There are special safety rules to follow when you undergo elective cosmetic surgery or other cosmetic procedures. One of the most important rules is: if you are undergoing injections, be sure what is in the syringe. 

The San Francisco Chronicle, October 19, 2012, reports that a 20-year-old dancer from London, Claudia Aderotimi, recently traveled to the Hampton Inn at the Philadelphia airport to get silicone injections for buttock augmentation. She and her friend had undergone this procedure, without problems, at the same hotel months earlier. Now, they were seeking a “touch-up.” They paid about $2,000 each on the first trip and $1,800 on the second trip for the injections.

Aderotimi had trouble breathing almost immediately after the second procedure, according to her friend, and died in the hospital hours later of a pulmonary embolism. The medical examiner testified that industrial grade silicone had traveled into Aderotimi’s blood, liver, lungs and brain.

The women had placed their lives in the hands of a 42-year-old Philadelphia woman, Padge Windslowe, aka Padge Gordon, who calls herself “the Black Madam.” Police investigated Aderotimi's death for 18 months, with help from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, before filing the murder charges.

According to the testimony of Aderotimi’s friend, Windslowe, who they thought was a nurse, arrived at the hotel room on Feb. 7, 2011, took needles from a bag and silicone from a jug to enlarge the women's buttocks, and then closed the wounds with cotton balls and glue. Windslowe left the hotel after Aderotimi became ill and told them to call an ambulance if she didn't get better.

Police think Windslowe performed at least 14 cosmetic surgeries in different locations, using different names. She was also charged with injuring an exotic dancer at a New Year's Eve 2011 "pumping party" in Philadelphia, when she allegedly injected a group of dancers on a dining room table. The injured woman spent two weeks in the hospital with silicone particles attached to her lungs that were too small to remove surgically.

Tragedies such as these can be averted by adhering to some simple rules when you undergo cosmetic surgery or procedures: 1) use a board-certified practitioner in an appropriate specialty, 2) make sure that anything injected into your body is the FDA-approved substance you are paying for and 3) make sure the facility that you’re treated in is licensed and equipped to handle medical emergencies.