A woman who wanted to work at a nightclub started searching for
someone who could perform plastic surgery at a cheap price to give her
a curvier body. Police say what she found was a woman posing as a
doctor who filled her buttocks with cement, mineral oil and flat-tire sealant.
The
suspect
apparently performed the surgery on herself, and investigators say she
may have victimized others. Oneal Ron Morris, 30, was arrested Friday
after a year on the lam and has been charged with practicing medicine
without a license with serious bodily injury.
Police photos show
Morris as a small-framed woman with bee-stung pouty lips, arched
eyebrows, oversized hoop earrings – and a large backside. She was
released from jail on bond. A phone listing for Morris could not be
found, and it’s unclear if she has an attorney.
Miami Gardens
Police Sgt. Bill Bamford said Sunday that Morris bounced from house to
house for a year, driving a black Mercedes and staying out of
investigators’ sight “like a ghost.” An officer drove by one of those
possible houses nearly every day on his way to work and saw the car
outside on Friday, and he arrested Morris soon after.
The
victim, who is not being named due to medical privacy laws, paid $700
for a series of injections in May 2010. She was referred to Morris by a
friend.
Morris injected some type of tube in several sites
around her bottom, pumping it full of a toxic concoction. Morris
reassured the woman when the pain became too intense, police said.
Bamford
said Morris told the woman, “’Oh don’t worry, you’ll be fine. We just
keep injecting you with the stuff and it all works itself out.”’
Bamford
said the victim was reluctant to come forward. She quickly went to two
South Florida hospitals due to severe abdominal pain and infected sores
on her buttocks accompanied by flu-like symptoms. But she left each
time, too embarrassed to tell doctors what she’d done.
Her
mother eventually took her to a hospital on Florida’s west coast, where
alarmed doctors pressed her for information. They alerted the
Department of Health.
“The doctors knew no licensed physician in his right mind would ever do this,” Bamford said.
The
victim is still recovering from the surgery and says it’s too painful
to work. She also has racked up numerous medical bills.
Authorities believe there are other victims who may be too embarrassed to come forward.
“(Morris)
was readily introduced to our victim as someone who could help improve
her shape, so we believe (she’s) done this to other people,” Bamford
said.
