QUEENS — A Queens woman who admitted to giving illegal butt injections to two women, which hospitalized one of them several times, was sentenced to up to three years in prison on Tuesday, prosecutors said.
Liliana Coello, 41, pleaded guilty in May to inviting a 40-year-old woman to her Flushing home in November 2012 and then using a "long needle" to inject both the woman’s buttocks with a clear gel-like substance she called “expandable cells,” Queens District Attorney’s Office said.
The woman paid her $2,300 for the operation.
“The defendant exploited the vanity of her customers by pretending to be qualified to perform a procedure — silicone buttocks injections — that in fact is illegal for even licensed medical professionals in New York State to perform,” District Attorney Richard Brown said. “She committed a serious crime that could have had fatal consequences for the victims had they not sought legitimate medical assistance elsewhere.”
Her victim experienced redness, pain and swelling after the injections. She then returned to Coello’s home three times, complaining about pain and leakage.
Coello injected her with what she said was penicillin and on the last visit used Krazy Glue to try and patch up spots that were leaking.
The following day the woman went to New York Presbyterian Hospital where she was treated for a massive infection and chronic inflammation.
She stayed in the hospital for several days and then was readmitted two more times, when she stayed for about a week each visit.
A biopsy showed the substance she was injected with was consistent with silicone or paraffin and that she could have developed gangrene and possibly died.
Coella was re-arrested in May for giving similar injections to another woman in August, 2011.
Her lawyer, Andres Manuel Aranda, said Coella was “very, very sorry for what happened.”
She’s a mother, she’s a person. She said she made a mistake”
There have been a number of arrests in the city for people giving faulty injections.
Tamira Mobley was arrested in March and charged with fatally injecting 22-year-old Tamara Blaine in a Meatpacking District hotel.
Coello pleaded guilty to second-degree assault and unauthorized practice of a profession.
She was sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Kron.
