Jul 31, 8:14 PM EDT


Couple Charged in Home Liposuction Death

By KEN MAGUIRE
Associated Press Writer

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. (AP) -- A couple who authorities say performed liposuction in the basement of a home were charged Monday with practicing medicine without a license after a female patient died.

Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, 49, a native of Brazil, and Ana Maria Miranda Ribeiro, also 49, pleaded not guilty to the unauthorized practice of medicine and drug charges at their arraignment.

Luiz Ribeiro was ordered held on $250,000 bail while his wife was held on $50,000 bail. Both were ordered to surrender their passports. Neither had yet obtained an attorney, according to the district attorney's office.

Just last week, the husband taped an interview for a local cable-access television show to warn against seeking medical care from unlicensed professionals, said Ilma Paixao, who conducted the interview.


"That would be the last person that I would think would do something like that," said Paixao, former president of the Brazilian American Association in Framingham, which has a significant Brazilian population.

The couple are accused of performing an illegal liposuction on Fabiola DePaula, 24, of Framingham, who died Sunday after being taken unconscious to a local hospital.

Autopsy results will not be known for several days, and charges could be upgraded, District Attorney Martha Coakley said.

Luiz Ribeiro might be a licensed doctor in Brazil, but he has no license to practice in Massachusetts, she said.

The Ribeiros have apparently traveled regularly between Brazil and Massachusetts for two or three years, Coakley said. The defendants charged from $1,800 to $3,000 per procedure and relied on word-of-mouth referrals for business, she said.

The surgeries were performed on a massage table in the basement of a local condominium, prosecutor Lee Hettinger said.

"There was a tremendous amount of blood protein on the floor in the basement in that location," he said.

Two other women have come forward to say they underwent medical procedures there, Coakley said. One is hospitalized with an infection.

The Ribeiros ran a cash-only business and kept no patient records.

"We think the number may be quite large," Coakley said of the couple's clientele.

Prosecutors said the case raises concern about the incidence of underground plastic surgeries in Framingham's immigrant community.

Framingham, a town of about 67,000 about 20 miles west of Boston, is home to an estimated 14,000 Brazilian immigrants.

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