Brazilian Butt Doctor ‘Dr. Bumbum,’ Wanted For Patient Death, Arrested In Rio

A Brazilian butt doctor known to his fans as “Dr. Bumbum,” wanted in connection with the death of one of his patients, has been arrested after he spent several days on the lam, Brazilian police said.

Denis Furtado, 45, was arrested Thursday alongside his mother at an office complex in an upscale neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro, days after he vanished in response to a judge signing a warrant for his arrest, the Independent reported.

Furtado now faces murder charges in connection with the death of Lilian Calixto, 47, a mother of two who fell ill and died Saturday after undergoing a procedure by Furtado, according to the BBC.

In a video posted to his Instagram account—where he has more than 660,000 followers—Furtado proclaimed his innocence, saying Calixto’s death, while tragic, was not the result of malpractice.

“A fatality has occurred—a fatality that could happen to any doctor,” he said, according to the Independent.

Calixto died Saturday following a butt-enhancement procedure, in which Furtado is said to have injected a mixture of silicone spiked with acrylic glass filler, police told the BBC. He brought her to the hospital after she began to suffer from an elevated heart rate, but she soon slipped into unconsciousness and died despite efforts by doctors to save her, the Independent reported.

Her exact cause of death has not been determined, police told the Independent.

A judge earlier this week signed a warrant for Furtado’s arrest, and also scooped up his 19-year-old girlfriend and a nurse accused of helping with the fatal procedure, the BBC reported.

But Furtado, for the moment, was nowhere to be seen. His lawyer, Naira Baldanza, said Furtado fled in a moment of panic, but was not trying to evade the law, according to the Independent.

“Any conclusion regarding the death of Lilian Calixto and my client’s responsibility in this fatality is premature,” she said in a statement to reporters, the Independent reported.

Furtado maintains a vigorous social media presence, frequently posting before-and-after pictures of butt lifts and other procedures, and signing off each post with a cheerful “Dr. Bumbum teaches.”

Dr. Bumbum has no certified butt specialty, the BBC reported local media as saying. While he is licensed to practice medicine in Brasilia and the state of Goiás, he is not trained in the cosmetic surgery on which he has based his celebrity, according to the BBC.

[Photo: Rio de Janeiro State Military Police]