China ’s latest medical scandal involves a woman who spent a fortune on cosmetic breast augmentation, only to discover her implants contained “filler ” tissue from camels, bats, and chimpanzees.
According to Chinese state media, the person had a procedure at a clinic called” Chumeiren,” which has since been shut down. The center promoted an unique process using the “CRT homologous collagen regeneration technology. ” ”
China ’s state-run Global Times explained this method was touted as involving “no surgery or artificial implants, instead utilizing the consumer’s own heart muscle for cultivation, promising a 20-minute procedure resulting in larger breasts. ”
The person, a native of Beijing referred to as “Lanlan” by the Global Times, was told she would get a referral discount that brought the price for her process down to a still-hefty 546,800 yuan, which works out to a small over$ 75,500.
At first, Lanlan was pleased with the outcome, as the procedure lasted just 20 minutes and left no visible scarring. She later began noticing “asymmetry ” and “persistent discomfort ” in her breasts, leading her to schedule a medical examination. An ultrasound discovered “foreign bodies ” within her breasts, which she had surgically removed, at an additional cost of 200,000 yuan ( about$ 27,600 ).
The Global Times described the terrible aftermath of that surgical procedure, during which Lanlan’s surgeon removed about 200 milliliters of a “yellow, oily substance ” from her breasts and replaced it with prosthetic implants:
Despite extensive cleansing, traces of the fillers remained, posing potential health risks.
Analysis of the filler samples revealed proteins from various animal sources, including camels, bats, and chimpanzees. Due to complications from her breast augmentation surgery, Lanlan, who is now seven months pregnant, is concerned about breastfeeding.
In addition, Lanlan’s mother also underwent the same procedure with the same institution, spending over 600,000 yuan, and she experienced breast pain and deformities as well.
Lanlan sued the Chumeiren clinic and was awarded$ 103,400 in compensation, but she will have trouble recovering that amount, because the clinic is gone and the owner has disappeared. The surgeon who had her breast augmentation surgery was later discovered to be a general surgeon from a Beijing hospital who had no credentials for cosmetic surgery.
The Global Times noted the case was a major public relations blow to China ’s fast-growing cosmetic surgery industry, which now boasts a little under 20,000 duly accredited clinics– plus about four times that many “black institutions ” with dodgy regulatory compliance. Cosmetic surgeons in China are regarded as being fully compliant with the laws, with only a quarter of them being.
Last week, China’s State Administration for Market Regulation announced a crackdown that would include a ban on “unwarranted ads promoting unrealistic beauty standards” and unscrupulous social media influencers who promote illegal procedures.
China is well known for its medical scandals, which have occasionally sparked remarkably large public outcries, even before the world realized how painfully unfavorable best practices may have been followed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
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