Dr Bum Bum was on the run for four days after a butt injection patient dies from surgery. Dr Denis Furtado was detained in Rio de Janeiro thanks to an anonymous tip.
Ms Calixto, a 46-year-old bank manager and mother-of-two, went to the doctors home in Rio de Janeiro where he performed the procedure. She began to feel ill during the procedure.
Dr Furtado took her to a hospital where her condition worsened and she died some hours later, police said. Local media reported that she arrived at the hospital suffering from an abnormally fast heart rate. The patient was said to have had four heart attacks before passing.
According to bbc.com, The procedure, was believed to involve the injection of acrylic glass filler, took place at his apartment in the upmarket district of Barra de Tijuca.
Police said Dr Furtado’s girlfriend has been arrested on suspicion of taking part in the procedure.
Furtado’s girlfriend and receptionist, Renata Fernandes, has been detained in police custody. Police are also looking for a nursing technician. Furtado’s mother was a doctor, but according to local media, her medical licence to practice in Rio had been suspended.
The Gaurdian stated that Furtado was licensed to practice in Brasília and the nearby state of Goiás, where he also performed treatments, but not in Rio, according to the state’s regional medical council. The Brazilian Plastic Surgery Society said he was not a trained plastic surgeon.
During a press conference on Wednesday in Brasília, Furtado’s lawyer Naiara Baldanza said her client was innocent and had not given himself up because he suffered from “panic syndrome”.
“For every truth there is a parallel truth,” she told reporters. “Many facts have surfaced and I am sure we will show the innocence of Dr Denis.”
A video posted on social media after his arrest on Thursday, Dr Furtado said Ms Calixto’s death had been a “fatal accident” and said he had performed 9000 such procedures.
The Brazilian Plastic Surgery Society (SBPC) was quick to denounce Furtado, saying “the growing invasion of non-specialists in the specialty has provoked more and more fatalities like this one.”
“You cannot perform plastic surgery inside an apartment. Many people are selling a dream, a fantasy to patients in an unethical way and people, weakened, are often attracted to low prices, without considering whether or not the conditions are adequate,” SBPC president Niveo Steffen told AFP.
Steffen said the injection of synthetic biopolymers or polymers, like acrylic glass, is very dangerous and has caused dozens of deaths among women in Latin America, especially in Venezuela.