According to local media reports, Catherine won money and the cosmetic surgery procedure after beating 23 other girls to win Ecuador's Queen of Durán beauty contest in 2014. Her brother said Catherine initially rejected the surgery because she was young and figured she could lose the weight by working out but when a surgeon pressured her, she caved in.
A young beauty queen has died in Ecuador after undergoing liposuction surgery that she had received as a prize, her family says, calling the operation a case of medical malpractice.
Catherine Cando Cornejo, a 19-year-old student who in October was named "Queen of Duran," a town near the port city of Guayaquil, died on Saturday during abdominal liposuction.
Members of her family said she was admitted to surgery at a Guayaquil clinic at 8.23am local time for a waist reduction meant to take off 3cm.
Nearly 10 hours later, about 6pm, her family was notified she had died.
"My sister did not want the operation because she was afraid, but the doctor insisted on several occasions ...
Family lawyer Carlos Reyes said the young beauty queen died of cerebral edema or swelling of the brain.
"The clinic lawyer said the death was due to cardiac arrest, but we have a copy of the autopsy and it turns out the cause was stated as cerebral edema; this is presumably due to problems with anesthesia," Reyes told the press.
According to a complaint filed by the family, the surgery was awarded for winning the pageant.
But a spokesman for the mayor said the doctor who performed the operation was on the jury and had given the young winner a US$1000 (NZ$1300) coupon for surgery.
"We made it clear that the prizes we hand out, our prizes, were a car and tablet," he told AFP.
Authorities are investigating the case and have not made any arrests.
Under Ecuadorian law, professional malpractice, including medical malpractice, is punishable with one to three years in prison.
President Rafael Correa has previously criticised beauty pageants, ordering the Education Ministry in 2010 to ban the events in public schools on grounds that they had no educational value and were sexist.
"She was thinking about letting someone else have it as a freebie but eventually she agreed to have it just to get him off her back," Her brother, Daniel Zavela told the mediaThe beautiful young woman, who was studying medicine at the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil, agreed to do the surgery and went into the private clinic on Saturday but died during the procedure.
Two doctors who performed the operation on her have been arrested because authorities believe Catherine died due to their negligence. Authorities are not investigating her death. Sad!
