Mother and daughter found guilty of fatal butt lift

A mother and daughter who ran an illegal cosmetic surgery business despite having no medical training have been found guilty in the death of a butt lift patient in California.

Karissa Rajpaul, 26, died after Libby Adame, 53, and her daughter, Alicia Galaz, 26, injected liquid silicone into her bottom at the patient’s friend’s home in Sherman Oaks in October 2019. She became ill almost immediately and lost consciousness. Despite being rushed to hospital, doctors were unable to save her life as the chemicals entered her bloodstream and caused an embolism that killed her.

The procedure, known as the Brazilian butt lift (BBL) after the nationality of the doctor who is said to have invented it, usually involves injecting fat into the buttocks to enlarge them for cosmetic reasons. But the treatment is risky and has the highest death rate of all cosmetic procedures, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. It is estimated that up to one in 3,000 patients have died as a result of undergoing BBL.

Silicone injections are not approved for use in cosmetic procedures in the US, with the FDA warning against them for years.

“Silicone injections can lead to long-term pain, infections and serious injuries such as scarring and permanent disfigurement, embolism [blockage of a blood vessel]stroke and death,” the agency said.

The pair initially faced charges of second-degree murder, but a jury found Adam and Galaz guilty of the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter on Monday. The option was available to the court if it found the women guilty of Rajpaul’s death, but they believed they showed no malice when they injected their victim.

Adame was also found guilty of three counts of performing a medical procedure without a license, while Galaz was found guilty of two counts of the same crime. Both women had pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors argued they should have known about the dangers of silicone injections because Galaz was working at a hair salon in 2018 when another patient died after a butt lift procedure performed by one of her colleagues.

Defense barrister Nareg Gourjian told jurors the pair bore no malice towards Rajpaul and were unaware of the dangers.

“Do you think killing people is a way to build a successful business?” said, according to The Ocean County Register. “They wanted to do a good job.”

The women called 911 but left the scene when paramedics arrived to try to save Rajpaul, who had been injected twice before without incident.

“The suspects fled the scene without identifying themselves or informing the paramedics about the cosmetic surgery.[…]As a result, the victim died in an emergency room with attending physicians unaware of the silicone injection,” the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said in a statement after the two were identified and charged in August 2021.

LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton added: “These individuals have no medical training. They are not experienced and are putting people’s lives at risk.”

They reportedly ran an unlicensed butt lift business for about a decade, injecting women for cash at low prices in patients’ homes around Los Angeles.

Gurjian, who represented Galaz during the trial, said Newsweek in an email: “We are certainly satisfied with the jury’s finding that neither Libby Adame nor Alicia Galaz was guilty of murder, and we believe that the verdict accurately reflects the evidence presented in this case. We have always maintained that this case is not it was murder and it was overcharged by the Prosecutor’s Office”.

Update 3/5/24 11:45 AM ET: This article was updated with a quote from defense attorney Nareg Gourjian.