Plastic Surgery Shortcuts Maim, Poison

Aug. 15 -- Ruptured implants from botched breast enhancements, infections from illegal Botox-like drugs, deadly shots of industrial-grade silicone. Welcome to the terrifying world of illegal plastic surgery.

"We're running into a rash of this," said Dr. Franklin DiSpaltro, president of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.

"It scares me."

A handful of recent horror stories illustrate what many health officials say is a growing problem.

From California to New York

A doctor who had his medical license revoked in Riverside, Calif., was sentenced to more than 14 years in prison last month for performing illegal liposuction and breast augmentations that several patients testified caused pain and infection.

A 50-year-old woman testified that the doctor, Abdolvahab Steven Pirnia, was supposed to perform a 3-hour breast augmentation procedure, but it became an excruciating 8 ½ hour ordeal, with the implants rupturing twice, spilling onto her clothing. Another of Pirnia's patients — a 17-year-old girl — suffered infections after he performed breast implant surgery.

In Florida, Donnie "Viva" Hendrix and Mark Hawkins are on trial for unlicensed practice of medicine, manslaughter and third-degree felony murder. Police say a Miami secretary, Vera Lawrence, died in March 2001 after Hendrix and Hawkins injected industrial-grade silicon into her hips and buttocks. Medical examiners say the silicone entered Lawrence's bloodstream, leading to her death.

Several witnesses have come forward in the trial to allege Hendrix and Hawkins held "pumping parties" in a friend's apartment, where they would charge several hundred dollars for each illegal injection of silicone.

The FDA banned silicone injections for cosmetic purposes in 1991, although several clinical trials are testing ways to use it safely. The effects do not fade with time, as with collagen injections, but it can produce bumps and unattractive swelling.

The defendants' lawyer has claimed the witnesses in the case were unreliable.