It seems an unusual 'prize' for winning a beauty contest, but plastic surgery is exactly what Catherine Cando got. And it killed her.

During a botched liposuction procedure on January, the 19-year-old Ecuadorian beauty queen died.

Botched liposuction: Catherine Cando. Credit:Catherine Cando Facebook

The treatment was one of several prizes, along with a car and a smart tablet, she received for winning the local Queen of Duran contest last October.

Tragically, Cando, a medical student, was said to have felt the surgery was unnecessary, but was eventually pressured into it by the contest's judges and the plastic surgeon who would perform the operation.