in blood, but when it was over, he took the sheets and put them in the washer."
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