Florida Agenda

FORT LAUDERDALE – Broward Sheriff ’s deputies arrested a local transgender woman for manslaughter, after investigators say she pumped an unknown substance—made from materials purchased at Home Depot— into another woman’s buttocks during what was advertised as enhancement surgery. Oneal Ron Morris—a.k.a. Duchess, or Dutchess—was arrested at her mother’s Coconut Creek home on Thursday, after what authorities say is a history of injecting many patients— including other transgendered women—with a toxic mix of rubber cement, mineral oil, caulk, and Fix-a- Flat.

Morris, 32, is charged in the death of Shatarka Nuby, one of several victims who allegedly sought out the nurse, who tried passing herself off as a cosmetic surgeon. Investigators say that Morris came to Nuby’s house and injected her buttocks, hips, thighs, and breasts with the poisonous mixture, before sealing the injection areas with super glue and cotton balls. Bail was set on Friday at $150,000 by Broward County Judge John Hurley.

Nuby’s skin turned black, stiff, and warm around the injection sites. She wrote a letter to the Florida Department of Health before her premature death in March. According to a medical examiner’s report, she suffered “massive systemic silicone migration” resulting from Morris’ injections.

Morris was charged in 2011 with practicing medicine without a license that resulted in serious bodily injury.

Rajee Rajindra Narinesingh, who appeared on Anderson Cooper’s news program to discuss her own personal experience as a “patient” of Morris, reacted philosophically to news of the criminal charges. “My prayer for her is that somehow she will use this experience to do good in the future,” Narinesingh told the Florida Agenda.

By Rajindra Narinesingh

Unless you have been under a rock for the last week-and-a-half, I know you’ve heard about the transgender woman Oneal Ron Morris here in South Florida, who got arrested for injecting a concoction of cement, Fix-A-Flat and mineral oil into a woman’s buttocks. This story actually went viral and made international news and was on the front page of The Sun newspaper in the UK.

The woman who was injected, traveled down here to South Florida from Tampa, and paid Oneal $700 for what she thought was medical silicone injections. However, when she returned home, she ended up seriously ill in a Tampa hospital.

In recent years, there have been a number of nightmare stories of people getting seriously ill and even dying from black market silicone injections.

These stories hit very close to home for me, because I too have gotten black market silicone injections. As a matter of fact, I am one of the people that went to Ms. Morris for injections. Many transgender women end up getting black market silicone mainly because it’s a lot less expensive than going to a plastic surgeon and the results can be pretty quick. When you’re transgender, matching ones physical body with the way one feels inside becomes dire. Getting silicone injections in the T-Girl community is almost like a rite of passage.

I realize now I too could have become very ill or even died from the injections. I had injections in my face, chest, buttocks and hips.

All of my body work, so far, has been fine. However, I suffered a horrible reaction in my face especially on the left side where three huge nodules formed and had my face looking quite distorted. I also experienced a bad facial infection and an extreme amount of pain. I ended up having to have surgery to remove the tumor-like nodules. And thanks to the great work of Dr.

John J. Martin Jr. in Coral Gables, Florida, my face has improved although I continue to have to go for medical treatment.

Despite what I went through with my face overall, the black market injections did help me a great deal to feminize my look. I know that I may sound a bit contradictory but for transgender people achieving the look of the gender one feels is that important. As far as my face is concerned the injections gave me more of an oval looking face, which definitely gave me a  more feminine look.

As far as my body is concerned my breasts are what I’m most proud of. Breasts are a major part of the body that distinguishes a female from a male. There are many transgendered girls that have gotten black market silicone injection and been fine. For them, silicone has been a best friend.

Seriously though, going to someone’s house or hotel room to get injections is really rolling the dice. Most of the people administering the injections are not medically trained and you don’t know if they are using medical silicone or some sort of chemically toxic concoction. As I look at my transitional journey and the journey of my trans sisters and brothers, I know that the system needs to be revamped. Maybe if insurance companies would cover gender reassignment, trans people could transition in a safe manner!

Rajindra Narinesingh is a Transgender Activist, a writer, an actress, and a public speaker. She has her own show on Youtube called T-Talk which can be found by searching for Rajindramiami