Dallas woman goes to Mexico for cheap nose surgery, comes home in a coma

EL PASO, Texas — A Dallas woman went to Mexico for surgery on her nose late last month and returned home in a coma, with doctors telling her family to take her off life support or attach feeding and breathing tubes to keep her alive.

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Laura Avila was a singer, dancer and real estate agent, her family told WFAA-TV, until she went to Juarez, Mexico, on Oct. 30 with her fiancé for plastic surgery on her nose.

Her sister said Avila went to Mexico for the procedure because it was cheaper.

“The price of course compared to those in the U.S. was less than a third,” Angie Avila said, but the cheaper cost wasn’t worth her life or the suffering a mistake in administering anesthesia is causing her family.

Something went terribly wrong after Avila was given anesthesia, her fiancé, Enrique Cruz, told WFAA.

"I was kind of getting upset and worried because they would not let me see her or anything,” Cruz said.

Eight hours later he was still waiting. When a doctor finally arrived, he told Cruz Avila had suffered a cardiac arrest, the news station reported.

"They injected anesthesia in her spine at the clinic and instead of flowing down her body, it went into her brain, which caused severe swelling," Angie Avila said.

She was eventually taken to a hospital in Juarez, but it took four days for the facility to agree to transfer her back to the U.S.

When Avila arrived in El Paso, doctors told her family that she had suffered severe brain damage and would never be the same, according to WFAA.

The family was asked to either take her off life support or agree to feeding and breathing tubes.

"They told us she would never be able to walk or eat for herself again or speak,” Angie Avila said.

The family is praying for a miracle and have hired an attorney to try to hold the clinic in Juarez accountable.

Since returning to Texas, Angie Avila said her sister is no longer in a coma and suffered severe global brain damage. Angie Avila said in a Facebook post clarifying local reporting that her sister never actually had the surgery, because of the issues with the administration of anesthesia.

Cox Media Group