Toxic Butt-Boosting Injections: Why Is It Still Happening?

Nov. 26, 2010— -- It's not the first time patients have allegedly been harmed by a risky, unapproved approach to a larger, curvier backside -- and it probably won't be the last.

So say cosmetic surgeons in response to the latest news of another untrained practitioner -- this time a 28-year-old model in New Brunswick, N.J. -- facing charges of practicing medicine without a license in offering butt-boosting injections, according to reports this week in the Star-Ledger.

Anivia Cruz-Dilworth allegedly injected six women in the buttocks with silicone bathtub caulk in March. The women reportedly showed up in hospital emergency rooms complaining of problems, several requiring surgery to treat serious bacterial infections.

"Her actions caused a lot of harm," Assistant Prosecutor Peter Sepulveda of the Essex County Prosecutor's Office told the Newark paper. "One woman had to undergo five separate hospitalizations and multiple surgeries as a result of the injuries sustained from the unlawfully performed buttocks injections."

Illegal butt-boosting procedures have sent other women in Florida to the hospital in recent years as well. Ana Josefa Sevilla, 54, was charged in September with practicing medicine without a license in connection with a woman she allegedly treated at a Miami spa.

Authorities in Tampa arrested Sharhonda Lindsay, 33, in January 2009 for allegedly injecting two acquaintances with a product believed to be a homemade combination of commercial silicone gel and saline.

Cosmetic surgeons said the occurrence of such procedures is evidence that much of the public remains uneducated about the difference between the risky, unapproved practice and legitimate cosmetic surgery. For some, they say, the promise of a quick fix can be all too tempting.