Man’s Quest To Look Like A Ken Doll Has Taken A Nosedive

The so-called Human Ken Doll is out of the hospital, though far from healed, after plastic surgery that could have killed him.

Forty-two surgeries were apparently one too many for a Rodrigo Alves, a Brazilian man attempting to look like a living Ken doll, The Daily Mail reports. Alves, 32, was hospitalized for skin necrosis related to his most recent cosmetic procedure, a surgery to sculpt his nose. What began with a sudden sinkhole in his redesigned nose turned out to be his body rejecting new nasal cartilage. "A horrible hole has appeared in my nostril and the infection is eating my nose and I've been warned if it is not stopped, it could eat into my face," Alves told The Daily Mail on Thursday. The damage is being caused by necrosis, or tissue rotting due to an absence of blood flow. If left untreated, necrosis can spread to surrounding tissues and body parts. He received intravenous antibiotic treatment to fight the infection, but the tissue rot is irreversible. Now, Alves' best-case medical scenario is to replace any destroyed tissue and hope it isn't rejected; otherwise, doctors may have to remove his entire nose if the damage is too extensive.

Despite his serious medical emergency, "Aspirational Ken" has remained publicly upbeat. "[Y]our life is at your hands to be anything that you want to be...," Alves wrote Friday on Instagram.

He also suspects the air in Spain is to blame for his rhinoplasty gone wrong. "It's very hot and dusty here and I wonder whether this might have set the infection off," Alves said. To date, the Brazil native has spent 305,000 English pounds on head-to-toe cosmetic procedures, including pectoral implants, arm fillers, and leg liposuction. Alves isn't the only guy going under the knife in pursuit of a Mattel-manufactured beauty ideal. Human Ken Justin Jedlica told GQ in 2014 that he's spent more than $150K on a series of surgeries, including custom shoulder implants. He also added that Valeria Lukyanova, better known as the Human Barbie, could use some extra work.

While Alves hasn't been diagnosed with dysmorphic disorder (BDD), his extreme, numerous, and life-threatening surgeries seem indicative of greater issues. The Anxiety and Depression Association of American describes BDD as a persistent, time-consuming conviction that your body is flawed in some way. BDD-related negative fixations tend to last for hours each day. But regardless of how much surgery people with BDD may undergo, the ADAA says they'll never be satisfied until the underlying mental health issues are also addressed.