They found a Miami-area plastic surgery clinic through social media. Both died

Kenly Millan Aponte, 35, a mother of two, traveled from Kentucky to a Miami-area clinic to have a “mommy makeover.” Endrys Martinez Jr., 19, traveled from Tennessee to the same clinic for a long-desired rhinoplasty.

They both found the surgical center, Svelta Plastic Surgery, formerly known as Seduction Cosmetic Center, through social media. They died within a month of each other due to complications from their procedures.

Now, their families are calling for justice for the deaths and for prospective patients to look beyond influencers’ recommendations when determining where they will have their surgeries.

South Florida, often deemed the epicenter of the cosmetic surgery industry in the United States, has hundreds of clinics, and influencers boosting them, that attract thousands of patients every year. Svelta Plastic Surgery, a practice based in Coral Gables, has over 400,000 followers on Instagram and 100,000 on TikTok.

Endrys Martinez Sr. told the Miami Herald through a translator that he believes his son was influenced by the “awful amount of advertising” done by centers like Svelta and other social media figures that can often target younger, more inexperienced viewers.

“These influencers clearly have a lot of pull, a lot of power. … Their followers are just trusting what they say because they have this inordinate amount of following on social media,” he said.

In Aponte’s case, she “deposited confidence in a place that was just not, not up to par, not fit to do what she underwent,” her husband, Jefferson Carrasco, told the Herald through a translator.

Svelta declined to comment on the specificities of either case, citing patient privacy laws.

“First and foremost, we extend our deepest condolences to the families affected during this deeply painful time,” Svelta owner Gretel Jardon wrote in a June 1 email to the Herald. “We want to be transparent with the public: the information currently being reported does not completely or accurately reflect the facts of what occurred.”

Although surgeons at the center have previously faced disciplinary action from the Florida Department of Health, none of the surgeons currently listed on Svelta’s website appear in the department’s database for discipline and administrative actions.

Jardon said that “all patients under the care of plastic surgeons at Svelta are important to us, that is why we are accumulating data to perform a root cause analysis to better understand these outcomes. We are doing this out of respect for the families involved and to ensure that Svelta provides plastic surgery patients with the safest environment possible.”

‘She never once thought about herself first’

Aponte, who traveled from Lexington, Kentucky, for a “mommy makeover” — a tummy tuck, breast augmentation and Brazilian butt lift — went into cardiac arrest while under anesthesia on April 29. She was declared dead at the Baptist Health Doctors Hospital emergency room.

Carrasco said Aponte was the “glue” that kept their family together.

“She never once thought about herself first,” Carrasco said. “She always put her family first, me first, our girls first.”

Aponte and Carrasco, along with their two daughters, now aged 5 and 13, came to the United States from Venezuela at the beginning of 2022. Carrasco originally planned to travel to the United States independently and then bring the rest of the family, but Aponte insisted the family face the journey, which included traversing several countries and jungles, together.

“[We] were always united,” Carrasco said. “[We] were never away from each other.”

Aponte and Carrasco worked hard to support the family, and Carrasco expressed that they were hoping to dedicate more time to their daughters. Aponte loved to cook and sold traditional Venezuelan cuisine on the side to help the family afford to travel around the country.

Carrasco said that after Aponte had her first daughter, she had always been “inclined” to have a mommy makeover. She had started the process in Venezuela, but because of the financial crisis, it “fell through.”

Eventually, in the United States, they saved up some extra money, and Carrasco told her that she should take the money and do what she had been wanting to do because she was always so focused on everyone else’s needs and making a better life for her children.

“Just do what’s gonna make you feel good,” Carrasco said he told her.

Aponte already had her eye on the center where she wanted to have her procedure done. She particularly paid attention to centers boosted by Venezuelan influencers and had followed Svelta for years.

Seduction Cosmetic Center announced on Instagram that it had changed its name to Svelta Plastic Surgery in January. Under its previous name, two doctors were disciplined after patient deaths in 2017 and 2021, one with license revocation and one with a fine and a Brazilian butt lift ban. Neither of the surgeons involved in those deaths still work at the center.

READ MORE: Cosmetic surgery clinics linked to patient deaths will close, reopen under new name

The cost of a “mommy makeover” at Svelta can range anywhere from $6,500 to $20,000, depending on the extent of the procedures. Carrasco said Aponte had never heard anything negative about the practice.

“She did everything that she thought she had to do” before the surgery, he said. Before arriving in Florida, Aponte did her pre-operative clearance and visited her primary care physician, based in Kentucky, who told her it seemed like she would be in good hands with the surgeons at Svelta.

The day of the surgery, Aponte was excited, and perhaps a little anxious. Carrasco accompanied her, and they drove down from where they were staying in Fort Lauderdale to Coral Gables early that morning after the practice told them her procedure had been pushed to an earlier slot following a cancellation.

Aponte and Carrasco texted each other consistently, even after they had separated for the procedures. She sent her last message around 1:45 p.m., according to Carrasco.

The next call Carrasco received was from the center. He said they advised him that there were some complications with Aponte’s procedures but did not specify the severity, besides that she had some drop in oxygen saturation, or the amount of oxygen carried in the blood, and that she was being transferred to a hospital. They provided him with an address. Initially, Carrasco said, it was the wrong one.

Aponte had been taken by Coral Gables Fire Rescue three miles south to the Baptist Health Doctors Hospital emergency room.

When Svelta called Carrasco again to provide him the correct address, he said he asked again if his wife was OK and had been told everything was fine. When he finally got to the correct hospital, a doctor informed him that she had been dead on arrival.

Carrasco said Svelta did not attempt to reach him again until after he had obtained a lawyer.

The motor of his family, a “phenomenal” mother and wife, is gone. Their eldest, his stepdaughter, who soon turns 14, no longer has either of her biological parents.

Carrasco said repeatedly that he wants justice for his wife, not money. He knows his wife was not the first, and “sadly, won’t be the last to die from one of these procedures.” He would tell those with loved ones who are considering undergoing plastic surgery to not do it because it’s “not worth it.”

“But the reality is that everybody will make their own decisions in their life, what to do with their bodies,” Carrasco said. He hopes that people will do their due diligence versus just trusting influencers when considering plastic surgery.

He also wants Svelta to be shut down and has questions that he wants answered, including Aponte’s official cause of death. The Coral Gables Fire Department’s patient care record stated that Aponte was “unresponsive, pulseless and apneic,” upon the arrival of first responders. Carrasco is still waiting for the results of the autopsy.

‘An incredibly happy and joyful young man’

Endrys Martinez Jr. was an “exemplary young man” with an infectious smile, his parents said. He loved riding jet skis, playing baseball and spending time with his friends, according to Iblin and Endrys Martinez Sr.

Martinez Jr. had traveled from Memphis to Svelta in May for rhinoplasty, more commonly known as a nose job. Iblin Martinez said her son had “always wanted to modify the appearance of his nose.”

Like Aponte, Martinez Jr. had begun the process in Venezuela, but he was 15, and the surgeon there advised him to wait until he turned 18. The family arrived in the United States in August 2023. The minute he turned 18, he started working for a steel company and began the process of finding a center to do the procedure.

The family found Seduction Cosmetic Center through an influencer.

“From the very beginning, he set his eyes on this one, and this is where he was going to have his surgery,” Iblin Martinez said through a translator. The teenager worked over the course of two years to pay for the surgery — which, at Svelta, costs around $6,500 to $15,000 — and was “absolutely elated” and “over the moon” to finally be able to have the procedure.

The day of the surgery, his parents said he was calm. He shared a photo with his parents right before going into his operation. About one to two hours into the procedure, his father, who was sitting in his car in a nearby garage, saw a rush of paramedics and, eventually, someone being wheeled out into an ambulance.

He soon realized that it was his son and jumped into the ambulance. Iblin Martinez, who believes she was listed as the emergency contact, said she did not get a call from the center informing her that her son had been transferred to a hospital until an hour after her husband had jumped into the ambulance.

Martinez Jr. died on May 26 after spending four days on a ventilator, according to his family. His parents said that they often cannot bring themselves to “utter a word amongst each other” because they are in a complete state of shock and loss.

“Missing one of the units of our family is inexplicable,” Martinez Sr. said. “We have zero desire to move forward, to work, to continue with our daily lives.”

Martinez Sr. wants the licenses for Svelta revoked and, like Carrasco, better legislation for how the centers are run. But no amount of justice will bring his son back.

“He was an incredibly happy and joyful young man, and we are choosing to remember him this way, and we would want everybody to remember him this way,” Iblin Martinez said.

Miami Herald staff writer David Neal contributed reporting.