Dr Bumbum: Brazil plastic surgeon arrested in Rio after patient’s death

A celebrity Brazilian plastic surgeon known as Dr Bumbum has been arrested after four days on the run following the death of one of his patients.

Police say Dr Denis Furtado was detained in Rio de Janeiro thanks to an anonymous tip.

His patient Lilian Calixto died following injections he gave her to enlarge her buttocks.

Dr Furtado faces murder charges. His mother was also arrested and is accused of being an accomplice.

Investigators say Dr Furtado carried out the procedure on Ms Calixto, a 46-year-old mother-of-two, at his home in Rio de Janeiro but she fell 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.

Dr Furtado then disappeared. On Wednesday his lawyer said he was innocent and had not turned himself in to police because he was panicking.

In 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 9,000 such procedures and that they were legal in Brazil.

The 45-year-old has appeared on Brazilian television and has nearly 650,000 followers on his Instagram account.

Ms Calixto had travelled from her home in Cuiabá, central Brazil, to undergo buttock enhancement by Dr Furtado on Saturday evening, reports said.

The procedure, 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.

The Regional Medical Council of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Cremerj) said it had opened an investigation into Ms Calixto’s death.

Niveo Steffen, president of the Brazilian Plastic Surgery Society, said there was a “growing invasion of non-specialists” in the industry.

“You cannot perform plastic surgery inside an apartment,” he told AFP news agency.

“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.”

Dr Furtado has a large online following through various social media accounts.

Aside from his popular Instagram page, he is also very active on Facebook – filling his page with before-and-after shots of buttocks procedures – and on YouTube, where he presents advice on everything from endometriosis to low-carb diets.

In one social media post, he said he was given the name Dr Bumbum by his clients and had embraced it as a term of affection.

Source: BBC News