A mum-of-five has died in Gloucester after having a so-called liquid Brazilian Butt Lift procedure. Beauty therapist Alice Delsie Preete Webb, 33, died on Monday after undergoing the celebrity-style procedure and has become the first British woman to die after undergoing what’s known as a ‘liquid BBL’.
The Mirror reports that Alice’s treatment was allegedly performed by an unqualified practitioner without medical training. Detectives from Gloucestershire Police are investigating the Bristol mum’s sudden death and have arrested two people.
A Gloucestershire Police spokesman said: “Two people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the death of a woman in her 30s in Gloucester. Police had been called by the ambulance service at around 11.35pm on Monday (23 September) with a report a woman had become unwell following a suspected cosmetic procedure.
“She was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and died in the early hours of Tuesday morning. Her next of kin and the coroner are aware. The woman’s family are being supported by specially trained officers.
“An investigation, led by the Major Crime Investigation Team, is ongoing. The two people who had been arrested have been released on police bail. We can also confirm the woman who died is 33-year-old Alice Webb.”
Unlike the surgical operation, liquid BBLs involve injecting hyaluronic acid and dermal fillers into the buttocks. Similar procedures are listed online for £2,500 a time and can be performed in as little as 60 minutes.
Alice’s friend Abi Irwin described the young mum as a “beautiful person inside and out.” She said: “Alice passed away on Monday evening after having a BBL treatment which has gone wrong. [She] had the biggest heart, her family was her world – it is a difficult and heartbreaking time for them all.”
Last night Alice’s partner Dane Knight posted online: “Want to say a heartfelt thank you..including [for] all of the kind messages sent to my children. Please, please have these five girls’ feelings at heart here.”
Alice, who ran her own beauty business in the West Country, leaves behind Dane and their five kids Delsie, 15, Preete, 13, Gracie 12, Nylie, 10 and Clarie, seven. The young mum is understood to have had a non-surgical BBL a procedure often plugged on social media as “risk-free” and a “cheaper” alternative to surgery.
She is the first Brit to pass away after having the procedure. But Ashton Collins of Save Face, the UK’s top Government-backed register for medical aesthetic treatments, has long warned liquid BBLs are just as dangerous.
She said: “I am devastated to hear of Alice’s tragic passing. We launched a campaign in December 2023 calling upon the government to take urgent action to ban these procedures. We made it absolutely clear, that without urgent intervention someone would die – It makes me incredibly sad and angry that today, our fear has been confirmed and a family has been shattered.”
“Liquid BBL procedures are a crisis waiting to happen. They are advertised on social media as ‘risk-free’, ‘cheaper’ alternatives to the surgical counterpart and that could not be further from the truth.”
Some 479 patients have reported complications related to BBLs to Save Face since 2022. Over 50 per cent of cases reported resulted in severe and life-threatening complications including infections, sepsis, and abscesses requiring hospital admission and often surgical intervention. Worrying, 100 per cent of treatments were carried out by non-healthcare practitioners.
And 98% found their practitioner on social media sites like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Alice is among a growing number of Brit’s who have lost their lives to BBL treatments. In 2019, Melissa Kerr, from Gorleston, in Norfolk, died at a private hospital in Istanbul while undergoing a surgical BBL.
A fatal clot travelled to her lungs after fat taken during a liposuction procedure was injected into her buttocks. BBLs – both surgical and non-surgical – carry the highest risk of all cosmetic surgeries – with more than one death occurring per 4,000 procedures.
A GoFundMe for Alice’s family has since been taken down after hundreds of people began speculating on social media.