Girl, 14, Dead After Breast Implant Surgery Performed by Mom's Boyfriend Without Dad's Knowledge: Police

Paloma Nicole Arellano Escobedo died on Saturday in Durango, Mexico after she had been hospitalized in serious condition, she was suffering from brain swelling as the result of cardiac arrest and had been placed in an induced coma and intubated.

This was the girl's state on Monday, September 15, when her father, Carlos Arellano Aragón, was first contacted by her mother to let him know that something was more going on with her.

The last he'd heard had come before the weekend. On Thursday, the girl's mother had reportedly contacted her to tell her that her daughter had gotten sick and asked her to come pick up up. She was asked to have Paloma take a Covid test, which they did at a nearby hospital.

After those results come back positive, the mother contacted Carlos and told him that she was going to take her daughter to a remote cabin in the mountains for the weekend where they could isolate. She purportedly told him they may not have cell service, so might not be able to answer if he tried to call.

As reported by El Siglo De Durango, and translated by Google, Carlos told local news station Channel 12 in an extended interview that this was the last he heard from his daughter's mother until he got the call on Monday that she was hospitalized and in an induced coma. He said he was told that all of this stemmed from Covid complications.

By Friday, September 19, Carlos, who had rushed to be by his daughter's side, said there were signs of improvement. "There was movement in her hand; she took my hand; she was able to turn her head sideways," he told Channel 12, per translation.

Tragically, though, Paloma's condition quickly worsened, with Carlos saying that doctors told him the swelling had lodged into the lower part of her brain, which he was told was "very serious, almost terminal."

It was shortly after this that doctors conducted an electrocardiogram and discovered she was effectively brain dead. At that point, the decision was made to remove the equipment, save oxygen, and let her expire naturally.

Hindsight made him aware of a detail that he didn't delve into at the time, as he told Channel 12 that while sitting with his daughter that night, he hugged her and noticed "a surgical bra on her side," which didn't make sense. "I didn't say anything at the time because in the situation it wasn't possible," he added, per translation.

On Saturday, September 20, Paloma died.

Carlos spoke to his family about the surgical bra ahead of his daughter's wake that evening at a nearby funeral home. He was accompanied there by his mother, sister, and sister-in-law, who observed something unexpected in the deceased, as detailed by AZ Central.

"At the funeral, some relatives told me her breasts were larger than what she had before," Carlos said. "and when I mentioned it to her mother, she told me it wasn't true, that she didn't know anything."

Later that evening, he said he asked if she could leave him alone to spend some time with his daughter's body, "to say my goodbyes." Carlos said she was reluctant to go, but he ultimately convinced her and her family to go. He stayed inside with his female relatives.

"They examined my daughter, and sure enough: she had breast implants," Carlos said in a statement to the prosecutor's office. "We have photographs of the implants and the scars."

He said that the family took their findings to the Durango Prosecutors Office and immediately requested an autopsy, as no one had told him anything about her having undergone any surgeries.

According to Carlos, his ex-wife had allegedly approved the surgery, while he was not consulted at all. The surgery was carried out at a facility owned by his ex-wife's boyfriend, and it was him who conducted the procedures over the weekend he thought she was recovering from Covid in a remote cabin.

Carlos is accusing his ex-wife and boyfriend of a "cover-up," claiming they lied to him after the surgery, which he believes is the cause of her death.

In a new report on Wednesday, El Siglo De Durango, states that authorities in Durango opened a case against the plastic surgeon boyfriend for neglect of care and negligent homicide. Those charges can carry a sentence of two to five years in prison, along with loss of parental rights and civil liability.

The Mexican Association of Plastic, Aesthetic, and Reconstructive Surgeons (AMCPER) further announced that the doctor's license had been provisionally suspended pending the autopsy results. As her body had already been treated by the funeral home when the autopsy was requested, per The New York Post, it could take an additional 20 days to get those results.