At first glance, it looks like a simple cosmetic surgery operation, all that is most commonplace. A woman in her twenties is filmed closely, lying on an operating table. A metal tube of ten centimeters comes out of his neck. Each time, she closes her eyes, but says nothing. A surgical bib is placed on his chest, in case of bleeding. Hors-champ, the practitioner asks: “The pain you told me, how many in ten?”.
It is these words that we recognize the imposture. To these gloves too, too black, too brilliant. And then a real surgeon would not use supermarket spray based on bleach to disinfect his tools. He would not have kept his fitness watch on the wrist. On the table, the client tilts her head. No one has removed her, she always has her jewelry Despite the risk of infection. “No really zero, I don’t feel anything at all,” she ends up answering. Without an ounce of concern.
The video was posted two months ago, by the account The_bigbeautyyy, on the Instagram platform. The practitioner who uses it to promote her is really not one: she opens, inserts, sucks the fat and the blood of her “patients” without any of the necessary diplomas. A far from isolated case: L’Express has identified several profiles on social networks offering, like her, acts of wild cosmetic surgery, for a few thousand euros.
Operations in full lounge
These “false surgeons” linked to any plaque or official firm have a significant audience: several thousand people follow them. They are recent – open in 2024 – and anonymous. Reservations are made only via Instagram or WhatsApp messaging. A deposit is systematically requested, before each operation. To verify that postoperative photos and videos are not false, we contact one of them, “injection muse”. In a few minutes, he confirms “Take our file”.
Most of the time, liposuction is offered. On the networks, the act, which can normally be carried out only by a plastic surgeon, is called “Korean facelift”. A trendy term, but which has no existence in the official nomenclature. Our interlocutor translates: “You come with a double chin and you are literally leaving without”. In all and for everything, she only has a baccalaureate and a certificate of professional aptitude (CAP) of esthetician.
The young woman’s speech has everything of a real one: “I’m going to make three incisions, one under each ear, and one under the chin. I will insert the cannula (hollow rod) and suck all the fat at the level Menton, jaw, and neck. I tell me what you need, “she said. His messages are scheduled to fade once received. And his profile is settled in such a way that surgeons with important positions cannot see his activity.
Surgeon alert
Despite these precautions, the young woman was spotted. “A patient called me to find out if I was doing Korean, so I went to see on the internet from where it came from,” said Christophe Desouches, cosmetic surgeon operating in Marseille. “I warned Instagram, there have been account deletions, but others have appeared. Tours are offered, in Nice, in Marseille, in Mulhouse, it’s crazy,” said the practitioner, very reassembled. Like him, several surgeons have sent reports to their representatives.
Faced with as many elements, the National Union of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (SNCPRE) wanted to ring the alert. The training, the main representative of the profession, announces to L’Express that it will file a complaint. “Some of our adherent surgeons had to intervene on victims. Patients presented inflammation and infections, the skin had formed nodules, kinds of painful and unsightly balls,” explains Adel Louafi, its secretary general.
The concern far exceeds the risk of failures, bumps or hollows, or the absence of follow -up: “That such clandestine operations, with injection of local anesthetics obtained without authorization, can be held in France, What is more in the Paris region, it is properly incredible. fatal “, enumeratedl louafi.
Very strong concerns
The “Korean facelifts” mostly target the neck, the area that houses carotid and the jugular. “If these blood vessels are open, the patient will die in a few minutes,” continues the specialist. The slightest damage to the facial nerve, not far, could also cause paralysis, and lose the use of speech. “Not to mention bacteria, mushrooms, the risk of hepatitis or infection by the AIDS virus. We are talking about a living room, or a kitchen, which are not sterile bedrooms”, is also worried Dr. Christophe Desouches, scandalized.
The case also arrived at the ears of Anne Souyris, Senator Europe Ecology – The Greens who closely follow health issues. “These accounts pose a major public health problem. I seized the public prosecutor, as a senator, for illegal medicine,” she announced to L’Express. And to point out the weaknesses of the current legal arsenal: “In 2023, we adopted a law which punishes the promotion of cosmetic surgery. It is supposed to prevent the proliferation of these acts of smuggling. Except that the text only cites some Acts, and not liposuction.
The legislation of Anne Souyris has been written to fight against “fake injectors”, the “false injectors”, these girls who had hyaluronic acid to erase wrinkles. The product is no longer over -the -counter. The accounts that offer liposuction offer a replacement: injections of “lemon bottle”, a greenish liquid, supposed to contain vitamins capable of dissolving fat, and supposedly very popular in Korea.
In March 2024, the Swiss gendarme of the Swissmedic drug launched an alert on the composition of the lemon boot, considered very uncertain and unsuitable for injection. Contacted, the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) indicates that the product has no marketing authorization. In fact, any attempt to dissolve fat by injection is prohibited in Francebecause of serious health risks. And this since 2011.
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