Fake Doctor Is Charged After ‘Butt Lift’ Surgery Leaves Woman Near Death

A Queens man posing as a doctor was charged with assault and practicing medicine without a license after a woman went into cardiac arrest during a botched cosmetic surgery at a makeshift home clinic, according to an internal police report.

The man, Felipe Hoyos Foronda, 38, tried to flee the United States after the woman became unresponsive, according to the report. Officers caught up with him at Kennedy Airport last Friday, just hours after the operation, as he waited to board the first leg of a flight to Colombia, the report said.

The woman, 31, was taken to a hospital by emergency medical workers, where she was intubated, according to a criminal complaint filed on Saturday by the Queens district attorney. She had “no brain activity,” the complaint said, “and she is not likely to survive.” (It was unclear who called 911 to report her condition.)

The woman, who has not been publicly identified, had come to the clinic to have her buttock implants removed, according to the internal police report. Prosecutors said Mr. Hoyos Foronda used a syringe to inject her with lidocaine, an anesthetic, and that her condition appeared to be consistent with lidocaine toxicity.

New York City has seen a surge of illegal clinics and “medical spas” offering discounted rates to people who want to change their appearance, in ways both large and small.

In January, an aesthetician in Manhattan was charged with injecting patients with counterfeit Botox that caused physical injuries, including botulism. And in recent years, at least two unlicensed practitioners of “butt lift” procedures were charged with manslaughter after their clients died.