[size=20pt]Nigerian woman dies after buttock enlargement[/size]

US police investigating death of 20-year who had silicone injection to enlarge her buttocks

SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA - Police say they've questioned one of two people in the case of a Nigerian-British woman who died after receiving cosmetic injections in her buttocks at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport.
 Investigators said officers issued a search warrant Tuesday night at the Bergen County, N.J., home of a woman they think set up the appointment online. The woman has been questioned but is not under arrest.

Philadelphia police Lt. Ray Evers said police believe she acted as a coordinator of buttocks and hip enlargements for the victim and another woman, communicating with them overseas by e-mail, text messages and phone calls to set up the visit - their second in recent months.
"Our information tells us these girls were here in November and did receive treatment from the same individuals," Evers said. The second woman who was being sought for questioning "was the actual person who performed the enhancements," he said.

Authorities are still pursuing a second woman they believe performed the procedure. Police sources say that person is a transgendered woman who lives in the Philadelphia area.
Action News was there at the Hampton Inn on Bartram Avenue in Southwest Philadelphia, where police believe the incident occurred, on Wednesday as two police detectives arrived. They went inside around 11:00 a.m. and left shortly before noon. It is not known what they did during that hour.

The woman who died has been identified as 20-year-old Claudia Aderotimi who lived in London but was not a British citizen.
She was originally identified as Claudia Adusei. There was no immediate word on why police initially misidentified her.

According to officials, Aderotimi and three other women flew from Great Britain to Philadelphia and checked into the Hampton Inn on Saturday.
Police say two of the women came specifically for enhancement procedures while the other two went shopping in New York.

At noon on Monday, police say two women performed the enhancement procedure on the two British tourists. One received hip and buttocks injections and Aderotimi received injections just to the buttocks.


At around 1:30 Tuesday morning, medics were called to the hotel. Aderotimi was rushed to Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Evers said investigators were not sure why the women came to Philadelphia to undergo the procedures and added it was the first such case city police have come across. "This is something that's completely unregulated," Evers said. "If nothing goes wrong, if no one dies, we're not going to find out about it."


Miss Aderotimi was born in London of Nigerian parents. Yesterday detectives raided the home of the woman they believed set up the illegal operation.
Computer files, emails and telephone records were seized from the house in Bergen County, New Jersey.  Emails from Miss Aderotimi arranging the procedure were among the material seized, but police said no formal arrests had yet been made.

Dr Rajiv Grover, president-elect of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said: ‘Buttock augmentation isn’t a very commonly done procedure here, which is probably why these girls have resorted to going abroad.
'If correctly done, it involves implanting solid silicone implants into the buttock just like bosom implants.
‘The correct procedure would be done in a fully equipped, sterile surgical theatre in a hospital and the patient would be fully anaesthetised.’

In her last message on Twitter the day she had the jab Claudia tweeted: “I’m goooonneeeeee so faR away.” Popular Claudia, believed to be of Nigerian descent, had performed with hip-hop stars Akon and Sisqo.
She used the stage-name Claudiyah “Superstar” James, and said on a website: “I’m really interested in becoming a full-time actress and model. I also dance and write music.

“I truly believe I can take the world by storm – I just need an agent.” She also boasted that rap star 50 Cent had called her an “African princess”.
Claudia’s devastated family were still coming to terms with the tragedy at their home in Hackney, East London, as they arranged for her body to be flown home.

Her tearful sister Vivian said: “We’re still in shock. We need to think about what we have to do.” A relative added: “Her mother is inconsolable. She has had to be sedated. We are still trying to find out what exactly happened.”
A 17-year-old neighbour who did not want to be named said: “Claudia was a really pretty girl. I don’t know why she felt she had to have the treatment. It seems such a waste.” Friends posted dozens of messages on networking sites.
One read: “RIP Claudiyah,  i will never forget u,  gone too soon love u always – rest in perfect peace.”

Last night more than a dozen distraught friends and family gathered at Miss Aderotimi’s home in Hackney, East London.

Miss Aderotimi’s mother, a healthcare assistant at Homerton Hospital in East London, said she was too upset to speak about her daughter’s death.
A neighbour said: ‘We are struggling to cope with what happened. One girl died and one girl lived.’

A preliminary examination found the silicone filler had leaked into her bloodstream, leading to heart failure.
American detectives are investigating whether she was treated with cheap ‘industrial’ silicone, normally used as a sealant, rather than medical-grade material used in bosom implant surgery.

It was not the first time Miss Aderotimi had had the procedure.  She is believed to have been treated in November and the latest injection on Monday may have been a ‘top-up’ procedure.

Accompanied by three friends, she travelled from London to Philadelphia for the treatment, thought to have been an early present to herself for her 21st birthday, which was due later this month.
But a day later she was dead.

Buttock enhancement surgery is becoming popular in the U.S., among women who aspire to the shapely curves of Jennifer Lopez and Beyonce.

It is only legal when the silicone gel is contained and sealed within an implant. But illegal injections of the material are also widely available from unlicensed back-room medics.

The tourists who came with Aderotimi have been asked to stay until at least Saturday, when they have pre-purchased tickets to return to Europe. Aderotimi's friend who received the enhancement on the hip and buttocks has been medically cleared.
Commonly in these cases, silicone or silicone oil is injected, neither of which is FDA approved to inject in the skin, but police are awaiting toxicology reports on the exact makeup of the substance. Those toxicology reports may take a few weeks.

Specifically, these underground, and very illegal clinics will use a type called hydro-gel, which gets rave reviews from people on the internet who claim to have undergone buttock-enhancing procedures.
Doctors have told Action News injecting any sort of thing directly into one's body poses great risk, especially if the substance makes contact with a blood vessel.

The Food and Drug Administration is advising Philadelphia Police, so that detectives are at speed with exactly what the law allows, and does not allow, in relation to this case.
Neither the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the U.S. Food and Drug Administration keep data on injuries or deaths caused by illicit cosmetic injections. Besides liquid silicone, injections of substances including paraffin, petroleum jelly and hydrogel have been illegally used to enlarge women's bosoms, hips and buttocks.

Cases in recent years of illegal cosmetic injections causing death, disfigurement and health problems have been reported from New York City to Los Angeles and beyond. Solange Magnano, a 38-year-old model and former Miss Argentina, died in Buenos Aires in 2009 from complications after having cosmetic injections on her buttocks.