Diana Maria Alvarez, the 36-year-old wife of Dario Chavarro, spent many years contemplating whether she wanted to travel to her home country of Colombia for a cheap liposuction procedure. She wanted to have some of the fat from her stomach removed.
Her husband, Dario, didn’t want her to go. He didn’t that she needed plastic surgery in the slightest, but he knew that she was still keeping tabs on the social media profiles of a plastic surgeon in South America, Liz Vicent.
“[Diana] started with the idea to do a lipo, but just on her belly,” Dario recalled.
When Diana went to contact Liz Vicent though, the plastic surgeon also ended up recommending that Diana get work done on her breasts. “I was surprised about that,” Dario admitted, “because I told my wife, you don’t need that.”
He added, “My wife was already a gorgeous woman.”
But the price tag — $5,000 — for the full procedure ultimately swayed Diana’s decision. If she’d gotten the same work done in the United States, she would have paid closer to $16,000.
Diana decided to take the trip on her own. She would go to Colombia, have the procedure done, then recover with family in the area. Her son would stay at home with Dario.
From what Dario knew, his wife had been under anesthesia for about five hours and had the procedure done in a two-storey house.
The last time he heard from her was on the phone, her gasping, “I’m so afraid.”
Dario immediately rushed onto a plane to fly to the clinic in Medellin, Colombia. But by the time he got there, the medical staff told him his wife had suffered from a negative reaction during the procedure.
She had passed away.
Police later determined that Diana had passed away due to cardiac arrest.
Dario protested outside the doctor’s office, demanding for more answers. But his actions nearly resulted in his own life being taken.
His protest, however, raised the news and now more safety concerns regarding procedures and liposuctions have been spreading through the country. Diana is the 13th woman to pass away in Medellin from complications of plastic surgery in less than a year.
U.S. board-certified plastic surgeon, Dr. Lisa DiFrancesco, said Diana’s death isn’t, unfortunately, uncommon. "People going overseas to avoid high deductibles, high costs, out of pocket costs that we see here in the United States," DiFrancesco said.
Dario, in the wake of his wife’s death, is now hoping to spread the news of his loss. He doesn’t do so to garner sympathy, but to raise awareness of the risks of lower-cost surgeries.
He’s not holding out on any hope of his wife winning justice. Doctors have their patients sign waivers; there is nothing he can press and hold against the plastic surgeon at this point.
