A Harlem woman was so obsessed with having the perfect Kim Kardashian-style booty that she got a black-market butt injection in a Manhattan apartment — and wound up dying from the botched procedure, police sources said on Monday.
Latesha Bynum, 31, was pumped with the toxic tush material in an unmarked building on East 21st Street near First Avenue in Gramercy Park on July 15, according to the sources and state health officials.
Twelve days later, the mother of two — who is shown flaunting her curves in a series of Facebook photos — was struck by an intense chest pain and dizziness, the sources said.
She called 911 at around 11 p.m. on Thursday and was rushed by ambulance to Mount Sinai St Luke’s hospital, where she was pronounced brain-dead and later taken off life support, according to the sources.
Cops spent much of last weekend investigating an apartment on the third story of the brick apartment complex, neighbor Michael Desouza said.
He was stunned that the upscale building had been used as a hub for back-alley plastic surgery.
“I know a few people in this building, and I can’t think of anyone that would do such a thing. Nice people in here,” Desouza said.
The Gramercy Park building is not a legitimate medical office, according to a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health.
“DOH has no record of a DOH-licensed facility at that location,” she said.
In recent years, women and transgender people have died after illegal “pumping parties” — in which they pay to have industrial-grade silicone injected into their breasts and rear ends to get curves at cut-rate costs.
In June 2015, Kelly Mayhew, 34, died in a Queens basement after a phony surgeon injected silicone into her backside and then bolted, police said at the time. The Maryland woman began gurgling and gasping for breath before EMTs arrived.
On Saturday, friends of Bynum posted a tribute video online, mourning her death and calling her a “sis to everyone who love[d] her.”
The video notes her nickname was TeTe and features images of her posing with pals around the Big Apple.
Her Facebook page says she is married, formerly lived in The Bronx and would have had a birthday just two days after her death.
Police are investigating her death but declined on Monday to say whether anyone had been arrested. The procedure had been performed solely for “cosmetic purposes,” a police source said.
A woman in Apartment 3C, where a door had appeared to have been kicked in, declined to comment, saying, “I can’t talk about it.”
The apartment complex has no signs for medical offices, and residents said no businesses are located inside.
? …have they seen Kim Kardashian backside without photoshop…i don’t even think Kim want the pampers harself…she just can’t get rid of it…Rip lady
This is sad very sad and what’s more disheartening there will be many many more to come…….because people need to learn to love themselves, love the skin it in. we all can’t be the same imagine a world where everyone looked the same…….hmm
Exactly my thoughts! Girl left behind 2 young children, truly sad. I don’t know when will they wake up!
Yuh dead an gone cause yuh neva wah happy wid how god mek yuh….. mi just hope seh yuh did have likkle insurance suh di pickney dem can live offa…some a hunnu nuh have nuh bloodclat sense suh nuh betta cyah expect.
Ladies ah full time unnu do some soul searching. Think sober fi ah minute nuh? Wha meck unnu ah risk unnu one life an leave behind yuh family an friends fi deal wid dah pain deh?
Why yuh feel seh it whi neva happen to u? What exactly are u chasing? How di whole heap ah injection ah meck unnu life betta, fi get likkle notice fram people who are in truth irrelevant?
Unnu need fi check wha gwan pan di inside dat yuh trying fi hide by mashing up di outside.
Dwl dwl yeah man, uno fi be unoself.
Yeah man, mi nah rejoice but yr lesson sent u to ur grave. It funny how we know that those kartrashians are fake bitches, but some a uno want look like dem. Serve har right, some a uno too damm brave, is like uno a tell God say him never create uno right so uno a go mek unoself over, nuff dead doing make overs and plenty more gonna die because plenty people realise plastic surgery has potential to make money, so nuff a the assistants will go open business and pretend to be doctors. Well she never have no purpose living for so the Lord tek har back, i hope this will be a lesson for her frens who wanna look like the kartrash people.