{"id":323610,"date":"2025-08-06T22:18:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T22:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/323610\/"},"modified":"2025-08-06T22:18:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-06T22:18:10","slug":"the-pain-was-unbearable-the-agonising-cost-of-englands-cowboy-cosmetic-clinics-plastic-surgery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/323610\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The pain was unbearable\u2019: the agonising cost of England\u2019s \u2018cowboy\u2019 cosmetic clinics | Plastic surgery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Plans to cut down on \u201ccowboy\u201d cosmetic procedures have been introduced by the government, meaning that only qualified healthcare professionals will be able to perform high-risk treatments.<\/p>\n

Clinics administering fillers and Botox will need to meet strict standards to obtain a licence as part of the Department of Health<\/a> and Social Care proposals to protect people from \u201crogue operators\u201d with no medical training who often provide \u201cinvasive\u201d procedures in homes, hotels and pop-up clinics.<\/p>\n

Officials said that people have been left \u201cmaimed\u201d by beauty procedures, with some deaths linked to poor care.<\/p>\n

One woman who was left with significant injuries after such a treatment told the Guardian she had been left with issues that could last a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Triggs, 40, from Leeds, was left with significant bruising and swelling after paying \u00a3100 for an Endolift, a non-surgical laser treatment used for skin tightening and fat reduction on the face and body.<\/p>\n

Triggs after undergoing counterfeit cosmetic treatment that left her with bruising, swelling and pigmentation issues. Photograph: Triggs<\/p>\n

The laser works by inserting a thin, microoptical wire deep into the skin layer, which is used to boost collagen and melt little pockets of fat.<\/p>\n

Triggs said: \u201cI had visited this particular clinic before, for other cosmetic treatments such as skin boosters and waxes, so I thought I was in safe hands when they offered me a treatment to tighten and lift my face.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the treatment began I knew something was not right. The pain was unbearable and the bruising started instantly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although the procedure was advertised as an Endolift, Triggs received a counterfeit version of the treatment, which usually costs about \u00a32,000 when administered by a medical specialist. EndoliftX\u00ae has said it has seen a 250% rise in non-medics administering counterfeit versions of its device over the past year.<\/p>\n

Triggs said: \u201cI was left with significant bruising and swelling which lasted months, and I have now just found out that I have post inflammatory pigmentation issues which, if not treated by a professional, will last a lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cIt is so important to me to warn others about what to look for when booking in a treatment, and that undergoing an unregulated, counterfeit procedure will more than likely cause much more harm than good. Find a trained, well-established professional who has experience in the treatment you are looking for and has the knowledge on safety. I am now months down the line trying to fix my mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Priya Verma, a registered EndoliftX\u00ae practitioner and aesthetic doctor, said that alongside a lack of regulation within the cosmetic industry, counterfeit laser machines were a rising concern. \u201cIncreasingly patients are seeking out non-surgical facelifting procedures or body-contouring procedures, and actually there\u2019s a rise in the ability of people to acquire skin-tightening treatments on websites like Alibaba for as little as \u00a3400,\u201d Verma said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re fuelling the problem further because they are then training other non-medical practitioners in how to do these procedures unsafely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alice Webb died after a non-surgical Brazilian butt-lift procedure last year. Photograph: Gloucestershire Police\/PA<\/p>\n

Alice Webb, a 33-year-old mother of five, is believed to be the first person in the UK to die<\/a> after a non-surgical Brazilian butt-lift procedure last year.<\/p>\n

Webb, who died at Gloucestershire Royal hospital last September, is believed to have had a procedure that involved dermal filler being injected into the buttocks.<\/p>\n

In an interview with ITV News, Webb\u2019s partner, Dane Knight, said her death could have been avoided if these regulations had come into place sooner.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing the risks in the complications, it wouldn\u2019t have happened,\u201d Knight said. \u201cI hope something gets put in place before it happens again and another family is ripped apart and destroyed. Because it will, if something\u2019s not done sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

Knight added: \u201cIt\u2019s a shame that it\u2019s taken someone\u2019s life for it now to be pushed out and for people in power to start listening and to enforce this law to stop other families and other people\u2019s lives being destroyed.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plans to cut down on \u201ccowboy\u201d cosmetic procedures have been introduced by the government, meaning that only qualified…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4316],"tags":[105,4348,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-323610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114984144564118160","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}