10.
RACHAEL KNAPPIER
29-year-old Rachael Knappier was expecting a typical girls’ night when she went to
a Botox party at her friend’s house in Leicester, England.
After injecting some Botox into Rachael’s forehead, the attending beautician noticed
that the woman had a lump on her lip.
It was from an injury she received as a teen, and it was a major source of insecurity for
Rachael.
So when the beautician suggested lip filler, she readily agreed.
What she didn’t realize is that the beautician was an unlicensed ex-con, and she accidentally
injected the filler into an artery.
Rachael woke up later that night and couldn’t feel her lips.
They had swollen so big that her top lip touched her nose.
She went to the emergency room, where she was told that the country’s healthcare system
didn’t cover the treatment she needed.
The disfigured young woman had to shell out money to see a private doctor, who dissolved
the filler.
Within three days of visiting the doctor, Rachael’s lips were thankfully back to normal.
But the close call inspired her to call for strengthened laws to regulate dermal filler
treatments in the U.K.
9.
KARISSA RAJPAU
Plastic surgery is a lucrative business.
Because it’s so expensive, many people shop around for the best deal possible.
And there are plenty of unlicensed crooks out there who are willing to put people’s
lives on the line by performing DIY treatments for a quick buck.
In late 2019, 26-year-old aspiring social media star Karissa Rajpaul began a series
of butt lift procedures at the Encino, California home of mother-daughter duo, Libby Adame and
Alicia Gomez.
The pair allegedly pretended to be specialists and injected Rajpaul’s rear end with cosmetic
substances that were mixed with dangerous chemicals.
Karissa died after her third session, and police charged Adame and Gomez with first-degree
murder.
The tragedy sparked an ongoing investigation, and authorities believe there may be more
victims out there, including several who were disfigured and possibly one who died.
Sadly, there are an alarming number of cases of people dying from illegal butt injections.
Earlier this year, 49-year-old Nitica Deonte Lee of Dallas, Texas was sentenced to five
years in prison for involuntary manslaughter for her role in a young woman’s death.
Back in 2015, Lee injected liquid silicone into a nightclub dancer’s derriere.
The substance seeped into the victim’s blood, and she died four days later.
These needless tragedies are reminders of how important it is to do your research and
make sure you’re going to someone who’s qualified to enhance your assets.
8.
KIRIL TERESHIN
Many people think of plastic surgery as something for women, but men get it too.
And they are no more or less immune to its ill effects than anyone else.
Kiril Tereshin was a soldier in the Russian military.
He wanted to bulk up his arms, so he injected his biceps and triceps with 3.2 quarts (3
liters) of petroleum jelly.
His biceps grew to 24 inches (61 cm) around.
The substance saturated the man’s tissues and muscles and blocked his blood flow, causing
hardened scar tissue to form.
Tereshin, whose gargantuan limbs have earned him the nickname “Popeye,” must have realized
that his arms were unnaturally huge, or at least that something wasn’t right.
He consulted a surgeon, who told him that he faced either amputation or death if he
didn’t undergo surgery to remove the petroleum jelly.
By then, he had a fever and was weak and in pain.
He started the process in 2019 and is still receiving surgeries.
In addition to going through medical hell, Tereshin has experienced a host of other misfortunes
because of his poor decision.
His girlfriend left him, and since injecting his arms with a dangerous substance didn’t
make him any stronger, his dream of being a successful MMA fighter isn’t going very
well.
Surgeon Dmitry Melkinov told The Sun that it’s becoming alarmingly common for people
in Russia to inject petroleum jelly as an alternative to shelling out big bucks for
approved cosmetic procedures.
But petroleum jelly is meant for external use only and wreaks havoc on the body, especially
the kidneys.
7.
TERRIBLE TUMMY TUCK
The popular reality TV series Botched follows the stories of people who emerged from plastic
surgery looking much worse than they went in.
Doctors Terry Dubrow and Paul Nassif do their best to work miracles and undo the damage
of less skilled surgeons.
The show is in its 7th season.
It recently featured a 49-year-old woman named Maritza, whose tummy tucks have destroyed
both her body and her marriage.
Maritza got her first tummy tuck in 2019 -- not very long ago -- and it left her with what
she calls a “Frankenbelly.”
While she was healing, her skin kept turning black.
This was because the surgeon she saw had performed liposuction before doing the tummy tuck, which
Dr. Dubrow says depletes the blood supply and stops the body from healing.
Doctors kept having to cut Maritza’s skin off, and she eventually needed a skin graft.
It left her without a belly button.
Creating a belly button is one of the most difficult things to do in plastic surgery,
according to Dubrow.
In order to even perform the procedure, he had Maritza sign a special consent form acknowledging
that she understood the heightened risks that come along with it.
Thankfully, the surgery went just fine.
Maritza can stand to look at her midsection in the mirror again, and she feels like a
new person.
But it’s not lost on her that things could have gone much worse.
Would you ever get a tummy-tuck or have you?
Let us know your thoughts and opinions in the comments below and if you’re liking
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:)
6.
NIKKI BELZA
One day in 2016, a Las Vegas cocktail waitress named Nikki Belza woke up with tenderness
in her left breast.
At first, she thought she pulled a muscle.
But she kept feeling worse and worse, and collapsed at her job.
Nikki was rushed to the emergency room, where she later said doctors wrote off her concerns
and sent her home with some painkillers.
Things continued to worsen from there.
Nikki developed a fever and soon learned she was in septic shock.
Doctors told her that she had a 50 percent chance of dying if she didn’t agree to have
her left breast removed.
Knowing the infection had spread to her blood and could soon infiltrate her other organs,
she underwent the lifesaving procedure.
Nikki lived without a left breast for months while she recovered.
But it’s hard for a cocktail waitress to do their job in this condition, especially
in Vegas, where appearance is everything.
Once she got through her agonizing post-sepsis symptoms, including graying hair, shakiness,
a weak immune system, and the inability to regulate her own body temperature, Nikki underwent
several reconstructive surgeries to fix her lopsided chest.
5.
CAROL BRYAN
When she was in her 30s, a Florida woman named Carol Bryan began getting Botox injections
to minimize some fine lines on her face.
At age 47, she visited a clinic she’d never been to before.
The staff talked her into trying dermal fillers, which add volume to someone’s face in areas
that are thinning due to age.
After the procedure, Carol’s forehead swelled up every few days but shrunk back down to
its normal size.
Then, a few months later, Carol’s forehead swelled and this time, it didn’t stop growing.
She returned to the clinic, where dissolving agents were injected to bring the swelling
down.
While there, Carol learned that silicone had somehow ended up in the syringe that was used
for her filler injections.
Silicone is never used for facial procedures.
The clinic promised to fix the woman’s face free of charge with regular appointments,
and Carol obliged.
But her face only became more disfigured.
The dissolving agent was eating away at Carol’s muscles and tissue.
Her skin began to sag and her forehead filled with pus.
She quit her job, became a shut-in, stopped letting friends and family come over to visit,
and even thought about taking her own life.
Carol lived as a recluse for years until her daughter, Sofia, couldn’t take seeing her
mom like this anymore and reached out to teaching hospitals in a desperate plea for help.
Renowned plastic surgeon Bryan Boyd took her case, and he was eventually able to repair
a lot of the damage.
Carol’s road to recovery has been long and painful, both physically and emotionally.
She’s now blind in one eye and may never look like she did before the botched procedure.
But she’s using her story to help others through her job as the director of Face2Face
Healing, a nonprofit that raises awareness about disfigurements.
4.
LOUISE SMITH
When the world went into lockdown at the beginning of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, people
began joking about the weight they were gaining from their newfound sedentary lifestyle.
Dubbed the “quarantine 15,” these pesky few extra pounds were a mere inconvenience
to most people.
But the quarantine 15 took a major toll on some peoples’ self-esteem.
One of those people was Louise Smith, a 37-year-old British hairdresser who had recently moved
to Dubai for a fresh start after a break-up.
Her friends said that she became obsessed with her image after gaining some weight during
lockdown.
She became so desperate to get her pre-pandemic figure back that she traveled to Iran for
weight loss surgery.
But something went horribly wrong during the procedure, and Louise died.
The details were obscure, and her loved ones were left in the dark about the circumstances
as they struggled to get Louise’s body back to the U.K. Iran is a popular place for low-cost
plastic surgery, but this tragedy proves that these unbeatable deals can clearly come at
a cost far greater than any amount of money.
3.
KEUANA WEAVER
Earlier this year, 38-year-old Keuana Weaver and her friend Dalelisha Smith traveled to
Mexico for tummy tucks.
The Long Beach, California native expected an in-and-out four-hour procedure, but she
died on the operating table.
Smith barely survived and spent two weeks in the hospital.
Weaver’s grief-stricken family did some digging and found out that the person who
performed Keuana’s tummy tuck is not a licensed plastic surgeon.
They also learned that a third woman fell gravely ill at the same clinic, on the same
day.
She was rushed to the emergency room with septic shock and now suffers from kidney failure.
An autopsy found that Keuana died from blood clotting issues and a heart attack.
The clinic the women went to never pronounced Weaver dead or reported the tragedy to the
U.S. Embassy.
Then, the business deleted its webpage.
But Keuana’s mother is determined not to let the crooked practitioners get away with
their actions.
Since her daughter’s death, she has devoted her time and effort to raising awareness about
the dangers of medical tourism, which is becoming increasingly popular among Americans seeking
low-cost alternatives to plastic surgery in the U.S.
The FBI is investigating the clinic, and it’s hopefully only a matter of time before the
business is forced to answer for its actions.
2.
VINCENZO ZURLO
Thirty-six-year-old Vincenzo Zurlo first started going to Alcalira Jimenez de Rodriguez for
botox last year after meeting the Doral, Florida resident through a friend.
A few months into his treatments, he asked Jiminez de Rodriguez about the possibility
of getting a nose job.
She agreed to do it for just $2,000 -- thousands less than the going rate for a rhinoplasty
in the U.S.
The self-proclaimed practitioner sent Zurlo home with prescriptions for painkillers under
a doctor’s name that he didn’t recognize, which immediately raised flags.
Over the following months, he realized that the surgery meant to make his nose look better
had left him disfigured.
Zurlo went to the police, who sent an undercover to Jimenez de Rodriguez for a plastic surgery
consultation and decided there was enough evidence to criminally charge her.
When officers went to the woman’s office to arrest her, they found her in the middle
of performing an illegal procedure on another victim.
Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the ordeal is that Jiminez de Rodriguez wasn’t doing
surgeries out of her home, which would have been an obvious red flag that she wasn’t
qualified.
She was working at an established clinic, posing as a doctor.
The good news is that there’s one less phony surgeon operating on people trying to improve
their looks.
But for Zurlo, the damage is done.
Speaking with NBC Miami, he summarized the nightmare in one simple but heartbreaking
statement: “She ruined my life.”
1.
ANASTASIA BALINSKAYA
Botched plastic surgeries can physically harm or even kill people, and they also come with
other consequences, especially for people whose income depends on their looks.
This was the case for Anastasia Balinskaya, a Russian reality star from Belarus whose
nose was left rotting from the inside after a rhinoplasty gone wrong.
She opened up to her 159,000 Instagram followers about her suffering a few years after the
procedure.
By then, Anastasia’s nose had deteriorated to the point where doctors said she had just
weeks to save it before it decayed completely.
The young woman had already spent lots of time and money trying to remedy the disfigurement
to no avail, and she couldn’t afford any more treatments.
In a last-minute race against the clock, Anastasia pleaded with her fans for donations to help
her get her nose fixed.
Something similar happened to a famous Chinese singer and actress named Gao Liu, who disappeared
from the limelight without explanation last year.
Little did her five million followers know, she had gotten a nose job and it caused the
tissue in the tip of her nose to die.
Ms. Gao eventually shared her story, revealing photos of her blackened nose and explaining
that she was hospitalized for two months.
The damage was so bad, she would need more surgery, but she had to wait at least a year
for some of the corrective work she had done to heal.
In the meantime, Gao lost over $61,000 in wages because she couldn’t work.
The clinic that performed the operation had already been disciplined several times.
Had Gao known about this, she might not have gone there.
Her career-damaging debacle helped raise awareness about how widespread the problem of botched
plastic surgery is, with many of Gao’s fans demanding heightened accountability and stricter
regulations in the industry.
Thanks for watching!
What’s the worst plastic surgery you’ve ever seen or a story you’ve heard?
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