This is the smiling face of a beautiful young woman who had to give up a well-paid job in Las Vegas as a dancer after she went in for plastic surgery at a Russian clinic, and ended up completely disfigured.
The woman is believed to have been from a Russian family but was working in the US. She has been seen for the first time in shocking before and after pictures that turned up during a court case against the clinic, where it was revealed she has been left unable to close her mouth properly after the botched plastic surgery operation.
The woman, an unnamed dancer who had been working in Las Vegas, in the USA, said she was left unable to close her mouth properly after an operation at the clinic, saying: “I woke up in the ward, and almost immediately the stitches in my mouth came apart. I was covered in blood.
“The lip became the size of a cheburek [pastry].”
A cheburek is a half-round pan-fried dumpling filled with a layer of ground beef or lamb which has been seasoned with ground onion and black pepper.
She added: “The doctor unravelled and pulled out these stitches. For two years, I was never asked if these internal incisions had healed.
“I was in such shock that I was ready to scream.”
The woman, who is now suing the clinic, was reportedly left in such pain that she had to quit the performances she was doing in Vegas.
Another client at the same clinic died after a liposuction op went wrong.
The head of the top clinic in St Petersburg, Maria Burlova, 47, has been arrested and investigators are looking into whether he falsified the dead patient’s medical records.
Victim Anna Fedorova died in September after having liposuction at the clinic and other patients are now being interviewed by investigators who fear there could be many more victims.
A St Petersburg court said in a statement: “Patients of the clinic who were dissatisfied with the quality of services provided at the clinic were questioned.”
Now the authorities need to carry out a number of forensic examinations to establish the extent of what has been described by local media as criminal activity.
Burlova was placed under house arrest on 27th November, suspected of having “provided services of inadequate quality”.
Anna Fedorova, 47, from St Petersburg, reportedly died at the clinic after an operation that was described as complex and involved liposuction.
Her relatives claim that a number of violations took place and that Anna was forced to undergo several operations at once.
Vladimir Smirnov, lawyer for Anna Fedorova’s family, told local media: “The court decision on choosing a preventive measure noted that the accused put pressure on the clinic staff in order to give evidence confirming the version of events beneficial to the clinic.”
He added: “In addition, the investigation established that changes were made to Fedorova’s medical documentation.”
Burlova is under house arrest until 12th December pending the outcome of the investigation, with local media reporting that this could be extended.
The investigation is ongoing.
