Butt Lifts Ending Badly? Spa Owner Allegedly Botches It, Nearly Kills Patient

NEW YORK (CBS/AP) A New York City woman who wanted a "booty boost" seems lucky to be alive, and spa owner Barbara Nieto may be equally lucky she didn't kill the woman during liposuction gone wrong.

Nieto, of Corona, Queens, was charged Friday with assault, unlawfully practicing medicine and endangering the life of Augusta Velez during the botched surgery, reported the New York Daily News.

For the butt enhancement procedure, the 23-year-old Velez went to Nieto's spa, Perfect Image Stethics. According to the newspaper, Nieto performed liposuction on the patient's stomach March 20, then re-injected the fat where Velez wanted it, in the buttocks.

The end result was not the J.Lo booty of her dreams for $500, but intense pain and high fever. The paper says Velez had to have an additional surgery to avoid a life-threatening septic infection.

It is allegedly not Nieto's first bad ending. Another woman previously pressed charges against Bell Stetika Esthetics, also owned and operated by Nieto, claiming that she suffered disabling injuries following her butt augmentation, according to The Daily News.

Prosecutors believe there may be more victims of Nieto's botched butt enhancements.