My body started eating itself alive… I thought I was going to die: Horror of LA fitness influencer, 26, whose body ‘rotted’ after getting 60 ‘fat-burning’ vitamin jabs

A fitness influencer claims ‘fat-busting’ vitamin jabs at a swanky spa ‘rotted’ her skin and left her looking like she had ‘monkeypox‘.

Beatriz Amma, a fitness fanatic who ‘loved wearing bikinis’, moved to Los Angeles in February 2021 with dreams of becoming an online fitness guru.

The 26-year-old headed to a spa, where she paid $800 (£650) for shots of vitamin B12 mixed with vitamin C and deoxycholic acid, a popular ‘fat dissolver’.

However, the former health store manager became unwell within hours and eventually went to hospital later after red welts developed all over her skin and left her in so much pain she thought she was ‘going to die’.

Doctors told her that tissue around the site of the jabs was dying due to the botched procedure, she claimed.

She was horrified when one medic suggested she wouldn’t be able to wear a bikini again as people would ‘think she had monkeypox’. 

Now three years later, Beatriz is still suffering complications and taking medicine to keep her symptoms at bay — but is now a fitness and body positivity influencer with 30,000 followers across Instagram and TikTok. 

Beatriz, who attended the unnamed clinic in Burbank in spring 2021, said: ‘It all looked super legit, clean, professional.’

Staff at the spa advised her that the ‘more injections the better’ and that it would be more effective if she had them in more than one area.

‘She said it was made by a really reputable company and she showed me the vials. I was excited,’ Beatriz said.

The fat-busting jabs, which cost around £200 per session, see deoxycholic acid, a bile acid made by the body, injected into the body to dissolve fat cells. Common side effects include skin irritation, bruising and swelling around the injection site. 

Beatriz had around 60 jabs, with ten administered in each arm, 20 in her back and 20 in her stomach.

However, when she woke up the next morning she ‘felt funny’, suffering from fever, shivers, chills and cold sweats that became worse over the course of the day. 

Two days later, welts appeared on her skin in the places she had been injected.

Beatriz claimed doctors reassured her symptoms were nothing to worry about.

However, she moved in with a co-worker as she was struggling to put clothes on, go to the bathroom and get dressed.

Beatriz claimed she was ‘rotting’ in bed, with her skin ‘bursting open’ and her body ‘eating itself alive’.

After two weeks of living with her friend, Beatriz went to hospital when she began suffering severe pain and feared she was going to die.

Beatriz said: ‘I woke up in tears at 3am one night and thought “I have to go to the ER”.

‘The pain was excruciating. The infection was just everywhere.

‘I prayed to God and said “If this is my time, take me”. My body had lost the fight.

‘I remember just being in so much pain that I thought I was going to die that night. I couldn’t fight anymore.’

Doctors found that she had necrosis — death of body tissue due to infection, she claimed.

Tests revealed that the infection was caused by subcutaneous mycobacterium abscessus, according to Beatriz.

The bacteria, which is found in water, soil and dust, can contaminate medical devices, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

People who receive injections without their skin being disinfected are at risk of mycobacterium abscessus, which is in the same family of bacteria as those that cause tuberculosis and leprosy.

Symptoms include pus-filled boils, fever, chills and muscle aches. Blood tests or samples taken from infected areas are needed to confirm the infection, according to the CDC.

Treatment includes draining pus, removing infected tissue and a long-term dose of antibiotics.

Beatriz was horrified when a doctor suggested she wouldn’t be able to wear a bikini as people would ‘think she had monkeypox’ — an infection that fluid-filled spots and is spread through contact with an infected person’s skin, coughs and sneezes.

Beatriz said she is worried about finding a partner or how she could explain the disease to her children one day.

She said: ‘Every time I look in the mirror I remember that I’ve lost so much of my life to this.

‘My dream was to be a fitness influencer and I loved travelling and wearing bikinis. I’d worked so hard for the body I had.

‘I’ve had doctors tell me “you’re going to have this forever, give up on your dreams of being an influencer, your skin is always going to alarm people”.

‘One doctor said “you’re never going to be able to walk on the beach in a bikini again, everyone’s going to think you have monkeypox” and then laughed about it.

‘It just sucks. I was watching a kid and a mum play together and it made me wonder if my [future] kid is going to ask me “mummy, how come you are different to everybody else?”‘

By March 2022, Beatriz’s wounds closed up but she continued to be on IV antibiotics for six hours a day.

She moved to oral antibiotics in September 2022, which she stopped taking in February.

However, she had to restart treatment in July as the disease began to resurface.

Beatriz said: ‘It took almost an entire year for my wounds to heal. I had lots of surgeries to try and remove as much infected tissue as possible.

‘I’m now starting treatment again. The effects are so hard on the body.

‘I’m on year three and it still isn’t over. I would never have thought that something so simple could almost take my life and leave me still fighting for my life.’

Beatriz hopes to spread awareness about disease and after years of hiding her body now hopes to inspire others to be body positive.

Beatriz said: ‘I want all of us to be able to express our bodies and feel beautiful even if people feel different.

‘I just really want to help ignite this body positivity movement and empower people of all kinds with all different adversities to not hide and to feel beautiful regardless of their scars — internally and externally.’