The infamous “liquid BBL” procedure that killed an OnlyFans model and Kim Kardashian-lookalike in 2023 is back in the spotlight this month, as the Florida woman who administered the lethal injection was convicted in March of felony involuntary manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license.
According to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office, 34-year-old Christina Ashten Gourkani — once known to her more than 600,000 Instagram followers as Ashten G. — died shortly after receiving an illegal silicone injection in her glutes.
It’s a process rap superstar Cardi B is intimately familiar with, as well.
The Bronx-native hasn’t been shy about having dabbled in illegal butt injections herself, telling GQ in 2018: “It was the craziest pain ever. I felt like I was gonna pass out. I felt a little dizzy. And it leaks for, like, five days.”
She wanted to go back for a “touch-up,” but “by the time I was gonna go get it, the lady got locked up ’cause she’s supposedly killed somebody,” Cardi told GQ. “Well, somebody died on her table.”
In a similarly twisted turn of events, after a 15-day trial earlier this year, a California jury found 53-year-old Vivian Alexandra Gomez of Royal Palm Beach guilty in the death of Gourkani, who had allegedly hired Gomez to perform the procedure at the Burlingame Marriott hotel outside San Francisco on April 19, 2023.
Shortly after Gomez concluded, prosecutors said Gourkani became noticeably ill and was rushed to a nearby hospital alongside her fiancé.
The next day, the model died of respiratory failure and a pulmonary embolism, according to CBS News. Almost three years later, Gomez could now be sentenced to seven years in state prison.
Not all BBLs — shorthand for Brazilian Butt Lifts — are created equal, and some are safer than others.
The more invasive version of the BBL involves a liposuction surgery to transfer fat from another part of the body to the butt. In the case of Cardi — who felt she needed a fatter ass to earn more money as a stripper but claimed she wasn’t a candidate for the lipo because at the time she “did not have enough meat” on her body — the injectable was her only option.
While silicone injections are prohibited by the FDA, patients can receive approved liquid BBLs administered by licensed medical professionals that may contain hyaluronic acid or collagen. The results from similar fillers only last a couple of years max, but complications are less likely.
As of 2017, the FDA prohibited all silicone injections anywhere in the body with one exception (a specific eye procedure).
Scott Gottlieb, MD, the FDA Commissioner at the time, said, “We’ve seen serious adverse events result from products, which are sometimes industrial-grade silicone, being used for these unapproved medical purposes” like enlarging one’s “buttocks, breasts and other body parts.”
Breast implants that use silicone are legal because they’re encased in an “implant shell” that “keeps the silicone from migrating within the body.”
Injectable silicone, on the other hand, can migrate beyond the injection site with potentially fatal consequences including stroke, infections and, in the case of Gourkani, embolism and death.
“Serious complications may occur right away or could develop weeks, months or years later,” according to the FDA.
In a statement following Gourkani’s death, the Kardashian-lookalike’s family shared that at around 4:30 a.m. on April 20, they received a “tragic phone call from a family member who was frantically screaming and crying hysterically on the other line. ‘Ashten is dying, Ashten is dying.’”
Her family members remembered Gourkani for her “caring and loving free spirit.”
“She had such a gift for connecting with people,” they said in the statement.
