Felipe Hoyos-Foronda was busted at JFK Airport on Friday night before he could board a flight to Colombia hours after a woman sought a medical procedure at an illegal practice he ran in an Astoria home. NYPD
April 3, 2025 By Bill Parry
A fake doctor who was performing medical procedures without a license at an Astoria home was taken into custody on the night of Friday, March 28, after one of his patients went into cardiac arrest.
At around 1 p.m. that afternoon, Felipe Hoyos-Foronda, 38, injected a 31-year-old woman with lidocaine during a butt implant removal at the illegal practice he ran at 20-59 35th St. causing serious injuries, police said.
EMS responded to the location and rushed the victim to Mount Sinai Queens Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition. While paramedics were removing the patient from the office, Hoyos-Foronda slipped out of the house and drove off.
Police were able to track the license plate of his car as it traveled southbound on the Van Wyck Expressway heading towards JFK Airport.
Members of the Port Authority Police Department detained Hoyos-Foronda after he passed through security and before he could board a departing flight to Colombia. Detectives from the 114th Precinct placed him under arrest.
Hoyos-Foronda was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Sunday on a complaint charging him with assault in the second degree, an armed felony offense, and unauthorized practice of a profession. A doctor from Mount Sinai Queens Hospital told detectives that the victim was on life support with no brain activity, and in his expert medical opinion, her state was caused by lidocaine toxicity and she is not likely to survive, according to the criminal complaint.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey remanded Hoyos-Foronda into custody without bail. The NYPD released a photo of him on Wednesday and asked for any additional victims to come forward.
Anyone with information regarding Hoyos-Foronda is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
Photos courtesy of DOB
Department of Buildings inspectors were requested by first responders to conduct an an inspection of the two-story Astoria home on Friday. Inspectors found that the first floor of the building had been fully converted into an illegally constructed medical office, with a medical exam chair and table, medical supplies, medical equipment, syringes, and injectable Botox and filler products.
The DOB inspectors also found that the cellar of the home had been illegally converted from a storage place into an apartment, with unpermitted gas and water lines to create a kitchen and bathroom. The illegal cellar apartment only had one means of egress, creating a fire trap for the cellar dwellers. DOB inspectors issued three violations to the owners of the building, and a partial vacate order for the illegal basement apartment.
The American Red Cross offered residents from the cellar apartment emergency relocation assistance.
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