HCM CITY — Despite many people believing that plastic surgery is the magic wand that leads to perfection, it can also lead to serious complications when performed by uncertified doctors.  

NTCD, a 30-year-old women living in the suburban district of Củ Chi, HCM City, went blind after having a nose filler injection last month at a beauty clinic in District 4.

Lured by an advertisement online, on July 16, D was accompanied by her sister, NTBN, to have a nose job at the TN Beauty Clinic Spa at 384 Hoàng Diệu Apartment in District 4.

The owner Nguyễn Thị Thùy Trang performed the procedure using hyaluronic acid and charged VNĐ2 million (US$87). Her sister also had work done on her eyes for VNĐ1 million.

However, just five minutes after, D was struck by a severe headache and was unable to open her eyes.

She was rushed to District 4 Hospital for treatment, but Trang lied to the doctors saying that D had only been given an anesthetic. Doctors at Trưng Vương Hospital where D was transferred to later, however, concluded that a blood vessel in D’s left eye had become congested by the filler which had made her blind and affected her central nervous system.

It also cost N some VNĐ10 million ($433) to re-correct her eyelids at Trưng Vương Hospital.

Trang promised to meet D and pay her VNĐ400 million ($17,300) in compensation on August 9, but she never showed up.

An inspection conducted by HCM City’s Department of Health revealed that the clinic did not have a license while Trang could not produce a practice permit or evidence of where she had sourced the medicines she used.

The National Hospital of Dermatology and Venereology has recently received several patients due to complications from plastic interventions.

Phạm Cao Kiêm, head of the hospital’s Department of Plastic Surgery and Rehabilitation, said that the two most common complications were filler blocking blood vessels and compression which could lead to numbness, vision loss and strokes.

Once the filler is injected directly into a patient’s blood vessels, it can be absorbed by other organs very quickly and lead to severe damage.

Money-driven business

Nguyễn Thị Huỳnh Mai, HCM City’s Department of Health’s Chief of Office, said that according to existing regulations, beauty salons and spas did not need to obtain operation licences but were required to send relevant qualifications to the local department of health ten days prior to opening.

Beauty salons that offer tattoos or permanent make-up without using anesthetic are required to meet facility, equipment and human resource standards.

Only hospitals and medical centres with departments of plastic surgery can offer services requiring the use of injected anesthetic, medicines and gadgets to intervene and correct human bodies.

“Therefore, beauty salons and spas are prohibited from performing filler injections on customers. They don’t care about complications; all they want is money,” she told the Thanh Niên (Young people) newspaper.

“Local authorities told us they had not loosened the management on beauty salons and spas. However, the Law of Enterprise states that enterprises must be informed prior to inspections being carried out, making it difficult to find any wrongdoing,” Mai added.

According to Đỗ Quang Hùng, secretary general of HCM City’s Society of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery, there are 160 certified plastic surgery clinics in the locality along with 10,000 beauty salons and spas, but public management is lax.

“Local authorities need to deal with practitioners who ignore regulations to deter others from doing it again,” he said. — VNS