Mexican social media influencer Denisse Reyes, 27, died from complications following a liposuction procedure at an unauthorised clinic in Chiapas, Mexico. According to the New York Post, Ms Reyes had undergone the common cosmetic surgery on January 26 at the San Pablo Medical Clinic in Tuxtla Gutierrez, where she was administered intravenous medication by Dr Orlando Gamboa before the procedure.

The influencer had shared updates with her followers on social media, revealing that she was in the recovery stage after the surgery. However, her body had an adverse reaction to the medication administered before her heart stopped beating. According to her uncle Ammao Rodriguez, Ms Reyes began feeling unwell and went into cardiac arrest, prompting medical staff to rush her out of the room.

A friend who accompanied her was asked to wait outside the recovery room, with medical staff stating that they would update a family member on her condition, which they described as delicate. Mr Rodriguez said that she was later transferred to Manzur Hospital, as the San Pablo Medical Clinic lacked an intensive care unit. However, Ms Reyes’ condition did not improve, and she died on Wednesday.

The influencer is survived by her eight-year-old son. According to reports, she did not have any pre-existing health conditions. Her family is now seeking justice, with Mr Rodriguez stating that he is working with Chiapas health authorities and plans to take legal action against the surgeon who performed the procedure.

“May the authorities do justice to Denisse and may the doctor pay in some way for what he did,” Mr Rodriguez told the Daily Mail.

The incident raises concerns about the risks of seeking cosmetic procedures at unauthorised clinics and highlights the importance of prioritising safety and seeking qualified medical professionals.

Paris, France:

Swiss socialite Jocelyne Wildenstein, also known as “catwoman” due to her extensive plastic surgery, has died aged 79, her partner said on Wednesday.

“It is with heavy heart and with great sadness that Mr Lloyd Klein announces the unexpected death of his beloved fiance and longtime companion Jocelyne Wildenstein,” the fashion designer said in an English-language statement sent to AFP.

“Mrs Wildenstein died peacefully in her sleep in the late afternoon of December 31st, 2024 in her… suite in Paris where the couple had taken temporary residence since August of 2024,” he added.

He tried to wake her from a nap so she could get ready for New Year’s Eve dinner, but she was unresponsive, he said. “Early reports from the doctors called to the scene indicate that she had endured heart failure and passed peacefully in her sleep,” Klein added.

Born in Switzerland in 1945, Jocelyne Perisset became a New York socialite after marrying art dealer Alec Wildenstein, with whom she had two children. She kept his name after their messy divorce in the late 1990s.

Some media reports gave her age as five years older. In a recent interview, she had blamed the confusion on people mixing up her birth year with that of her ex-husband, 1940.

The cosmetic surgery aficionado, with more than a million followers on Instagram, became known as “catwoman” in the tabloids for the feline-like shape of her eyes.

She had been living between New York and Miami, she told French media in recent months.

‘$2.5-billion divorce’

Wildenstein last posted a video of herself and Klein posing for photographers outside the Ritz Paris on December 23, to the soundtrack of Wham’s “Last Christmas”.

“I never wanted to change my face,” she told French television news channel C8 this autumn, though admitting she might have wanted her lips to be a little thicker.

She denied rumours she embarked on cosmetic surgery to try to keep her ex-husband. She received $2.5 billion from their divorce, making it one of the most expensive at the time, according to Klein.

Asked if she had found love again, she said she had with Klein, who was 21 years her junior.

Klein and Wildenstein “met during New York Fashion Week in 2001 when Lloyd was presenting his fashion collection on the runway,” he said in his written statement.

“She was a front-row guest and after that show the two became romantically involved and had remained inseparable since that time.”

“Jocelyne was my best friend, my partner, my fiance. She had a zest for life, and had a wicked sense of humour,” he added.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Minghao Nie, a researcher of University of Tokyo shows a face mold covered in human skin tissue at his lab in Tokyo, July 12, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Japanese scientists have devised a way to attach living skin tissue to robotic faces and make them “smile,” in a breakthrough that holds out promise of applications in cosmetics and medicine.

Researchers at the University of Tokyo grew human skin cells in the shape of a face and pulled it into a wide grin, using embedded ligament-like attachments.

The result, though eerie, is an important step towards building more life-like robots, said lead researcher Shoji Takeuchi.

“By attaching these actuators and anchors, it became possible to manipulate living skin for the first time,” he added.

The smiling robot, featured in a study published online last month by Cell Reports Physical Science, is the fruit of a decade of research by Takeuchi and his lab on how best to combine biological and artificial machines.

Living tissue has numerous advantages over metals and plastics, Takeuchi said, ranging from the energy efficiency of brains and muscles to skin’s ability to repair itself.

Looking ahead, the researchers aim to add more elements to the lab-grown skin, including a circulatory system and nerves. That could lead to safer testing platforms for cosmetics and drugs absorbed through the skin.

It could also produce more realistic and functional coverings for robots. Still, there remains the challenge of ridding people of the strange or unnerving feelings evoked by machines that fall just short of being entirely convincing.

“There’s still a bit of that creepiness to it,” Takeuchi acknowledged about the robot. “I think that making robots out of the same materials as humans and having them show the same expressions might be one key to overcoming the uncanny valley.”