Md. Woman Dies After Getting Botched Butt-Enhancing Injection
SUITLAND, Md. (WJZ) -- A Maryland woman dies after getting a botched butt-enhancing injection. Now police are looking for the unlicensed woman who fled the scene.
Amy Yensi has the latest on the investigation.
The 34-year-old woman traveled to New York to get the silicone injections. She died Saturday.
Kelly Mayhew lost her life in the quest for perfection.
Mayhew traveled with her mother to a private home in Queens, New York. Police say in a basement there, an unlicensed woman injected Kelly in the buttocks with a substance -- likely silicon. Kelly had an allergic reaction.
While her mother called 911, the woman holding the needle fled. Kelly was rushed to a local hospital, but later died.
The operating room is the only place doctors say a person should go under the knife.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Craig Vander Kolk says getting work done by a doctor who isn't board certified can be a deadly mistake. He's treated several patients left disfigured from bargain butt injections.
"I think if you look at the location, who's doing it and what was being injected, those are all red flags," said Dr. Vander Kolk, Mercy Medical Center.
A WJZ investigation showed women flocking to "pumping parties" along the East Coast.
Kimberly Smedley is serving a three year jail sentence for giving out the injections in Baltimore. The use of silicone injections in large volumes is banned by the FDA.
"I would not get booty injections or surgery in someone's basement," one woman said.
"If you need a bigger bottom, do some squats," said another woman.
Black market injections cost a few hundred dollars, while traditional butt enlargement surgery can cost up to $8,000.
Some say women like Mayhew are willing to pay the ultimate price for beauty to keep up with curvacious celebrities.
"Celebrities are constantly showing thinner and better and Photoshop bodies, which is not really the real deal," one woman said.
According to media reports, Mayhew got these butt injections on several other occasions. No arrests have been made.
Mayhew was an employee at BET. The cause of death has not been released.
