Brazil's most outspoken advocate of cosmetic surgery, Andressa Urach, recently went into septic shock after a botched operation to augment her thighs, sparking debate about Brazil's culture of beauty, according to the Associated Press.

The runner-up for Brazil's "Miss Bum Bum" said she regrets that she "poisoned" her body because of having "too much vanity."

She blamed society for her behavior which, "unfortunately holds a standard of beauty in which you have to be perfect."

Urach added, "I hope that these wounds at least serve as a warning to other women."

Numerous celebrities have been talking about similar procedures that had sent them to the hospital as well. A 39-year-old woman died from a procedure just a few hours after hydrogel was injected into her rear end in the city of Goiana.

Activists say Brazil's culture of beauty has driven women to experiment with riskier, untested materials and even procedures by unlicensed practitioners.

"They are selling us these plastic surgeries, these synthetic injections like it was any other product," said Sara Winter, a women's rights activist who protested for Urach's recovery back in December.

About 12,000 doctors without specialized training are performing cosmetic procedures on people in Brazil. Some women even turn to paramedics or people with no medical training for procedures.

"Plastic surgery is so tied to this dream of becoming somebody," said Alvaro Jarrin, a College of the Holy Cross professor. "For the growing middle class with more purchasing power, plastic surgery is a means for upward mobility."

Urach, who's claimed to fame was brought by her cosmetic surgeries, said she once had a nose job to "look like a rich girl."

Just last year she said, "There are plenty of ugly women. If you have the money, you can be beautiful. This pretty face you see here, my dear, it costs some."

A lawyer in Brazil, Vania Prisco, had a botched operation in 2013 that caused an infection to spread through her body and hospitalized her for six months.

Prisco has yet to find the woman who performed the procedure on her that she later found out had no medical degree.