Mum dies after botched boob job – devastated husband says ‘it’s not worth it’

Crystal Villegas, 31, spent the last four months fighting for her life in a Texas hospital after contracting fungal meningitis, a rare infection that causes swelling around the brain and spinal cord.

She traveled to Matamoros, Tamaulipas State, Mexico, located on the border with Texas, US, to save money on the op. Villegas lived in the city of Brownsville in the state, just on the other side of the border.

She was receiving treatment at the Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen following the procedure. Her husband Juan Tapia confirmed that she passed away at around 6.30pm on 30 July.

Tapia, who is a super featherweight boxer who fights under the name Johnny Blaze, said: “It was a hard four months, she fought hard and never gave up.”

According to Tapia, Villegas regretted having the breast implant surgery and desperately wanted to see her three young children grow up and become adults. He added: “Those few months have been very difficult, very hard for me, but I am at peace that she is now resting.”

In the days after undergoing the operation in Mexico, Villegas began to complain of a severe headache and her condition continued to worsen with a high fever. After going to the emergency room, tests revealed she had meningitis.

Tapia shared images of him posing alongside his wife outside the Valley Baptist Medical Center in mid-July. Tapia also claimed that two of Villegas’ friends had also died after undergoing a cosmetic operation, including a close friend in March.

Before she passed away, Tapia said his wife was “learning how to walk again, learning how to use the restroom again, how to talk again”.

He added: “Please, please be aware of the risks of cosmetic surgeries. Our hope is to spread awareness so that people can actually do the research. It changes everything. Everything. It’s not worth it.

“I wish this was all just a bad dream that we could wake up from and go back to the day before the surgery and somehow, someway, convince her not to go.”

Every year, over one million US citizens travel to Mexico for cheap cosmetic procedures at private clinics where safety protocols are often deficient to US standards.

Earlier in 2023, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised US residents to not undergo procedures in Mexico that involve epidural medication due to an “outbreak of fungal meningitis”.