She thought she was getting a bargain basement deal but one woman is now living to regret the liposuction from hell…

According to police records, a 49 year old man has been arrested for having performed liposuction on a woman without a medical license. The man, Carlos Guzmangarza apparently ran a bogus clinic, the Derma Clinic out of Missouri street, San Francisco where the hapless woman came across him. Having agreed on the rock bottom price of $3000 (which ought to have been the first warning bell), the woman is said to have been personally picked up by Mr Guzmangarza himself (another warning signal one supposes) on the day of the surgery. To the horror of the woman Mr Guzmangarza then set out to operate on her whilst smoking a cigar.

At the same time the woman was also asked to hold her own IV bag as Carlos Guzmangarza began cutting into her flesh. Cutting into her flesh with no medical training. Thinking that this was the worst of it Mr Guzmangarza then appeared at the woman’s house a few days later with 6 pounds of her fat claiming he had no where to dispose it before flushing it down the woman’s toilet.

It wasn’t until the woman’s abdomen later became infected that she realized that something was wrong, having by now sought treatment from a local hospital.

Since her misadventure the woman has had corrective surgery whilst the Mr Guzmangarza has been arrested and held on bail to the tune of $750 000 where he is being charged for practicing medicine without a license, assault with force most likely to cause great bodily harm, battery causing serious bodily harm, false impersonation, identity theft and grand theft.

Which ultimately raises the following questions? What inspired this woman to risk life and limb when it was becoming increasingly clear that something was not what it seemed with Mr Guzmangarza? What laws exist to protect individuals from the same mishaps in the future? Shouldn’t have the woman checked to see if said purported physician existed on a local register or do things like that not exist? Was the allure of a new look at a bargain price too much to resist for the woman to do some background checks, and furthermore what does this suggest about our society’s ongoing desire to accede to certain looks and branding even if it means imminent peril to oneself?

San Francisco Chronicle