A father in Mexico is demanding an investigation after his teenage daughter’s death. The girl, Paloma Nicole Arellano, underwent multiple cosmetic surgeries, her father asserts. He claims that not only did he not give consent for the procedures, but he also didn’t even know about them. Her mother, whom he is no longer married to, is the one who consented. And now, the mom’s new boyfriend, who happens to be a plastic surgeon, is being investigated for performing the procedures.
Fourteen-year-old Paloma died September 20, 2025, as a result of a respiratory illness that caused swelling in her brain, local newspaper El Siglo de Durango reported. Initially, her father, Carlos Arellano, was told the teen had died of complications from COVID. But soon, he would discover that what he had been told might not be true at all.
Arellano’s ex-wife, Paloma’s mother, told him September 12 that the teen had tested positive for COVID and they were going to a remote area in the Durango mountains for her to recover. What he didn’t know was that the girl was actually being checked into a cosmetic surgery clinic.
According to AZ Central, the teen underwent breast augmentation surgery, and the surgeon was done by her mom’s new boyfriend. Her dad had no idea that her mom had given her consent for the surgery to happen. Had he known, he would have done something to stop it. That decision likely would have saved his daughter’s life.
Shortly after the surgery, Paloma fell ill and her mom called her ex-husband to let him know. The girl had been placed in a medically induced coma she never woke from. A funeral quickly followed after she was declared brain dead.
“At the funeral, some relatives told me her breasts were larger than what she had before and when I mentioned it to her mother, she told me it wasn’t true, that she didn’t know anything,” Carlos Arellano said in a statement provided by the Durango Prosecutor’s Office shared by AZ Central.
He then asked to be alone with his daughter’s body, but her mom “didn’t want to” leave. Eventually, he was able to convince his ex-wife and her “entire” family to do so. His sister, mother, and another family member stayed with him.
“They examined my daughter, and sure enough: she had breast implants. We have photographs of the implants and the scars. We immediately requested an autopsy,” he said, per AZ Central.
Now, an investigation is underway. The mother of Paloma is being investigated, as well as the doctor who performed the surgery, the hospital, and anyone else involved. Carlos Arellano alleges that they were all involved in the “cover-up” that led to his daughter’s death.
Paloma’s case is so shocking that Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is getting involved. During a September 24 press conference, Sheinbaum said the Interior Ministry will be following up on the case, the Latin Times reported.
“Send us the case and we will gladly reach out to the family and see how we can help,” she said.
On September 28, a judge decided to charge the girl’s mother, Paola Jazmín, and Dr. Victor Manuel in connection with the teen’s death, El Siglo de Durango reported. They are being charged with omission of care, falsification of documents, usurpation of profession, and negligence in the exercise of medicine. They are both being held in jail while the investigation continues.
