The ugly road to beauty

Costly complications
American doctors also fill in when their Mexican counterparts leave town. Because of the brisk business, surgeons from interior Mexican cities such as Guadalajara, Mexico City and Monterrey have opened satellite offices along the border. Some open only for a few days of surgery a month, forcing patients to search for alternatives when they try to return for follow-up care.

"Who does (the doctor) expect will fix his complications when he's gone?" said Dr. Khalid Soleja, a plastic surgeon with more than 30 years of experience in Brownsville.

Soleja doesn't keep track of how many times people have called him to repair a botched procedure, but he said that, through the years, "I've seen tons of people come in."

He remembers the day when a woman in her 50s showed up after undergoing a facelift, breast reduction, tummy tuck and liposuction in Monterrey.

"This woman came in with an infection on her head that left two holes in her ears, a missing nipple and lost skin on her abdomen," he said.

Soleja said it was costly to make her whole again, and he wondered why the woman risked her life for cheaper plastic surgery across the border.

Such problems didn't befall Lisa. But she wound up in a San Antonio emergency room with a complication not long after her surgeries.

Lisa cooperated extensively with the Express-News for this article by allowing a reporter to observe her surgery and granting hours of interviews. Late in the reporting process, however, she withdrew her support for the article, asking that she not be identified. The Express-News has decided to shield her identity by omitting her last name but believes her story is worth telling.

Meeting 'Dr. Dave'
Lisa didn't know what to expect when she opted for surgery in Mexico. All she knew was that she wanted to look younger and more attractive, and didn't want to pay a fortune.

INTERACTIVE Fill 'er up Roundup of wrinkle plumpers

Standing naked one day in the middle of her kitchen with her arms extended, after pointing out the wrinkled flaws on her body, she asked in a joking, yet serious, way, "Would you (have sex with) me?"

"No," a reporter answered.

"Neither will anyone else," she said.

A former heart patient who is anemic, Lisa was turned down as a candidate for surgery by a San Antonio physician.

Another local doctor agreed to take her in, but he said he would charge $20,000 for a facelift, neck lift, eye surgery and breast augmentation — more than she could afford.

Lisa thought it through when she turned on the TV and saw a man talking about affordable plastic surgery in Mexico.

David Hernandez, co-owner of Centro de Ginecologia y Obstetricia, looked friendly and knowledgeable. He told viewers his clinic offers plastic surgery not just for the wealthy, but for anyone who wants to look better.

His patients call him "Dr. Dave," but he's not a doctor on either side of the border, although he said he briefly attended medical school in Monterrey. Working from a small office on West Avenue, Hernandez places ads, handles calls from prospective patients and schedules surgeries at his clinic. One ad, touting "affordable cosmetic surgery," appears Sundays in the Star magazine insert in the Express-News.

'I'm not scared at all'
Lisa paid attention to Hernandez as he described high-quality surgery at extremely low prices. He has been sending American patients to his clinic in Nuevo Laredo for about 25 years, he said on the TV program.

Soon after, she met with him and liked what she heard.

Yes, he could smooth the wrinkled skin on her arms, neck and chest. He could make those lines on her face disappear. He could help smooth out those saggy legs and make them look sexy again.

And, yes, he could do it all for a lot less than what it would cost in San Antonio. He would charge only $8,000 for the procedures, including a hospital stay in Nuevo Laredo. Plus, he would throw in a few extras: a tummy tuck, a leg lift, a bladder lift and another procedure that Lisa didn't want publicized.

The Express-News later learned Hernandez lowered her costs to $3,500 when Lisa agreed to share her experiences with the newspaper.

In San Antonio, all of these operations would have cost nearly $30,000, according to average costs compiled by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, and they would have taken months to perform.

Lisa weighed her options and decided to go with Hernandez.

"My friends tell me, 'Are you crazy?'" she said. "I told them, 'I'm not scared at all.' And I'm not."

Hernandez makes her feel at ease, she said, "and think of all the money I'm saving."

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