Are Silicone Injections Safe? Butt Injections Can Be Lethal

Nearly two weeks after a 31-year-old mother of two from Harlem, New York, underwent buttock enhancement procedure, she died allegedly due to the botched up surgery. Her death has yet again raised questions over the safety standards adopted during such procedures.

The attorney hired by the family of the woman, Latesha Bynum, was quoted as saying in several reports that the doctor who performed the surgery on Bynum was not a qualified one. Bynum underwent the surgery on July 15 and she died 12 days later, according to Fox News. She had visited the doctor apparently in a residential building in New York's Kips Bay neighborhood, sources told CBS New York.

"They had their licenses," Tymel, Bynum’s brother said after her death. "They're supposed to know what they (are) doing, such a tragic incident." He also mentioned her sister, an unsuspecting patient, had consulted the doctor for other procedures.

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Tymel said Bynum was hospitalized the same day after she underwent the buttock enhancement procedure. He said her sister couldn't breathe and "whatever was in her went to her head." She slipped into a coma, according to the family.

This is not an isolated incident of a cosmetic surgery gone wrong. In March 2012, a prison inmate in Florida died after undergoing a similar operative procedure. Shatarka Nuby, imprisoned over identity theft, died in Tallahassee's federal prison as a result of "chronic respiratory failure due to massive systemic silicone migration as a consequence of cosmetic silicone injections of buttocks and hips," according to a court affidavit.

Before her death, Nuby said, her rear end had hardened and turned black. She also claimed her surgeon was the same faux cosmetic doctor who was arrested earlier in the "toxic tush" case for allegedly performing cosmetic surgeries on multiple women, the Washington Post reported.

In January 2014, Vice released a video, "Buttloads of Pain: Ass Injections Gone Wrong," that highlighted the risks caused by wrong buttock injection surgeries that can result in even death. It also highlighted the growing obsession with a large buttock that has given way to a black market for butt augmentation. Harmful silicone and mineral oil injections, that are cheaper than the ones used by board certified plastic surgeons, have entered the market.

According to Dr. Constantino Mendieta, a Miami-based plastic surgeon, in most cases, chemicals used during these surgeries take a long time to show the effect. A New York-based dermatologist Amy Newberger also shared her experience of treating a number of older women, who 20 or 30 years ago, had got injected small amounts of silicone under the skin to remove facial wrinkles. While some didn't face any problems, there were others whose silicone hardened over time, according to NPR.

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Referring to a patient who had silicone injections when she was in her 40s, Newberger said the patient's skin had started thinning when reached her 60s but the silicone didn't. "So the patient was left with ridges where she had wrinkles," the dermatologist added. "The permanent raised ridges of silicone became discolored and now," she said, "the patient looks like a 'klingon.'"

Moreover, after silicone hardens, there are chances it could migrate to other parts of the body. Newberger said she had several patients who developed lumps and bumps on their cheeks and other places on their face after getting silicone injections.