Hungry leeches and bungled boob jobs! "Botched" dove into epic plastic disasters, but you
didn't see everything!
In their respective practices as plastic surgeons, Drs. Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow often receive
requests from patients to make some of their body parts resemble those of celebrities — especially
the Kardashians. This was particularly true of Kylie Jenner's revelation that she received
lip injections, Dubrow explained in an E! interview.
"She started a trend of young girls coming into our office with pictures of Kylie, showing
her lips, wanting her lips."
"Anything that Kylie does, the whole world follows."
Another oft-requested body part belongs to Jenner's half-sister, Kim Kardashian. The
surgical procedure to enhance one's derriere to Kardashian-like proportions, Dubrow told
Australia's News 24, is known as the "Brazilian butt lift," in which fat is taken from places
in the body where it's not wanted and is injected into the butt.
"Get that all sucked out and put back in my bum as well."
However, Dubrow warned this can be far more dangerous than most people realize, saying:
"When you take fat from one part of the body and inject it in the buttock, it can get into
the large veins in the buttock, it can travel to the heart and into your lungs, and be fatal."
Dr. Terry Dubrow has been starring in "Botched" since the series first debuted in 2014, but
there was a point where he nearly talked himself out of taking the job. Interviewed by the
Daily Beast, Dubrow — who already had a successful, thriving practice in place — worried
that the television exposure could potentially show him in a bad light if surgeries didn't
work out as hoped. If that were to happen, Dubrow feared the negative impact that it
could have on his business. As he explained:
"As a plastic surgeon, you're not judged by the before vs. after. You're judged just by the after."
While Dubrow's success rate as a surgeon is enviable, he was quick to point out that no
surgeon is perfect, and sometimes an operation doesn't go as planned.
Ultimately, Dubrow relented when it became clear that the premise of "Botched" wasn't
one that would encourage people to have frivolous plastic surgery. He explained to Cheat Sheet:
"We always say on 'Botched' that plastic surgery is real surgery. It's really serious and can
have serious complications."
One reason behind Dr. Terry Dubrow's initial reticence to appear on "Botched" was likely
the fact that he had previously appeared on reality television — and it hadn't gone
so well. He was one of the surgeons at the center of "The Swan," a 2004 Fox reality show
in which so-called "ugly duckling" women receive cosmetic surgery to emerge as titular swans,
and then compete in a televised beauty pageant.
"Amy came to us saying that she felt like a loser."
Television critics found plenty to hate in "The Swan." In critic Robert Bianco's review
for USA Today, he tore into the show, saying:
"Hurtful and repellent even by reality's constantly plummeting standards, The Swan is proof that
the genre's hucksters have no built-in boundaries. They will plumb ever lower depths until the
market, or the courts, stops them."
Years after the show was canceled, Entertainment Weekly deemed "The Swan" to be one of the
10 worst reality TV programs in the history of the genre.
Not every "Botched" patient has walked away happy. Such was the case with an unnamed patient
who allegedly tried to shake down Dr. Terry Dubrow by demanding $3 million in exchange
for not suing over surgery he performed on her for the show.
According to Page Six, the patient underwent an illegal procedure that injected silicone
into her buttocks, and subsequently became severely ill. She applied to be on "Botched,"
and was accepted. Dubrow performed surgery that reportedly left the woman's condition
improved by around 85 percent, but she was unsatisfied with how things turned out and
refused to show off her final result for the show's end-of-episode reveal. As a result,
her episode never aired.
Interestingly, that wasn't the only time a patient attempted to extort Dubrow. In 2020,
Page Six reported that another patient was allegedly harmed by a butt lift he performed,
and demanded $5 million. She ultimately sued for $10 million for her injuries, reported
TMZ. Dubrow subsequently countersued, reported Fox News, alleging defamation.
The patients who appear on "Botched" in the hopes of having their personal plastic surgery
disasters repaired receive some monetary compensation for being on the show. Curiously, according
to a profile on the show for Allure, the patients don't actually get to keep that money – they
have to hand it over to the show's doctors as a partial payment for whatever surgeries
they'll receive. According to Dr. Terry Dubrow, being paid for their work isn't because of
greed, but has to do with medical ethics.
While Dubrow didn't divulge how much of an appearance fee the patients receive, he did
confirm that the surgery they pay for is far from inexpensive, telling Cheat Sheet:
"So the procedure, revisional surgery of the type we do, would vary between $30,000 to
probably $90,000 or $100,000."
The cases the doctors tackle on "Botched" are far from typical, and often require Drs.
Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow to venture outside the box. For example, Dubrow has utilized
a very unorthodox method to pull excess blood out of a patient: Leeches.
"He was with leeches today."
"Leeches?"
"Leeches."
In addition, said Nassif, the doctors have also called in an unusual consultant when
dealing with some patients: Justin Jedlica, deemed "the Human Ken Doll" due to undergoing
hundreds of plastic surgeries. Because a number of those procedures involved implants that
Jedlica designed himself, Dubrow told Allure:
"He's an expert on body implants."
"I've come up with some new plans for quadricep implants, calf implants, and lat implants."
As Dubrow told Cosmopolitan, these unorthodox cases require coming up with unconventional
solutions, saying:
"These cases are not found in any textbook. You can't call any surgeon and say, 'Have
you ever seen this?' because no one has ever seen this."
Of the numerous patients to have appeared on "Botched" over the years in hopes of having
their plastic surgery disasters repaired, some have been celebrities. One of the first
famous folks to appear on "Botched" was supermodel Janice Dickinson, who appeared in the first
season seeking reparation of a decades-old breast enhancement gone wrong. Described by
Dr. Terry Dubrow as his "most challenging case overall," the surgeon contended that
she was incredibly difficult to work with.
"But the thing of it is, is that I have tricky breasts."
Other celebs who've sought help on "Botched" include television personality Maria Menounos,
former "Baywatch" actor Nicole Eggert, and "Mama" June Shannon of "Here Comes Honey Boo
Boo," whose request for a tummy tuck was refused by the "Botched" docs.
Reality TV personality Farrah Abraham also appeared on "Botched," but it did not go well
for her. She sought permanent lip implantation after experiencing what a bad reaction from
getting lip fillers. She was rebuffed by the doctors, however, who pointed out that any
additional surgery would just cause even more damage.
Thanks to the ever-increasing popularity of "Botched," being accepted as a patient on
the show is highly competitive. As Allure pointed out, in the show's first season, there
were just a few hundred applicants to appear in one of the season's eight episodes. By
the second season, that number climbed sharply to 6,000 people in search of restorative plastic surgery.
"I want to look like a f—doll, but I don't want to be a f—doll."
As the seasons progressed, so did the number of people vying to appear on "Botched." Dr.
Terry Dubrow revealed in an interview with Distractify:
"By the time the show got known for the second, third, and beyond, we had around 10,000 applicants."
Beyond the casting process, sometimes the doctors steer patients from their respective
practices to appear on the series. As Dubrow told Distractify, when he encounters a patient
dealing with odd or desperate circumstances who doesn't have the financial wherewithal
to pay for the necessary surgery, he'll ask if they're open to publicly displaying their
stories on "Botched." Often, they agree.
When Drs. Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow first explored the idea of bringing their medical
skills to television in "Botched," they were adamant that the show avoid presenting plastic
surgery as a no-risk quick fix to improve one's appearance. Unlike previous reality
series based around plastic surgery, such as "The Swan" and "Bridalplasty," their goal
was to demonstrate the risks and hazards involved with going under the knife, emphasizing the
importance of seeking out qualified surgeons to grasp how badly things can go when these
complex procedures are not done precisely right.
"The difference between this show and other plastic surgery shows is that we're not glamorizing
plastic surgery. In fact, we're providing a scare about plastic surgery."
"There's only one procedure that's totally safe – and this is from the Botched doctors
– is no surgery."
Nassif concurred, explaining that he understood that the appeal of "Botched" lay with the
plastic surgery disasters they'd be trying to repair. He stated:
"Unfortunately, people like to watch train wrecks. But if you can take a train wreck
and then add the inspirational aspect of having a good result or a happy ending, I think that
fills a void."
Not only do "Botched" doctors Paul Nassif and Terry Dubrow perform plastic surgery on
patients; each of them has also been on the receiving end of similar procedures. Dubrow,
in fact, revealed that he received some cosmetic facial enhancements, but ultimately regretted it.
Speaking with Cheat Sheet, Dubrow recalled getting fillers and Botox in his face just
before embarking on a book tour with wife Heather Dubrow. As he recalled, he foolishly
didn't allow enough time to elapse before appearing on TV, which left those cosmetic
enhancements far more noticeable than he would have liked. Dubrow admitted:
"It just goes to show you that even a plastic surgeon can be an idiot. If you're gonna do
any kind of procedures or have injections, give enough time so that the swelling can settle down."
Nassif, however, has no remorse about the work he's had done. He told Cheat Sheet:
"I've had numerous things done, especially reconstructive to my nose."
He added that he'd been giving himself Botox injections for several years, and Dr. Dubrow
had helped him with hernia repairs.