- Your butt looks great as it is. Don’t try this.
Welp, there’s one headline we never thought we’d write. But here we are.
The cops have arrested a Californian mother-daughter duo for their connection to the death of 26-year-old adult actress Karissa Rajpaul. Libby Adame, 51, and Alicia Galaz, 23, have been charged with murder through butt implants.
No, Adame and Galaz didn’t beat Rajpaul to death with silicone or anything. But they did horrendously botch her posterior augmentation operation.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the two posed as professional cosmetic surgeons. In reality, neither of them probably had any idea what they were doing.
“Suspects Adame and Galaz are a mother and daughter team that performed these inherently unsafe, FDA unapproved, cosmetic buttocks augmentations,” the LAPD said in a statement.
LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton blasted Adame and Galaz further.
“They pass themselves off like they have skill or expertise to do surgeries on the human body and that is not the case,” he told KTLA5.
“These individuals have no medical training. They’re not experienced and they’re putting people’s lives at risk,” he added for KABC.
Would you hire these two to operate on you? Photo of Alicia Galaz (left) and Libby Adame courtesy of LAPD.
Doctors of Death
The how of the fatal butt lift reads like a horror story. According to the LPDA, Adame and Galaz recruited their clients through Instagram.
That’s also how they found Rajpaul. The duo performed two illegal cosmetic surgeries on Rajpaul in 2019 at a home in Encino.
They say the third time’s the charm, but this time it turned fatal.
“This cosmetic procedure involved injecting an uncontained, liquid silicone substance directly into the buttocks to make the buttocks look fuller,” the LAPD said.
“The consequence of injecting uncontained silicone into the body is that it can enter the blood stream and create embolisms, which can result in serious illness or death.”
And that’s just what happened. Rajpaul started experiencing complications during the operation.
According to the LAPD, Adame and Galaz ran from the scene. They didn’t tell paramedics what they had done to Rajpaul, preventing them from applying proper procedures.
“As a result, the victim died in an emergency room with tending physicians unaware of the silicone injection,” said the LAPD.
A Serial Operation
Possibly the first part of it all is that Rajpaul isn’t the deadly duo’s first “patient.” According to LAPD’s Hamilton, Adame and Galaz may have illegally operated on dozens or even hundreds of victims.
Getting accurate numbers on the scale of their operation is difficult. Instagram doesn’t exactly keep tabs on everyone that hired them, and they took payments in cash only.
However, investigators have found out that they had been carrying out operations since 2012. They charged nearly $14,000 for three unlicensed, amateurish injection sessions.
Hamilton said that some of their other victims have probably died as well.
“They took people’s cash, and we know in a couple of incidents it resulted in murder,” he said.
“Some of these victims may have not survived these procedures and that’s what we are looking into now. We’re also seeking additional victims and relatives of victims who may have had loved ones disfigured or who passed away,” added Hamilton.
The LAPD is asking anyone with information on Adame and Galaz to get in touch. So, if you know someone they operated on, or are that someone yourself, give them a call.
‘Nightmare Come True’
The procedure that Adame and Galaz botched is called a Brazilian butt lift. And it’s a popular one to boot — butt lift operations in the U.S. have increased by 77% over the past few years.
Of course, in most cases professional cosmetic surgeons carry out the operation. Those professionals are horrified by the Adame-Galaz case.
“I was completely terrified. I mean, it’s a nightmare come true,” surgeon Dr. A.J. Khalil said.
“It’s unsafe, it’s illegal and these people are going to have to deal with the consequences. They killed a patient.”
The actual real-deal Brazilian butt lift operation doesn’t use silicone at all. Instead, it’s a fat transfer operation, where the surgeon removes fat from other parts of the body and injects it into the buttocks.
The procedure is pretty pricy, though, costing patients anything between $8,000 and $16,000. Khalil lamented that the combination of high cost and popularity has driven people to black market surgeons.
“It’s done by individuals who aren’t trained, who are injecting either silicone-grade stuff from Home Depot or Lowe’s, any kind of compound,” he said.
So, please, if you’re dreaming of a fuller posterior — make sure your surgeon is licensed.