A Florida woman is arrested and will be criminally charged in connection to the death of a Kim Kardashian-lookalike model.
She died from botched silicone injections.
Christina Ashten Gourkani, 34, uses aesthetic procedures to sculpt her body. The model has an OnlyFans page and has more than 500k followers on Instagram.
According to District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe, Gourkani went to a hotel room inside San Francisco Airport Marriot Hotel in Burlingame on April 19, where she allegedly received silicone injections for buttocks enhancement.
Her family said Gourkani died the following day from cardiac arrest.
“At approximately 4:31am on 4/20/2023 our family received a tragic phone call from a family member who was frantically screaming and crying (hysterically) on the other end of the line….Ashten is dying,” family members wrote on a GoFundMe page.
Her modeling website states, “Ashten passed away after complications from a cosmetic surgery procedure. Ashten’s charismatic presence and everlasting positive energy will be missed by her family, her friends, and her millions of fans across the world.”
Gourkani hired Vivian Alexandra Gomez, 50, to give her buttocks enhancement injections at the Burlingame Hotel.
The model desired to “enlarge her rear end to make the victim look more like Kim Kardashian. Instead what happened is … the drug that was injected into her went right into her blood stream. It ultimately caused a pulmonary embolism, causing her death,” Wagstaffe told press Tuesday.
Hours after the model died, police arrested Gomez at an airport in Broward County, Florida.
Inmate records show Gomez was booked into a Broward County jail and charged with involuntary manslaughter and practicing medicine without certification.
She remains in custody.
Gomez is an unlicensed cosmetologist, Wagstaffe said, and using injectable silicone for body contouring is not approved by the FDA. “It’s very dangerous. It’s not approved by the FDA, and even if it were, she’s not licensed to do it,” he said.
FDA health officials strongly discourage the use of injectable silicone.
“Beware of using injectable silicone for body contouring or any other unapproved products to achieve your goals. Injectable silicone is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for any aesthetic procedure including facial and body contouring or enhancement. Silicone injections can lead to long-term pain, infections, and serious injuries, such as scarring and permanent disfigurement, embolism (blockage of a blood vessel), stroke, and death,” the FDA wrote.
Gomez’s arraignment is scheduled for May 22 at 1:30 p.m. in the Hall of Justice in Redwood City.
