My hell is fighting fungal meningitis after $3,000 liposuction and BBL in Mexico
A mom-of-two has shared her three-month hell of battling a brain infection she contracted during low-cost cosmetic surgery in Mexico — in an outbreak that has claimed the lives of seven Americans.
Alondra Lamos, 27, was hospitalized in May with fungal meningitis — a rare infection that causes deadly swelling around the brain and spinal cord — after liposuction and a Brazilian butt lift (BBL).
Speaking to DailyMail.com from her hospital bed in Arizona, Mrs. Lamos said, “I was in pain from my head to my neck to my spine. I couldn’t walk, every step just hurt like hell. It was horrible.’
Doctors believe she contracted the infection from unsterilized equipment or contaminated anesthetics used during the procedures.
It is feared the outbreak, linked to two Mexican clinics, has infected hundreds and has already killed seven American women, mostly young mothers, highlighting the dangers of so-called “medical tourism.”
Alondra Lamos, 27, was diagnosed with fungal meningitis — a rare infection that causes swelling of areas around the brain and spinal cord — after she fell ill about three weeks after her plastic surgeries. She is pictured at St Joseph’s Hospital in Arizona
Ms. Lomas in April after her surgery in Mexico
Ms. Lomas booked an appointment last November with Clinica-K3, a cosmetic clinic in the northern border town of Matamoros that claimed to offer procedures “that enhance body contours and deliver natural and lasting results,” according to her Facebook page.
She was placed on a waiting list and underwent liposuction and a BBL for $3,000 on March 13 — a fraction of the more than $10,000 it would have cost in the U.S. — and flew back home to Phoenix, Arizona, the next day.
The procedure went well, or so Ms. Lamos thought, and she was happy with her results. But she told DailyMail.com, “On March 31, I felt for the first time this pain that I have never felt before in my life. I felt paralyzed.’
In late April, she felt lethargic and had other symptoms.
She said, “I was always tired. I got headaches more often; my back hurt more often.
“Then one day was just terrible for me. It knocked me down. I live in Arizona, so it was hot, and I was wearing a sweater, leggings, and socks with chills and a fever.”
“As soon as my husband got home, I thought, ‘I’m going to the hospital because something’s wrong.'”
Alondra Lomas in the hospital (left) and the staples in her head after surgery (right)
Ms. Lomas went to Clinica K-3 in Matamoros, Mexico
Ms Lamos with her son, 7, and daughter, 1, whose birthday party she sadly missed at the hospital. Instead, they celebrated at the hospital
She first went to the hospital on May 5, almost a month after her surgery, but doctors struggled to diagnose her.
Mrs Lomas said: ‘All they did was check my blood and tell me this has nothing to do with your operation. I don’t think you are well, go home.’
She was eventually diagnosed with fungal meningitis and was admitted to St Joseph’s Hospital in Arizona on May 7.
Meningitis is the inflammation of the meninges, or the membranes that enclose the brain and spinal cord.
The condition is usually caused when a viral or bacterial infection spreads from somewhere else in the body to the brain or spinal cord.
But in rarer cases, a fungus may be the culprit.
CDC health officials believe the fungus is Fusarium solani, which was linked to a previous outbreak of meningitis in Durango, Mexico, late last year.
Fusarium solani is a very common soil fungus and is fatal in more than half of the cases. Infection can be obtained by direct inoculation or inhalation of spores.
Dr. Chiller, chief of the fungal disease division at the CDC, told DailyMail.com that the agency does not yet know the exact source of the fungal meningitis, aand ‘unfortunately we will never know.’
It is currently believed that the source of the infection is the morphine provided to patients by anesthesiologists.
Dr. Chiller said, “MeIt could be contaminated morphine that anesthesiologists buy. They might buy it from a place with poor production and there are some contaminated batches. That’s one possibility.
“The other possibility is that the machines used to make the catheter and the epidural are somehow contaminated in these two clinics. That seems less likely to me because then I think we would see loads of infections until it was cleaned up, but you never know with mold.
“Finally, just the procedure of possibly mixing the drugs, in the hands of the anesthetist, there could be challenges there.”
Infection caused by Fusarium solani is quite rare. A study found 157 reports of fusarial infections between 1970 and 2001 in the US.
Ms Lamos said she can’t wait to get out of the hospital to spend time with her children
During her journey, she met Shyanne Medrano, whom she referred to as her “surgical sister.” The couple underwent the same surgeries, but Ms. Medrano died of fungal meningitis on May 16, 2023.
Ms Lamos said: ‘We had surgery the same day and we started texting and being friends and it just broke my heart [to find out she had died].’
Their surgeon was Dr. Luis Manuel Rivera De Anda, who also operated on Lauren Robinson, a Texan mother of four who died in May.
Ms Lamos is still on two antibiotics and had to get an ommaya reservoir in her head – a small port, about the size of a quarter, placed under the skin on the head to deliver medication to kill the underlying infection.
She said, ‘It’s on the right side behind my ear. It is a device with a catheter attached to it. They drilled a hole in my skull to put the catheter in, and this device sends the antibiotic directly to my brain and spine where the infection is.”
Mrs. Lamos with her son. She told DailyMail.com, “My son asks me all the time, ‘Are you leaving already? Are you coming home? You should have been home yesterday'”
Ms. Lomas has had to undergo multiple epidurals to control the pressure in her spine
But she got a headache again.
Mrs Lomas said: ‘That was because I had an infection in my head from the proteins growing. The proteins and the blood clogged the catheter.’
Last week she underwent a second surgery, a revision of her reservoir. Her first reservoir emptied, meaning the medication was not reaching her brain and spine.
She said, “When I went for my second overhaul they took the whole thing out, cleaned me up and put a new [in]. That operation was more difficult because it is [sore]I had just opened it and they reopened it again.
“But right now I feel good, and I hope I hope for the best.”
She added, “I still have a headache. The doctors told me that I would still feel this pain for a while, but it should subside.’
Ms Lomas has been in hospital for over two months now and will have surgery on her back this week.
Her doctors believe the infection may be a result of the epidural she received in Matamoros.
She said, “The doctors think something wasn’t sterilized equipment-wise, or it was the anesthesia.”
During her time in the hospital, she also suffered from infiltrated veins. This happens when the IV catheter goes through or comes out of your vein. The IV fluid then leaks into surrounding tissue, causing pain and swelling.
Mrs. Lomas has a seven-year-old son and a one-year-old daughter whose birthday she missed while in hospital.
She said, “I get the question from my son all the time, ‘Are you leaving yet? Are you coming home? You should have been home yesterday.'”
She told women considering surgery, “I can’t be a hypocrite because I’ve had surgery myself, but be very careful. I know there are a lot of risks involved and we never know what could happen to us. But if they can [go] straight to a board-certified surgeon.”