Beauty queen Catherine Cando dies during prize-winning plastic surgery procedure

It seems an unusual 'prize' for winning a beauty contest, but plastic surgery is exactly what Catherine Cando got. And it killed her.

During a botched liposuction procedure on January, the 19-year-old Ecuadorian beauty queen died.

The treatment was one of several prizes, along with a car and a smart tablet, she received for winning the local Queen of Duran contest last October.

Tragically, Cando, a medical student, was said to have felt the surgery was unnecessary, but was eventually pressured into it by the contest's judges and the plastic surgeon who would perform the operation.

KissyDress short prom dresses

"The jury told me to lose weight when they handed us all swimsuits," said Cando in an interview.

At the time of entering the competition, Cando weighed 63 kilograms but, through diet and exercise, reduced her weight to the "ideal" 53 kilograms.

But, still, when she won, she was encouraged to undergo the surgery.

Plastic surgery rates in South America are the highest in the world where liposuction to 'fix flaws' is the most common procedure.

"Before having the surgery, she received a lot of calls from the surgeon trying to persuade her to do it, but she kept saying no," Cando's 24-year-old brother, Daniel Zavala told local media.

'She was thinking about letting someone else have it as a freebie but eventually she agreed to have it just get him off her back.'

Lawyers for the beauty queen allege medical malpractice, El Telegrafo reports.

"I was told she had died of a brain oedema," said lawyer Carlos Reyes Izquierdo, according to the Daily Mail.

"But the clinic staff told her relatives that she had died of a cardiac arrest.

"I have ordered cytological and pathological examinations to find out what exactly happened.

"However, it can be presumed as negligence because there has been no support from doctors who have failed to explain anything about the case.

"The doctors in question have been arrested to prevent them from leaving the county."

vintage bridesmaid dresses