Doctor speaks of dangers with unlicensed lip injections

More alleged victims are coming forward after receiving lip injections from a Maricopa woman.

Many of the women were left with severely disfigured lips. and on Tuesday night, FOX 10 spoke with a Valley plastic surgeon on how he's helped to treat these types of cases.

After more than a dozen alleged victims came forward telling FOX 10 that they ended up with swollen lips and lumps after going to a home in Maricopa to get lip injections, FOX 10 reached out to Pablo Prichard, who said this is something he sees all too often, with many girls either going across the border or to unlicensed people located in the Valley to get their lips done. These procedures are cheap, but not safe.

"It's the shortcuts that can harm you," said Prichard, who has been in the field for 15 years and has made corrections on people who have come in with botched procedures. 

"With lips, I have seen areas where whole sections of the lip die and fall off," said Prichard. "I've seen it where it's incredibly lumpy with internal scarring, look irregular, and facial animation where they are smiling or frowning."

Prichard says this case out of Maricopa is disturbing. 

"Clearly, this wasn't a knockoff," said Prichard. "It was multiple people in a row that were harmed."

Prichard says it's the unknown you should fear, especially in this case, where the alleged victims had no idea what was being injected into their bodies on August 3. Sources say, it was Probcel, Which is illegal in the United States. 

"I've had people injecting people from Home Depot," said Prichard. "You know, silicone, caulking, what have you. Inorganic products. I have had people inject things that are way expired from a long time ago.:

The alleged victims told FOX 10 that the woman in question was charging $80 per milliliter, but Prichard says that itself is telling that it's not safe.

"Just the product cost can be $400 to $500," said Prichard. "Clearly, they are injecting something that isn't FDA-approved. Probably not made in America."

Going to an unlicensed person has other risks, like dirty needles and techniques.

"You can be getting blood contaminant diseases like HIV, Hepatitis B and C," said Prichard.

Maricopa police say the attorney representing the woman has reached out and told them that his client is out of the country, and if and when she decides to come back, she will possibly give them a statement. As of Tuesday, there are more than a dozen alleged victims.