Victim speaks out after visit to medical spa goes bad

DORAL, Fla. (WSVN) -- A South Florida woman is speaking out after she said she was given bad medicine at a medical spa.

The spa has now been shut down by the City of Doral, and the owner is under arrest.

The scars cover Isabel Gonzalez's face, and the pain can be heard in her voice. Now, after spending more than a month and a half at the hospital, undergoing five operations for an infection so bad she thought she was going to die, she is speaking out. "I told my mother, please take care of my children," said Gonzalez. "I don't think I'm going to live."

Forty-nine-year-old Gonzalez said she went to Viviana's Body Secrets Spa in Doral in June for vitamin injections for a more youthful look. When she noticed no difference in her face, she went back and said the owner, Viviana Ayala injected her with something different.

"It was a very thick substance," said Gonzalez. "They had to use a larger syringe to extract it from the bottle."

Shortly after, her face began to swell, and red lesions began to appear. Concerned, Gonzalez said she drove to the spa and Ayala drove her to a doctor's office where the lesions were drained, but it did not resolve the problem. "My face was still very swollen," she said. "You could barely see my eyes."

In August, Gonzalez checked herself in to Broward Medical Center where she alerted police about the procedure she said she had done at the spa.

On Thursday, Ayala was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license and battery.

Gonzalez now has an attorney and is suing. "The fact that she denied that this ever occurred," said attorney Diana Santa Maria, "complicated her medical situation severely and put her at great risk for losing her life."

Gonzalez still has a long recovery, and while the worst is over, she will likely never look the same. "This infection still isn't resolved," said Gonzalez. "I will never again be myself."

Ayala's Attorney Milena Abreu said, "She was never injected, not with vitamins or any other type of substance. Ms. Ayaya has been practicing for several years, and does not work with injections."

Ayala is currently out on bond.

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