Unfortunately, it seems as if more and more people are succumbing to the promise of rock-bottom plastic surgery prices, but paying a huge fine in terms of their health. For example, a woman in San Francisco recently underwent liposuction surgery under the care of a man who claimed to be a physician's assistant and acquired an infection as a result. It wasn't until she went to the office of a real doctor suffering from abdominal pain that she realized that the man was a fraud.
There were several factors that probably should've tipped the woman off that Carlos Guzmangarza wasn't a real physician's assistant, even though he promised her that he could perform the liposuction surgery and also treat the woman's daughter for acne. For one, he smoked a cigar while performing the surgery and had the woman hold the IV bag. If that wasn't enough, he also returned to her house several days later with 6 pounds of fat that he sucked from her body, told her he needed a place to dispose of it, and then flushed it down her toilet.
Granted, the woman involved should've realized that any real doctor wouldn't be smoking or ask their patient to hold the IV bag during surgery, but that doesn't excuse Guzmangarza. He is currently being held on $750,000 bail for practicing medicine without a license, assault with force most likely to cause bodily harm, battery causing serious bodily harm, false impersonation, and identity theft and grand theft. He faces up to 12 years in prison. The woman involved has since had corrective surgery. Ultimately, this story highlights the importance of finding a reputable plastic surgeon and to always be wary of promises of cheap procedures.
