Illegal Injecter Facing the Music Again
Transgender amateur cosmetologist arrested for offering silicone injections out of her home
By BRIAN HAMACHER
Updated 11:30 AM EST, Thu, Jul 9, 2009
This is the sad, puffy face of Donnie Hendrix, the transgender amateur beautician who has been busted - again - in connection with illegally injecting silicone into people's faces out of her home.
Hendrix was arrested Tuesday in Flagler County after she agreed to inject two people with silicone at her home. Her two "clients" turned out to be undercover cops.
The 40-year-old faces two counts of practicing medicine without a license, a felony that could land her a year in jail.
Prison is nothing new to Hendrix. She was convicted in 2003 of culpable negligence in the death of Vera Lawrence, a Miami-Dade woman who died after Hendrix injected her with silicone in Hendrix's Miramar apartment. Hendrix served two years of a five year sentence.
Police said Hendrix, also known as "Viva," has been running her underground operation for years, and likely picked up right where she left off when she was released from prison in 2005. She was charging anywhere from $400 to $600 for each injection session, according to police.
As of Tuesday, Hendrix was being held on $25,000 bond at the Flagler County Inmate Facility.
Hendrix, born a man and now living as a woman, has undergone several silicone injections to her face, breasts, hips and buttocks.
Silicone has been approved by the FDA for breast implants but not for face implants. Silicone pumping parties, where the substance is administered by novices, have become increasingly popular. The results are often deadly, as cheap silicone is used on a regular basis in the makeshift procedures. The second-rate silicone can enter the blood stream and cause a fatal embolism.
First Published: Jul 9, 2009 10:12 AM EST
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