The young woman had taken dozens of fat-dissolving injections at a Los Angeles spa. (Images: @beatriz.amma/Instagram)
For Beatriz Amma, a once-promising fitness influencer, what was supposed to be a fat-dissolving procedure turned into a harrowing ordeal that left her in a years-long battle against a flesh-eating illness.
At the age of 23 three years ago, Amma sought perfection at a luxurious spa, spending $800 (over Rs 66,000) on a regimen of vitamin injections. These injections, a cocktail of vitamins B1 and C, mixed with “fast-dissolving” deoxycholic acid, were administered 60 times into her arms, back, and stomach.
Just a few days after this treatment, Amma’s life took a nightmarish turn. “I had all these welts on my skin,” she told Kennedy News. “They just started popping up in the places it had been injected… My entire body started eating itself alive.”
The diagnosis was grim—Mycobacterium abscessus, a bacterial infection notorious for festering and causing agonizing skin lesions. Doctors concluded that it was the result of deoxycholic acid being improperly injected.
For Amma, a former swimsuit model, the dream of being a fitness influencer and embracing a life filled with travel crumbled. She has undergone multiple surgeries to remove infected tissue and now, three years later, endures six hours of intravenous antibiotics daily.
What makes this story even more terrifying is that everything appeared entirely legitimate. The Los Angeles spa where Amma received these injections looked clean, professional, and safe. “A worker said it was made by a really reputable company and she showed me the vials. I was excited,” Amma recalled.
Previous research has shown a troubling connection between faulty injections and similar skin reactions, underscoring the risks that individuals like Amma unknowingly take in the name of aesthetics.
The nightmare that followed was a battle for survival, with Amma confined to her bed, her body betraying her. “I couldn’t even put clothes on. I needed help going to the restroom. I needed help showering and changing,” she recounted saying she was “rotting” in bed.
Amma vividly remembers the point when she thought she might lose her life to the flesh-eating disease. “I prayed to God and said, ‘If this is my time, take me.’ My body had lost the fight. I remember just being in so much pain that I thought I was going to die that night. I couldn’t fight anymore.”
“Every time I look in the mirror, I remember that I’ve lost so much of my life to this. My dream was to be a fitness influencer, and I loved traveling and wearing bikinis. I’d worked so hard for the body I had,” she lamented. Doctors have told her, “You’re going to have this forever, give up on your dreams of being an influencer, your skin is always going to alarm people.”
Also read: US woman loses leg after contracting ‘rare, flesh-eating bacteria’
However, Amma has not let this ordeal define her. She now channels her energy into spreading body positivity and raising awareness about this unsightly illness.
Yet, her battle with the consequences of that fateful spa visit continues. “I’m on year three, and it still isn’t over. I would never have thought that something so simple could almost take my life and leave me still fighting for my life.”