By: Benyamin Davidsons

A fake doctor, whose ‘Butt Lift’ Surgery left his patient near death tried to flee the country, but was arrested. As reported by the NY Times, Felipe Hoyos Foronda, posed as a doctor and advertised cosmetic surgery services on social media. Per an internal police report, cops apprehended him, hours after the botched surgery, at Kennedy Airport last Friday, as he was catching the first leg of a flight to Colombia. Hoyos Foronda, 38, was charged with assault and practicing medicine without a license.

The 31-year-old woman on whom he operated in his makeshift home clinic went into cardiac arrest and became unresponsive during the surgery. After a friend called 911, emergency medical responders took the woman to Mount Sinai Queens hospital, where she was intubated, per the criminal complaint filed on Saturday by the Queens district attorney. She had “no brain activity,” the complaint said, “and she is not likely to survive.”

The woman, who has not been publicly named, had come to the clinic to have her buttock implants removed, the internal police report showed. Mr. Hoyos Foronda used a syringe to inject her with lidocaine, as an anesthetic, and her condition seemed like lidocaine toxicity, prosecutors say..

Mr. Hoyos Foronda seems to have had a busy unlicensed cosmetic surgery business, doing work out of his well-kempt brick house at 20-59 35th St. in Astoria, Queens, as well as in Long Island and Miami, as indicated by online records and advertisements. His social media account was active, and he posted numerous videos of the procedures on TikTok, where he also listed prices for procedures, and sometimes advertised sales or holiday specials.

Per the NY Times, this is hardly the first time tricksters posed as doctors in New York City. There has been a surge of illegal clinics and “medical spas” offering discounted rates for cosmetic surgery in the Big Apple. In recent years, there were at least two deaths, in which unlicensed practitioners of “butt lift” procedures were charged with manslaughter following botched procedures. In another case in January, an aesthetician in Manhattan was charged with injecting patients with counterfeit Botox, which caused physical injuries, including botulism.

Police only first heard about Hoyos Foronda’s clinic on Friday, when a friend of the patient had come to the home to pick her up after the surgery, the Times reported. The friend quickly realized that the woman’s procedure had gone wrong and called 911. Police investigators obtained a physical description and photograph of Hoyos Foronda from the landlord, found his license plate information and tracked his car to the Van Wyck Expressway en route to Kennedy Airport, the Times reported.

A search was put out for him at the airport, and Port Authority police found him, waiting to board a flight to Florida, from which he planned to connect to Colombia, per the police report.

Hoyos Foronda is in custody at Rikers Island, as of Thursday. Queens Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey remanded Hoyos-Foronda into custody without bail. The NYPD released a photo of the unlicensed surgeon, asking for any additional victims to come forward. The public can also help with anonymous tips on the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org.