Unregistered and dicey cosmetic surgical procedures and salons continue to lure women worldwide, writes MedicalBrief. In Kenya, authorities have declared a crackdown on illegal medical spas after liposuction surgery was linked to the death of a female patient, while in Britain, risky liposuction “techniques” are being taught in apparently unsafe conditions.
Public Health and Professional Standards Principal Secretary Mary Muthoni said unethical facilities were risking the lives of Kenyans, reports The East African, this after Lucy Wambui (47) died after having a liposuction procedure at Omincare Medical Limited’s ‘Body by Design’ on 16 October.
Chief government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor said Wambui died from acute pneumonia, possibly caused by a bacterial infection that was left untreated.
Complications
The woman’s family said that shortly after the procedure, she started experiencing complications including abdominal pain, chest pain and difficulty breathing.
But despite this, including a pneumonia diagnosis, Body By Design reportedly discharged her on 22 October.
“The facility told us had treated her for para pneumonic pleural effusion, which most likely resulted from a bacterial infection she got while undergoing liposuction the week before her death,” Oduor said.
However, the autopsy showed no signs of parapneumonic pleural effusion.
“This is the second death of a Kenyan as a result of botched liposuction,” Oduor added.
Further afield, in Britain, videos of a beautician performing surgical procedure liposuction in a beauty salon were shared with the BBC after several women complained they were left injured and disfigured by the treatment.
Luxury Medical Aesthetics and Academy in London has been running one-day training courses for beauticians advertised as a “fat reduction master class”.
In the UK, it is not illegal for a non-medic to perform surgery as long as they don’t claim to be surgeons, and providing they have consent from the client.
The BBC contacted salon owners Daria and Monika Wisniewska about the complaints but they have not responded and blocked the messages.
Sarah Guy, a beautician from South Wales, paid £1 500 to Luxury Medical Aesthetics and Academy for a “one-day fat reduction master class” after being impressed with the company’s before and after photographs on Instagram.
Guy (34) was told she was going to be trained in a new type of lipolysis – using injections where chemicals break up fat cells and the fat is removed naturally by the lymphatic system and the liver.
However, she said, when she arrived at the salon there “was blood splatter up the walls” and “blood-stained gauze swabs lying around”.
During the training course she was told she could take videos, but afterwards she was so worried by what she’d seen, she shared these with the BBC.
In the videos one of the owners, Daria Wisniewska, can be seen injecting a solution into the chin of a woman who has agreed to be a model for the procedure.
Wisniewska then uses a scalpel to make a small hole and inserts a long cannula attached to a suction machine on the floor and begins to suck out fat.
Guy said she saw the same method being used on another model’s chin, and a third woman’s stomach.
Consultant plastic surgeon and member of the Joint Council for Cosmetic Practitioners (JCCP), Dalvi Humzah, said that basic hygiene protocols were not being followed in the salon, increasing the risk of infection, possibly septicaemia, and putting lives at risk.
“It’s a catalogue of disasters all waiting to happen here,” he said.
Ashton Collins from Save Face, a voluntary register of accredited aesthetic practitioners, has been supporting some of the women who have complained of complications and injury after fat reduction treatment at Luxury Medical Aesthetics.
Collins said the women had all been told they were having a non-surgical fat dissolving treatment, not liposuction.
She said: “It was only after they had been numbed and saw the actual device and felt it in their skin that they realised what was actually going on.”
Despite refusing to practise on any of the models, Guy still passed the training course and was given a certificate from Luxury Medical Aesthetics.
When she complained to the company that the procedure they were teaching was unsafe, her messages were ignored and she found herself blocked from contacting the company on Instagram.
The company has refused to respond to BBC requests.
BBC article – Women claim injury and disfigurement after liposuction (Open access)
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
Botched cosmetic procedures lead to calls for better legislation
US cosmetic surgeon to fork out $5m after fake reviews
CDC flags cosmetic surgery-linked meningitis in Mexico
Brazilian butt lift: Behind the world’s most dangerous cosmetic surgery