Ecuador, Jan 13 (Daily Mail) : A 19-year-old medical student has died while undergoing liposuction - a prize for winning her local beauty competition.
Catherine Cando, a part-time glamour model, was crowned winner of the Queen of Duran beauty contest, in Ecuador.
Miss Cando, who won the competition in October last year, was showered with prizes, including a new Aveo car 2015, a smart tablet - and a free course of cosmetic surgery treatment.
Miss Canto put off using the treatment at first as she felt she didn't need it - despite judges in the competition recommending she lose a bit of weight.
She told local media she had decided to exercise to lose the supposed excess weight instead.
But it seems others were keen for her to undergo the surgery.
Her brother Daniel Zavala, 24, told local media: 'Before having the surgery, she received a lot of calls from the surgeon trying to persuade her to do it, but she kept saying no.
'She was thinking about letting someone else have it as a freebie but eventually she agreed to have it just get him off her back.'
According to Ecuadorian newspaper El Telegrafo, she eventually underwent the procedure at a private clinic on January 10 - with tragic consequences.
Lawyer Carlos Reyes Izquierdo said: 'I was told she had died of a brain oedema.
'But the clinic staff told her relatives that she had died of a cardiac arrest.
'I have ordered cytological and pathological examinations to find out what exactly happened.
'However, it can be presumed as negligence because there has been no support from doctors who have failed to explain anything about the case.
'The doctors in question have been arrested to prevent them from leaving the county.'
The tragic death follows that of Brazilian model Pamela Nascimento, 27, who also died during liposuction surgery in 2011.
The cause of her death was registered as hypovolemic shock, where severe blood loss makes the heart unable to pump enough blood to the body.
The perils of cosmetic surgery have also been in the headlines more recently, with Andressa Urach, 27, runner-up in the 2012 Miss Bumbum competition, ending up in intensive care after her surgery wounds became infected.