‘I contracted a deadly infection from my Mexican BBL’

An Arizona woman who contracted fungal meningitis after traveling to Mexico for two cosmetic surgery procedures is now fighting for her life. Twenty-seven-year-old Alondra Lomas paid $3,000 to have a Brazillian butt lift and liposuction after two C-section births left her with saggy skin.

Lomas traveled from Phoenix to Mexico, where she could attend a private clinic for a fraction of the price she would have paid in America, where treatments average at $10,000. The mother flew home soon after the procedure and then experienced an onslaught of symptoms, which were hinting at a life-altering infection.

Although Lomas was under the impression the operation had been successful, debilitating pain ensued within days of her arrival to Phoenix, followed by a tsunami of symptoms.

Lomas suffered constant headaches, back pain, constant lethargy, and feeling unbearably cold, despite being in a hot environment. She told the Daily Mail: “I felt for the first time this pain that I have never felt before in my life. I felt paralyzed.”

The pain persisted for an entire month before Lomas was readmitted to the hospital she is currently being treated for the life-threatening fungal infection known as meningitis. The case highlights the risks associated with medical tourism after six patients who traveled to the surgery clinics in Mexico have been reported dead.

The condition, which causes swelling of the areas around the brain and spinal cord, is typically contracted during medical procedures where surgeons fail to abide by infection control practices.

Lomas is one of several patients who fell victim to an outbreak in cosmetic surgery clinics in Matamoros, Mexico. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently tracking down approximately 200 people who had surgery in the region and could be at risk.

The health body is calling to anyone who had a procedure under epidural anesthesia at a clinic in Matamoros between January 1 and May 13 to get tested for meningitis immediately.

Ten different clinics are being investigated in the region at present, including the Clinica K-3, where Lomas and other infected patients had their surgery.

Many of the surgeries in the district promote their services using the selling point that they are 80 percent cheaper than equivalent procedures in the US.

This incites masses of Americans to travel to Mexico every year to have their procedures done at heavily discounted rates.