Woman Sentenced to Federal Prison for Botched Cosmetic Procedure

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A Monterey Park woman was sentenced to two years in federal prison for injecting “lamb’s fat” into a woman to enhance her buttocks, causing major injury and requiring reconstructive surgery, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported March 6.

Ana Bertha Diaz, 47, was sentenced on March 5 by U.S. District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez to 24 months in prison, a $95,000 fine and $30,000 in restitution to the victim.

Diaz, who was not licensed to perform medical procedures, pleaded guilty in July to receiving and delivering an adulterated and misbranded medical device.

According to a plea agreement, a woman identified as “I.T.” complained to the California Medical Board after a product Diaz injected into her buttocks for enhancement treatments had migrated into her back, hips and legs.

Diaz had told her the injections, which cost thousands of dollars, was a natural product, or “lamb’s fat.” She said the product was safe, and would never move.

During Monday’s hearing, prosecutors said, the victim recalled suffering severe pain from injections that caused her to be hospitalized in her native Columbia for three weeks, where doctors performed major surgery to remove the substance, and and skin grafts to repair the damage.

Prosecutors said Diaz never told the woman the injected liquid was not approved for cosmetic procedures, and had been smuggled into the U.S. from Mexico.

She had also collected $40,000 for performing the bogus medical injections on at least 10 other customers, they added.

Her guilty plea follows a Business Journal report last month of an increasing number of corrective surgeries performed by Beverly Hills plastic surgeons to repair the damage caused by botched cosmetic surgery procedures.

Health business reporter Dana Bartholomew can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @_DanaBart.

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