The well-known Brazilian influencer, Lygia Fazio, died at 40 after undergoing cosmetic surgery; the news shocked her followers and generated great concern about the social pressure on public figures to maintain a “perfect appearance”.
Fazio, a model, and mother of two, was always concerned with enhancing her figure, motivated by an environment where going to the operating room was normal, as mentioned by some of her most loyal followers. She even confessed in an interview: “As a model, everyone wanted to have bigger buttocks than the other. I looked in the mirror, I had small buttocks, and I wanted to enhance them,” she said shortly before her death.
She suffered pressure from her partner.
Determined to please her partner, who insisted on the “improvement” of her figure, Fazio decided to undergo a buttock lift procedure at a clandestine clinic. “My boyfriend told me that ‘bigger is better,’ so I went to a clandestine place, had it done, and it grew,” she explained recently.
Her choice, a man who claimed to be a nurse, was in charge of injecting the filler material, a synthetic resin known as PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate), widely used as a substitute for glass. This second procedure, different from the buttock lift previously performed by a medical professional, resulted in fatal complications.
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Despite her attempt to reverse the damage with a third operation to remove the filler, infections had already spread throughout her body. The PMMA leaked into her bloodstream, causing a stroke and death.
Her brother claims she was a victim of pressure.
Lygia’s brother, George Oliveira, attributed his sister’s tragic loss to the constant pressure to achieve an unattainable ideal of beauty. “She got into a very toxic environment of striving for perfection. She tried to conform to that aesthetic standard because of her job,” George told a local media outlet.
Lygia Fazio’s case has spotlighted the risks of clandestine cosmetic surgeries and the use of potentially harmful materials. A friend of Lygia’s wrote on Instagram, “How long will these killer doctors keep using PMMA on people?”. Her case has caused outrage, and her loved ones are hoping for justice.