US woman's quest for 'perfection' takes her to Mexico, dies after liposuction

Irma Saenz's family seeking legal action against the doctor who operated on her

An American woman’s quest for "perfection” ended tragically when she died after undergoing a liposuction procedure in Mexico that sent her into a coma.

Irma Saenz, 51, died at a hospital in San Diego, California after she went to Tijuana, Mexico to get liposuction last month, Fox News reported.

Her family said they did not know Saenz was travelling to Mexico to get the operation and received a phone call from the clinic saying there were complications from the surgery.

“She suffered lack of oxygen which caused, what they say, severe anoxic brain injury,” said Nora Saenz, her niece.



Saenz allegedly took an Uber from Los Angeles to the Mexican border city to meet the doctor. The driver then told the doctors to contact her emergency contact, her boyfriend, when the surgery went wrong, the family said.

PHOTO COURTESY: Fox News

“[The San Diego doctors] mentioned the tube that they put the ventilation in wasn’t even installed properly, so we have no idea how long my aunt went without oxygen to the brain,” Nora Saenz said.

The family created a GoFundMe page last Thursday, saying Saenz’s organs were shutting down and was “fighting a losing battle.” She died due to lack of oxygen to her brain.

The family is warning other people looking to save money on plastic surgery to be careful.

“It’s not worth it. It wasn’t worth it for my sister,” said Carmen Quintana, Saenz’s sister. “You see a lot of people getting their bodies redone. Mommy makeovers, what have you…and people that don’t have the financial backing are looking for a way of getting it done at a cheaper cost and I think that’s what my aunt did.”

The family said they were looking to seek legal action against the doctor who operated on her, but added it was difficult because of the loose regulations