Illegal Aesthetic Surgery Proves Fatal
Many people find themselves captivated by beauty clinic ads. RA, a medical doctor in Tangerang, registered for cosmetic surgery at a clinic in North Jakarta in December 2020.
Documentation of RA (35) eyelid surgery performed by a general practitioner at his home in the Ancol area, North Jakarta in December 2020.
Illegal aesthetic surgery practitioners use a number of methods to lure in customers. But rather than beautifying, their unlicensed procedures carry potentially deadly health risks.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Illegal beauty treatments are burgeoning in Jakarta and its surroundings. Offered affordable rates and promised instantly perkier faces and bodies, some women undergo such procedures only to end up deceived. A recent Kompas investigation has revealed the recklessness of unlicensed aesthetic practitioners.
The victims of the practices ranged came from all socioeconomic groups, from doctors to factory workers. Among them was Rahayu, 34.
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A night worker in Jakarta, she died on 19 Feb., 2022, a day after receiving silicone injections in her breasts at a hotel. Two days later, the police arrested a 54-year-old trans woman who went by the name Windi, who was alleged to have performed the injections.
She had learned about injections from friend and procured the silicone from a chemical shop.
Windi admitted that she had been doing the procedure without a license for 33 years. She had learned about injections from friend and procured the silicone from a chemical shop.
She had testimonials from her customers to attract new consumers, offering the service at Rp 4 million for old customers and Rp 8 million for new customers. She said she had taken up to three customers per month and that they came not only from Jakarta and its surroundings, but also Bali.
Feeling strange
Many people find themselves captivated by beauty clinic ads. RA, a medical doctor in Tangerang, registered for cosmetic surgery at a clinic in North Jakarta in December 2020. She learned later that the doctor who operated on her eyelids was not a plastic surgeon but a generalist.
RA had chosen the clinic on the recommendation of a friend, who was the son of the clinic’s doctor. RA noted the peculiarity of the operation, that it was done without standard procedures. There was no consent form, no medical record data and no blood pressure check before surgery.
She felt as if something was stuck inside her at the incision point, although it did not result in a permanent disfigurement.
"I decided to see a plastic surgeon to consult whether the excess was normal. I was told it might be a muscle being stretched, in other words […] being stitched. It was annoying," she said.
There was no signage displaying the doctor’s name or license document number.
When inspected in early February, the building did not look an aesthetic clinic but rather an 1,000 square meter high-end house. There was no signage displaying the doctor’s name or license document number. When checked on the website of the Indonesian Medical Council, the clinic’s doctor, as RA said, was a general practitioner, not a specialist.
The suspect in the breast filler injection case, Rwinay Rudi (54) alias Windi, was questioned by investigators from the West Jakarta Tamansari Metro Police on Friday (18/3/2022).
According to Prof. David S Perdanakusuma, chairman of the Indonesian Aesthetic Medicine Council, there are no official guidelines to demarcate aesthetic operations by doctors. However, he said, eyelid surgery was an invasive procedure that should have been under the authority of a reconstructive and aesthetic plastic surgeon.
"General practitioners clearly don't have the authority to do invasive operations," he said.
Kompas found that at some unlicensed aesthetic practices, medical actions were not carried out by doctors but by those with no medical background at all.
A salon in the Bantargebang area of Bekasi, West Java, offers skin whitening injection services for between Rp 300,000 and Rp 600,000. In comparison, the average rate for skin whitening injections at a beauty clinic ranges from Rp 2 million to Rp 10 million.
Apart from whitening injections, the salon offers other services, such as slimming injections, eyebrow embroidery and eyelash extensions. It puts the ads on Facebook.
They came as arranged on the schedule.
To attract customers, Salon owner Inah offers a discount to customers who undergo the procedure on the day they first contact the salon for information. She said she took up to 8 customers a day. Most of them were women. They came as arranged on the schedule.
Inah is not a doctor but a midwife, as she claimed, who has experience working at a private hospital in Bekasi.
She offers her whitening injection services in the front room of her house. During the procedure, the patient is given a sodium chloride solution through an IV. The liquid is mixed with a bleaching substance.
Inah injects the bleach infusion and medicine into the patient's body without medical supervision. Before carrying out the bleach infusion, the patients is not provided a medical consent letter.
Screenshot on Monday (4/4/2022) of the upload of the dimple embroidery promotion on the Instagram account @melstudiooo. The account belongs to the beauty studio Melstudio, which is located on Jalan Raya Jatiwaringin, Pondok Gede, Bekasi City, West Java.
Major complications
According to skin specialist Listya Paramita, skin lightening injections should be given under the supervision of a doctor. When contacted on Monday (4/4/2022), Inah admitted that she offered the services at her home without being supervised by a doctor. She insisted that it was legal for a midwife like her offer whitening injections.
"Who is the doctor saying you can’t? For me, it's fine," she said.
Rika, 20, a factory worker in Bantargebang, complained about the whitening procedure that Inah had performed on her in November 2021. She used Inah's services after seeing an offer on social media. She paid Rp 900,000 for four injections of bleach infusion.
The first infusion had a severe impact. It promptly made Rika feel weak and dizzy. She felt a soreness on her right leg and had difficulty standing after the infusion. Upon arriving home, she vomited and lethargy gripped her body. Her hands swelled and she was admitted to a hospital later.
Amel, who is not doctor by profession, said she performed dimple embroidery at her salon, based on the knowledge she had attained from a beauty courses and training.
Dimple embroidery is also offered by unlicensed practitioners, such as in the case of a salon in Jatiwaringin, Pondok Gede, Bekasi. It offers a list of beauty-enhancing procedures on social media. Dimple embroidery costs Rp 500,000. Amel, who is not doctor by profession, said she performed dimple embroidery at her salon, based on the knowledge she had attained from a beauty courses and training.
Iis Pera, 23, who lives in Cianjur, West Java, suffered a cheek infection after she had dimples embroidered on her cheeks.
Her cheeks swelled and festered. She underwent the surgery at an eyelash extension studio in South Jakarta in 2019. She got the information through a chat application and said the studio also used Facebook as a means of promotion.
Illegal beauty practices like Windi's are also common in Jakarta and the surrounding area.
Dr Qori Haly, a member of the Greater Jakarta and Banten chapter of the Indonesian Association of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Perapi), warned about fatal health risks for invasive surgeries not performed by a doctor.
"They have major risks of complication," he said. (FRD/DIV/SKA/JOG/ILO)
(This article was translated by Musthofid).
