An American woman who went to Mexico for discount skin-tightening surgery has described her horror when she woke up to find doctors had done breast work and a Brazilian butt lift.
Kimberly McCormick, 65, returned to the Bariatric Center of Mexico six years after undergoing successful weight loss surgery at the clinic.
But this time, she woke up from surgery with a breast augmentation and butt lift that she hadn’t asked for.
“I called my daughter screaming because I woke up with a huge breast, which if I lived to be 500, I would never want,” McCormick said during an interview with host Natasha Zouves on NewsNation.
Kimberly McCormick (left) and her daughter Misty Ann (right) recount being assaulted and blackmailed by hospital staff after the botched surgery
McCormick, 65, woke up in Mexico after undergoing skin-tightening surgery after losing weight, only to find she’d been given breast and BBL work
McCormick had returned to the Tijuana hospital to undergo several procedures to remove 90 inches of excess skin after losing 150 pounds.
The surgery cost just $13,000 in Mexico, while it would cost more than $50,000 in the US
US doctors now say it will cost McCormick figure in the park $75,000 to repair the damage done to Mexico.
He recounted waking up in the hospital and realizing something was wrong as one of the a lungs partially collapsed while down.
“The leg lift, the arm lift, the breast lift and the tummy tuck were all marked up and ready to go,” she said, referring to the marks her surgeon had made on the body parts that were supposed to be altered.
“I went to the surgery at four in the afternoon. And apparently I didn’t get out of the surgery until 1.30 in the morning.’
Her daughter, Misty Ann McCormick, said doctors initially prevented her from visiting her mother after the botched operation.
She said doctors did not come to see her mother for several days after the operation.
When Misty Ann successfully reached her mother’s room, she found her in a horrible state.
“Her lips were blue” and her “nose was gray,” he said. Her oxygen tank was not connected.
McCormick said that when she saw a nurse after her surgery, she said, “Oh chica, you’re so hot.”
In a statement to Dailymail.com, the Bariatric Center of Mexico denied the allegations made against it and said they had “verified” the receipt of “Ms. McCormick’s express written consent for all procedures performed on her.”
“We have also verified that Ms McCormick’s daughter has been asked to leave the hospital. But this request was not made by the armed security.
“Additionally, this request was necessary after Ms. McCormick’s daughter entered the hospital with a dog and insisted that she be allowed to bring it into her post-operative mother’s room. For obvious reasons, the hospital does not allow animals in areas that accommodate post-operative patients.”
The Bariatric Center of Mexico, where McCormick had her surgery, is one of the top medical tourism bariatric surgery hospitals
“Well, I’m 65 years old, I’m not a chica, and sexy wasn’t my goal,” the patient recalls thinking.
“I was sad, just sad.”
When Misty Ann confronted the hospital about what had happened to her mother, she says she was physically removed from the facility by large, armed men.
“Actually, they beat me, hit me with machine guns, kicked me in the ribs, kicked me between my legs, (and) threw me out of the hospital physically,” he said.
Once outside, she said there were “probably 15 police officers who rushed the giant” who threw her out. “Everybody spoke Spanish,” he said.
“One stood there with the gun (pointed) at me. They allowed me to get into an Uber, but the police didn’t help me.’
She added that hospital staff further extorted her and her mother by forcing them to pay an additional $2,500 more than the pre-paid price for the procedures, claiming that Kimberly had a longer recovery period than expected.
The duo were threatened with arrest and jail if they didn’t come up with the cash and Kimberly was forced to sign a form saying she wanted the unauthorized surgeries she had done.
Misty Ann added that once she and her mother returned to the US border, US authorities were no longer helpful.
“When we returned to America, we found no help. We were laughed at by the San Diego police, who told me to call the Tijuana police — the same police that just machine-gunned me in the cheek,” he said.
McCormick, now back in the US, is facing a $75,000 hospital bill to repair her ‘disfigured’ body
Misty Ann said US police have been unhelpful as mother and daughter try to figure out next steps
When the couple returned to San Diego, Kimberly went to the ER to receive treatment for a severe infection she had developed after being kept in an unsanitary room at the Mexican hospital.
McCormick’s tragic story in an example of Mexico’s medical tourism industry gone awry.
Mexico Bariatric Center is one of the world’s largest bariatric surgery medical tourism providers – all inclusive packages are available for international patients traveling to undergo cosmetic surgery at a lower rate than their home country.
The medical tourism industry, which exists throughout Europe and Asia as well as North America, is estimated to be worth $70 billion.
