Life of 52-year-old Jordan Miles has forever been changed by a visit to a skin treatment clinic in a Florida suburban mall in the end of 2004.
She had replied to an advert from the clinic offering help for her teenage son’s acne. He did not receive the treatment, however Jordan Miles made an appointment for herself to undergo laser treatments to remove sunspots on her arms, back and chest.
There were two women to perform the procedure, however, as Miles later discovered, neither of them had the necessary training.
"They began with the laser on my chest, and when they got to my back, they decided the sunspots were worse, and therefore they upped the laser, further intensifying the procedure," Miles said.
Left lasting scars
This outpatient procedure left Miles, who works as a mental health counselor, in such agonizing pain that she vomited while coming back home. Not receiving any helpful response from the clinic, she talked to a dermatologist, who acknowledged that she was covered in red, stripe-like second- and third-degree burns that would leave permanent scars.
The redness decreased, however each burn drained the pigment from her skin, leaving Miles open to further serious problems with skin should she ever expose the affected areas to the sun.
" Now I have what looks like zebra stripes everywhere," Miles explained. "I must stay away from many activities and types of clothing. It’s horrible."
Not the only case
Experience of Jordan Miles is barely unique. In the last several years, reports of fake or shoddy cosmetic and plastic surgery procedures have grabbed headlines:
* In 2003, New York City financial analyst, Maria Cruz, died after a deadle response of the organism to lidocaine, delivered by Dean Faiello, a 46-year-old from Newark, N.J., who had been posing as a cosmetic surgeon. Faiello escaped to Costa Rica, however was captured by American authorities in 2006 and immediately imprisoned.
* In 2004, four persons from Florida became paralyzed after Bach McComb, an osteopath with a suspended license, administered lab-strength botulism toxin - not the much weaker Botox - to himself, his girlfriend and two others. As a consequence, McComb was imprisoned for three years.
* In 2005, a 46-year-old woman living in California died of multiple organ failure after being given a buttock injection of what had been billed as a "French polymer". But in fact it appeared to be cooking oil. The beautician who delivered the shot, 39-year-old Martha Mata Vasquez, was imprisoned for fifteen years in January.
According to specialists, it’s tough to tell how frequently these sorts of hazardous procedures are being carried out.
Treated in hotel rooms
"In my opinion, particularly in big cities, it is more widespread than you think, due to the fact that I see many patients with problems who have been treated in hotel rooms, for instance," informed Dr Rhoda Narins, former president of the American Society for Dermatologic Surgery (ASDS) and a clinical professor of dermatology at New York University Medical Centre.
"From time to time, when I ask patients what it is that they’ve had, they actually have no idea," she claims. In many cases, procedures are carried out in non-medical settings - hotel rooms, private homes, beauty clinics and spas, Narins explained. "I have seen a few patients who underwent spa treatments and got comfortable there, and then they were offered non-medical-grade silicone. They ended up having dreadful reactions."
According to Dr John W. Canady, vice president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), the underground nature of these sub-par procedures makes them particularly difficult to track.
He and Narins warned that customers need to watch out for the following "red flags" when seeking out cosmetic injections or surgeries:
* Always ask to see credential. It’s not enough that your "physician" is wearing a white laboratory coat and has a certificate hung on the wall. There aresome organizations - the ASDS, the ASPS, the American Board of Plastic Surgery and state medical boards - have online resources that people can browse in order to confirm credentials and experience.
* Be cautious of cheap deals. "If a procedure has an unbelievably low price that nobody else is offering, then you really should slow down and find out why it is so cheap - why is it so out of line with the rest of the market?" said Canady, who is also professor of plastic surgery at the University of Iowa.
* Search for medical support in the neighborhood. Even procedures performed by the best-qualified staff can go awry, hence be sure that your practitioner is equipped with the devices and has qualified personnel on hand to cope with allergic reactions, clotting and other events. The majority of reputable clinics will have hospital affiliations. "As a patient, you are willing to know what things are available if things do not go right," Canady explained.
Do your homework
But first of all, the specialists advice, ask a lot of questions.
"It’s essential to be a responsible customer, to do your homework, to not be afraid of asking the tough questions," Canady explained. "If you ask people legitimate questions in a non-offensive way, and they become angry or even hostile with you, then you have no choice but to go find some other practitioner."
Narins admitted that an educated, proactive patient is the perfect defense against deception and abuse in her industry.
"People shouldn’t take any risk in terms of their health. When you inject something into your organism, this is not the same as getting a massage," she explained. "This is something that may severely influence your life, and for a long time."
Miles said that this was a lesson she learned the hard way, however she hopes that her story can at least help others. The clinic in which she obtained her laser treatment has been closed down ever since, and Florida state law has lately been toughened to mandate that all laser procedures be performed under a physician’s supervision.
But according to Jordan Miles, her scars are a daily reminder that patients remain defenseless.
"Never make any assumptions, and don’t be afraid of asking questions," she advised. "The mistake I made was that I never asked these women if they were a nurse practitioner, or if they had any experience performing this before, or how many times they had conducted it before. All of those were main mistakes."
