HOUSTON — A Houston woman charged with manslaughter after administering silicone butt injections without a license has been sentenced to eight years in prison.
Lisa Fernandez was arrested and charged in 2021 following an investigation into a woman's death.
Editor's note: The video above originally aired in 2021.
Investigators said 38-year-old Marja McClendon died less than a week after Fernandez administered the illegally obtained silicone incorrectly into her body on April 24, 2018.
Investigators said the victim had scheduled two appointments with Fernandez, during which she experienced intense pain. A witness told police the first injection left the victim feeling sick, but she returned the next day for a second round after she was refused a refund.
McClendon experienced so much pain during the second visit that the procedure had to be stopped multiple times, court officials said. Police said Fernandez administered the silicone to the victim with a syringe.
McClendon left short of breath and coughing up blood. She was admitted into the emergency room at a local hospital, but she went home to Missouri before the evaluation was finished.
Police said the victim was soon admitted to a hospital in Missouri, where she died on April 30, 2018.
The cause of death was ruled as complications from a silicone pulmonary embolism and Houston police homicide detectives were called in to investigate, according to court documents.
In court records, Fernandez was identified as a "beauty consultant" who had been working out of her home since 2004.
'Please don't do that, momma'
McClendon's then 13-year-old son Michael remembers how quickly her health deteriorated.
“She was sick. She wasn’t talking good," Michael told us after Fernandez's arrest in 2021.
A few days later, the injections had killed her and Michael blamed himself.
“I said, ‘Momma, please don’t do that momma. She still went," he said sobbing.
Even with justice, no sentence can bring his mother back.
“She took my mom from me. She took my mother," Michael said. "You only get one mom.”
Several deaths nationwide
Dr. Matthew Greives, with UTHealth Houston/Memorial Hermann explained why silicone is not approved by the FDA for these kinds of injections.
"[It] travels in your bloodstream to your heart and your lungs and causes a massive blood clot," Dr. Grieves said.
Fernandez's family hopes McClendon's story helps convince others not to make the same potentially deadly mistakes.