[Grace:] Live to Long Beach. Stunning news to women all over the country who want to look younger. A facelift therapist performs a so- called "vampire facelift," very popular after Kim Kardashian and fashion models like Bar Refaeli have them. They post photos of them. Did a Long Beach, California facelift therapist perform a deadly beauty treatment that ends with a makeover at the morgue?
[Unidentified Male:] Thirty-six-year-old Hamilet Suarez, the mother of a young son, went into cardiac arrest at this beauty salon in Long Beach and died.
[Unidentified Female:] Sandra Perez Gonzalez is a massage therapist. But according to police, the 45-year-old woman offered her clients cosmetic medical procedures she is not licensed to perform. This is very dangerous. They say she offered lip and butt augmentation, as well as something called a "vampire facelift," a procedure that injects a person`s face with their own blood cells.
[Grace:] We are taking your calls. Out to Beatriz Valenzuela, crime reporter with "Long Beach Press-Telegram." Beatriz, thank you for being with us. So what exactly is a "vampire facelift"?
[Beatriz Valenzuela, "long Beach Press-telegraph":] A vampire facelift is a cosmetic procedure where the patient`s blood is drawn, and it is processed and then reinjected into their face.
[Grace:] OK, let me get this straight, because I`ve seen photos of Kim Kardashian, who`s just absolutely beautiful I`d like to see a beauty shot and the vampire facelift shot. And then there`s Leonardo DiCaprio`s ex, the Israeli model Bar Refaeli just stunning. They`ve posted photos of themselves. When you say you take the person`s blood out and then you process it, what does that mean, you process it?
[Valenzuela:] You know, I don`t know the exact procedure...
[Grace:] Oh, hold on, Beatriz!
[Valenzuela:] ... because I`m not a plastic surgeon.
[Grace:] Beatriz Valenzuela with me. Hold on. I`m just being joined out of Los Angeles by Dr. Paul Nassif, facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. Doctor, thanks for being with us. What is technically speaking, what is a vampire facelift?
[Dr. Paul Nassif, Facial Plastic And Reconstructive Surgeon:] Hi, Nancy. A vampire facelift is what we do what you were talking about, taking the person`s blood. We spin it in a centrifuge and get all the platelets. The platelets have all kinds of growth factors. And basically, we inject that to stimulate collagen growth. But we also are using fillers at the same time. The fillers will give you the immediate fill on the face, and then the plasma
[Grace:] OK, I think I understood that. You take the blood out, you use the platelets, and then you use that, combined with filler, and you inject that back into the patient because the body is less likely to reject that because it`s the person`s own blood, correct?
[Nassif:] Yes. I mean, they`re two different things. The filler is going to give you the immediate result, like
[Grace:] Got it. With me, Dr. Paul Nassif, facial plastic and reconstructive surgeon, also taking your calls. Now, back to Beatriz Valenzuela with "The Long Beach Press-Telegram." This particular woman, Sandra, Sandra we`re talking about, Sandra Perez Gonzalez Sandra is performing various beauty treatments, and I believe the one that came under fire in this investigation was augmentation, body augmentation. What was she doing, Beatriz, that caused the death of the victim, Hamilet?
[Valenzuela:] Well, what had happened is that the victim was having an augmentation procedure through injection. What body parts she was having augmented, that has not been released yet. And I just spoke to the coroner`s office this morning, and the cause of death has not been released yet, so it`s still a little premature to say that the procedure itself is what caused her Ms. Suarez`s death. But she did go into cardiac arrest either while having the treatment performed or immediately afterward.