It was supposed to be a fix for a painful issue, instead, it ended in heartbreak.
A young mom of two, María Paz Peñaloza Cabrera, tragically died after a botched plastic surgery left her brain dead for two weeks. The 31-year-old had gone in for a butt implant procedure and was hoping to relieve discomfort. But the decision cost her life.
María, who leaves behind two sons aged just three and one, went into cardiac arrest on March 28 after receiving the implants at the home of an unlicensed doctor. According to medical reports, she suffered from lidocaine toxicity, a dangerous reaction to the local anesthetic often used in cosmetic procedures.
In severe cases, it can trigger seizures, irregular heartbeats, and cardiac arrest.
“We never imagined this would happen,” her sister, Linney Peñaloza Cabrera, 34, told the Daily News in Spanish. “A friend who went with María called and said she was taken away in an ambulance, but she didn’t know how bad it was.”
Doctors tried to revive María for over two hours, but she never regained consciousness.
The procedure took place in a makeshift office inside the Queens home of Felipe Hoyos-Foronda, a man who claimed to be a licensed doctor from Colombia. But when emergency responders from FDNY arrived at the scene, they immediately alerted police.
Hoyos-Foronda reportedly attempted to flee. He was driving toward JFK Airport, but officers captured his license plate. Port Authority police arrested him after he made it through airport security.
He has since been charged with assault and unauthorized practice of a profession. He is currently being held at Rikers Island without bail. Prosecutors are expected to revisit and possibly upgrade his charges following María’s death.
Originally from Villavicencio, Colombia, María moved to the U.S. in 2022. Her death has left her family, both in the U.S. and Colombia, devastated.
“Maria was a very happy person, very family oriented,” her sister shared. “She always wanted to be around us at her home. We’d always spend the holidays at her place.”
Her relatives recalled how she used to host Christmas celebrations at her home in Flushing, Queens.
“It’s never easy to say goodbye,” her brother-in-law wrote on Facebook. “Your absence hurts, but your memory is light. We keep every shared laugh, every gesture of love, every conversation that we now treasure.”
A GoFundMe has been set up to help support her grieving family and children. So far, it has raised $5,500 of its $20,000 goal.
