Laura Avila traveled to Mexico for a deal on a nose job and ended up in a coma and on life support.

Avila's plastic surgery in Ciudad Juarez was less than one-third of the price the Dallas real estate agent could find at home, her family said. On Oct. 30, Avila was given anesthesia at RinoCenter — and now she may never wake up, her fiance, Enrique Cruz, told WFAA-TV (Channel 8).

Cruz said that, at first, he was told the staff couldn't operate because Avila's blood pressure dropped. He said he wanted the clinic to move Avila to a hospital.

"That's when they told us, 'Oh, by the way, she had a cardiac arrest,' " he said.

But that isn't all that happened, Avila's friends and family say.

"They put anesthesia in her spine, instead of intravenously," friend Liz Hernandez said.

The drug caused brain swelling and the medical staff said Avila suffered cardiac arrest for several minutes, her family said.

"She had suffered such severe brain damage that she was hardly going to be the same person," her sister Angie Avila said. "They told us that she will not be able to walk or eat on her own, or even talk."

The clinic staff could not be reached for comment. KFOX said it was told that the doctor couldn't comment because she was performing another surgery.

Family members say the hospital told them to decide whether to take Laura Avila off life support or keep her alive with tubes to help her breathe and provide nutrition.

"She suffered severe brain damage; the degree of the injury is not known," said Hernandez, who insists her friend cannot be classified as brain-dead.

The hospital in Mexico wouldn't transfer Avila until her medical bills were paid. Eventually, the family moved her to an El Paso hospital by ambulance.

But her medical records, which are critical to her treatment, remain at the Mexican hospital. Family members said they have hired attorneys in Mexico to help them obtain those records.

Her family is trying to move Laura Avila back to Dallas, but that has proved difficult, they said, because several Dallas hospitals have rejected her because she doesn't have insurance.

Family and friends say they are encouraged by signs of life they've seen.

"She opens her eyes, she's fighting," Angie Avila said. "She moves her legs or raises her arms."

The family created a GoFundMe account. It has raised nearly $70,000 as of Tuesday, with a goal of $150,000.

CORRECTION, 4:45 p.m., Nov. 13, 2018: An earlier version of this story, citing other media reports, said the price of the procedure was $138, but that was only the down payment. The full cost was higher, according to Laura Avila's family.

Lourdes Vazquez contributed to this report for Al Dia