Earlier in the year, Mayela Caldera, a Venezuelan Instagram influencer, asked her then 31,400 followers to help her raise money to pay for her plastic surgery. (Caldera currently has 35,100 followers). During this procedure, a surgeon removes silicone material from implant leaks and the scar tissue that is formed after the placement of plastic surgery. While plastic implant surgery is a common surgery, implants are not designed to be lifelong. They must be exchanged or removed at least every 10 to 15 years depending on the patients’ needs. In some situations, the outer shell of the implant breaks down, causing silicone to leak as well as hardening the scar tissue around the implant. In this case, the implants should be removed with great immediacy.
Caldera, who now lives in the United States, claims that her implants are the cause of a serious health complication, which has left her with intense, unbearable pain. Since discovering her pain, Caldera has turned to crowdfund to pay for surgery to remove her implants. The Instagram influencer requested for her fans to help spread the word regarding her GoFundMe (created on April 13, 2019). Her current GoFundMe page respectfully asks for $5,000 to help cover surgery expenses to remove her implants.
To date, Caldera has earned $1,843. Forty-two donors have contributed, and her post has been shared 227 times. On her GoFundMe post, she admitted that she is currently in a difficult situation and is asking for help from people who do not know her because she needs support for this emergency surgery. In reference to her implants, Caldera says, In addition to pain in the chest, back and immobility of the arm, I continuously feel stitches as if they were burning inside. Caldera claims to experience this health complication, including specific symptoms, such as feeling fatigue, nausea, fever, low tension, weakness and other symptoms, make it almost impossible for her to work a regular job. This painful condition has also caused Caldera to experience many negative emotions, causing her to feel helpless in this current state.
Caldera also stated that she has neuropathy caused by the left mammary implant which moved approximately 4 centimeters to the left and is now directly on a nerve located between her ribs. This nerve connects the back to the arm, which explains the pain caused by the silicone attached to the sciatic nerve.
The surgery to address this problem would remove that part of the nerve, but it would also cause the loss of sensitivity on her left side. Because of her condition, a reconstruction of the previous work would be more effective in providing the best care for Caldera. To avoid an additional surgery six weeks after the explant, it is advised that Caldera undergo corrected implant surgery. Caldera also received a medical opinion that her original augmentation surgery was done correctly, which may be the leading cause of the current health complications that she is experiencing.
