Britain’s surgeons are backing The Mirror’s call to stop cowboy cosmetic procedures as a mum who came within an hour of death warns women to steer clear of having liquid BBLs in the UK.
Survivor Bonnie-Louise Cooper, 27, is also backing our campaign to stop other mums suffering, fearing lives could be lost. Bonnie-Louise said she thought she was being sensible when she opted not to jet off to Turkey and have the cosmetic procedure in England instead.
She opted for Lift Aesthetics from Essex, who describe Katie Price as their “beautiful client.” The firm has featured on the star’s social media accounts, with a TikTok video showing her having lip fillers and being in “safe hands”.
But Bonnie feels differently having spent weeks in hospital last November because she suffered a deadly sepsis infection following a liquid BBL she’d organised with the firm. The mum said she was left fearing she would leave her five-year-old son an orphan.
She says her nerves are still damaged and experiences numbness where she loses sensation in her legs and her feet change colour. She said: “I’m backing The Mirror campaign and speaking out to stop other women and mums getting hurt. This industry is madness.”
The young mum told of being left devastated and in tears after hearing Alice Webb, 33, had died in September after having a liquid Brazilian butt lift procedure (BBL) in Gloucestershire. The Royal College of Surgeons say they also fear deaths from “out of control” cosmetic firms and ‘practitioners.’
It is impossible to say how many ‘aesthetic practitioners’ there are operating in High Streets and from homes all around the country. But it is feared there now could be between 100,000 and 200,000.
Professor Vivien Lees, Vice President of RCS England and consultant plastic surgeon told The Mirror: “The situation is out of control in the UK. “Cosmetic procedures must be regulated as soon as possible before there is another death. We are supporting this important campaign, to work together, to protect people seeking these treatments.
“In the hands of an untrained person, these procedures place members of the public at significant risk of harm, injury and potential death. The resulting complications can be permanent, affecting more than just physical appearance. There may be psychological and social repercussions too.
“More serious complications may result in the need for emergency medical care, with the NHS picking up the bill for this. It also seems untrained individuals, who are carrying out medical procedures in high-street beauty clinics, do not understand the risk of infection. Anyone carrying out these procedures must be able to deal with problems that may arise. The Government must act now. The risks are just too high for patients.”
Their support for the campaign follows that from The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) and long-term campaigners Save Face, who have been fighting for change for years.
Single mum, Bonnie-Louise, told The Mirror: “I thought I was doing the safe thing by not going to Turkey or Prague but the procedures here can be just as deadly and they can also cause life long complications. Us surviving girls are still not okay, we have scarring, we have physical hardships. I have a young son and he could have ended up an orphan. ”
Beautician Bonnie from Swanage in Dorset, said decided to have the £3,000 procedure with Life Aesthetics after doing her research. She had been impressed with their elite healthcare address of 7 Harley Street, London. The Mirror understands this address has not been occupied for several years and is currently undergoing building work.
She said: “They didn’t send me the postcode until the night before and it was Romford in Essex (not the Harley Street she was expecting). They told me they had two clinics and that day they were working from Romford. I thought I was going somewhere safe. They described it as non-invasive, saying it was pain free and zero down time.”
She said she arranged the procedure through two women but when she turned up it was a man doing the BBL “I was nervous and I asked a lot of questions and he was really reassuring, saying it was not painful,” she said. But Bonnie said she then suffered 40 minutes of agony.
“Oh my gosh, I have a son and it’s the worst pain I’ve ever had in my life. Every time he injected me, I had a shooting pain, I screamed it was so bad. He just made out to me he had not seen someone react this way and actually suggested I had a low pain threshold.”
She had been led to believe she was injected with Lidocaine but said the hospital told her it was not that prescribed pain blocker. Her questions about what filler was used were left unanswered by the clinic, she said.
The Mirror has also tried to contact the firm for answers with no answer from mobile phone numbers listed. We tracked one woman down, who was listed as a director for the firm, who denied any link with them. It is. not known what qualifications were held by those who carried out the procedure on Bonnie.
After getting home from the procedure Bonnie recalls: “I was delirious, I was crying and could not stand or sit. I was vomiting. My sister called for an ambulance. The paramedics arrived quickly and they did observations and said it was obviously some sort of infection. The area was on fire.
“They measured a 3cm by 3cm lump on the incision site. They tried to stand me up to get me into the ambulance but I collapsed. My sister thought I was going to die. The next thing I remember is waking up in an ambulance being blue lighted. I woke up on my front with vomit all over me. It was so confusing. This is when I realised how bad it was.
“I arrived at the hospital and they took me out in stretcher, there was a massive queue in A & E and there was a nurse waiting for me and they wheeled me into my own room. You know it’s serious when you’re skipping the queue in A&E.
“I was really poorly, the pain overrides everything and you can’t think straight. I was crying in pain. When they took me down to MRI every bump was horrific. I was sweating my forehead was dripping. The doctors came into the room and told me: ‘You could die within the hour’. They came in six of them putting IV drips in both of your arms. It was rushed.
“I remember thinking of my son who is completely dependent on me. I started crying. He would be an orphan, I had to get home for him. “About why she wants to join the Mirror campaign, she added: “I don’t want another mum to go through this, we have to get them to act now.
“For four months after my mobility was bad, I couldn’t walk properly because of the nerve damage, the pain took a good five months to actually subside.”
It is believed a traffic light system is under consideration which puts procedures into red, amber and green categories governing who can perform them.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson say: “We are extremely concerned by reports of highly invasive cosmetic procedures being performed by inadequately trained practitioners. The safety of patients is paramount, and we would urge anyone considering cosmetic surgery to consider the possible health impacts and find a reputable, insured and qualified surgeon.
“All doctors performing cosmetic surgery in the UK must be registered with and licensed to practise by the General Medical Council (GMC). We are exploring options around regulation of the cosmetics sector and will provide an update in due course.”
Horrifying blind spot
Britain’s plastic surgeons say there is a “horrifying blind spot” in the UK which allows anyone to carry out dangerous cosmetic procedures.
Nora Nugent, the President of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), said: “It is horrifying” and is urgently calling for the Government to “get something done”.
“The UK is in a very strange position where we have a very regulated healthcare system but a complete blind spot for all of these procedures and lack of regulation about who can do what,” she told The Mirror.
“It’s pretty shocking, what’s out there.”
Referring to the death of Alice Webb, 33, after having a liquid BBL, she said: “Obviously it was a tragic situation but it was a tragedy waiting to happen, we’ve been saying for years that more regulation is needed.
“It’s been a problem for years…If they don’t do anything about it, there’s nothing to stop the same scenario happening again.”
Back in 2013 Sir Bruce Keogh warned the then Government it was a ‘crisis waiting to happen’.
She revealed how non medical people, such as beauticians, have been using “dangerous” techniques in High Streets around the country which could perforate someone’s abdomen, cause nerve damage or bleeding in the neck.
They have been doing liposuction and fat transfer with non-sterile gloves,
visible jumpers and sleeves in the surgical area, and incisions made in the wrong place.
“Those are pretty high risk problems to have and total lack of awareness of sterility, of risk of complications,” she said.
But Dr Nugent, warned even lip fillers can cause blindness in rare cases.
The surgeon from Tunbridge Wells, said the cost price of reputable brands of facial fillers is between £100 and £175 for 1mm so if anyone is offering lip filler for less than £100 it is “too good to be true”.
“Anyone who is doing it for that price hasn’t put a lot into their training,” she added.
“They are training other people when they don’t know what they are doing themselves.
“And advertising really cheap procedures which for these sorts of things means you are using cheap products. It’s a money-making racket.
“There are any number of people walking around with terrible lip fillers,
overdone, lumpy, filler migrating above the lip because they’ve put too much in or they have put it in the wrong place,” she said.
“You shouldn’t see lip filler, if it’s done well. The lips should just look good. If you can see it, it’s not good lip filler.”
But she warned “these are aesthetics concerns” and there are other more serious concerns.
She explained how there are blood vessels in the lip and if they inject into that they can block the blood supply to the skin – causing the tissue to die.
It can also travel in the facial blood vessels to the vessels behind the eye and affect vision.
The Dr has to fix bad fillers, dissolving fillers but not all can be dissolved and sometimes they have to surgically remove it.
Currently the Government are deciding what to do to crack down on the cosmetic cowboys after the Tory consultation suggested a traffic light system, diving procedures up into green, amber and red.
But she is concerned Liposuction is being treated as ‘non surgical procedures’ which she said was “absolutely an atrocity and dangerous going forward.”
She stressed: “ These are surgeries” and urged Wes Streeting and the Government to “keep surgery in the hands of surgeons” and “cosmetic surgery in the hands of surgeons who have it in their scope of training.”
Dr Nugent added they need to: “Make it illegal for non-healthcare personnel to carry out medical aesthetic procedures and I’m including dermal fillers in this.
“Make it illegal or impossible to obtain the equipment or products. They are getting them off the internet.”
