A couple posing as plastic surgeons in Bogotá is now facing criminal charges after prosecutors said they treated patients using forged medical credentials, leaving at least 259 alleged victims across the Colombian capital.
Ruth Verónica Lengua Jaramillo and Esteban Felipe Henao, both 34, lived together in the Cedritos neighborhood in northern Bogotá. Neither had attended medical school — court records show both had only finished high school — yet each allegedly obtained fake diplomas years apart. Henao is accused of claiming a medical degree from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in 2016, along with a bogus certificate stating he had completed mandatory rural medical service at a hospital in Cauca that had actually been shut down since 2006. Lengua allegedly forged a 2017 diploma from Universidad El Bosque and carried a health-sector credential that the Colombian Medical College says it never issued.
The scheme reportedly began to fall apart in 2025, when the pair tried to register for official professional licenses — a step that would have let any patient verify their supposed qualifications in a public database. Both universities confirmed neither had ever been enrolled, and the medical college uncovered inconsistencies that prompted formal complaints and a fraud investigation by prosecutors.
According to the case file, patients reportedly underwent procedures while conscious, screaming in pain during the operations. Both suspects were arrested in Bogotá’s Usaquén district by Colombia’s judicial investigative police, with support from a military anti-extortion unit.
You can read the full investigation at El Tiempo.
Source: Los falsos cirujanos señalados de operar mientras sus pacientes gritaban de dolor: hay 259 víctimas en Bogotá (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: Irene G. Ruiz, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).