A MUM-0F-TWO was “days away from death” after a botched Brazilian butt lift (BBL) left her bum oozing pus and insides “feeling like nettles”.
Jodie Nicholson, from Leeds, was told the the non-surgical filler procedure was completely safe by the clinic she used.
However, the 30-year-old carer’s experience turned into a nightmare and nearly proved fatal when she developed a blood infection.
She told The Mirror: “It was sold to me as extremely safe, nothing like the surgical BBL, and I was told if I didn’t like it, it was only filler and could be dissolved, no downtime or aftercare needed.”
But, following the BBL in July 2022, Jodie said she’d “never felt ill like it”, describing how she quickly became “sick, dizzy and my vision was blurred”.
She added that her thighs were left “red hot and rock hard” and “purple rings” formed around the injection area.
“By 10am the next morning my buttocks were oozing with pus,” Jodie said.
She was prescribed antibiotics by her GP but struggled to keep them down and within five days of the procedure was taken to A&E.
Jodie, who was drifting in and out of consciousness at the time, explained: “They said I was days away from dying in my sleep, as I was so poorly when I first went in.”
Within hours, she was in theatre and surgeons were cutting away the filler and infected tissue, before draining 2.5 litres of pus.
Jodie remained in hospital for another few weeks as she recovered from infection and had a second operation as one side of her body “was burning and felt like nettles on the inside”.
Three years later she still has scars and disfigurement from where she had tissue cut away.
Jodie – who has two sons, aged nine and three – said doctors warned her BBL procedures like hers can go wrong years later.
Her concern is those responsible “aren’t held accountable unless you’ve actually died”.
It comes after mum-of-five Alice Webb died hours after undergoing a similar “liquid BBL” in September.
The married aesthetic practitioner, 33, had travelled from her home in Wotton-under-Edge to a clinic in Gloucester for a training session where she would learn how to perform the procedure before having her own done.
In the past few years at least 28 Brits have died — seven in Turkey — after complications from BBL ops.
THE director of plastic surgery campaign group Save Face Ashton Collins told The Sun:
I am devastated to hear of Alice’s tragic passing.
We launched a campaign in December 2023 calling upon the government to take urgent action to ban these procedures.
We made it absolutely clear, that without urgent intervention someone would die. It makes me incredibly sad and angry that today, our fear has been confirmed and a family has been shattered.
Liquid BBL procedures are a crisis waiting to happen. They are advertised on social media as ‘risk-free’, ‘cheaper’ alternatives to the surgical counterpart and that could not be further from the truth.
We have supported over 500 women who have suffered complications because of these treatments, many of which have nearly died.
Over 50% of the cases reported to us contracted sepsis and 39% needed corrective surgery.
All of the procedures reported to us were carried out by non-healthcare practitioners who are carrying out incredibly dangerous procedures in unsterile environments.
They were unable to identify and manage the complications they inflicted upon their clients, often misdiagnosing abscesses, and tissue necrosis as bruising.
I am flabbergasted and appalled by the unscrupulous nature of the people who are still offering these treatments even though they know some of their patients have been hospitalised and will no doubt continue to do so after hearing this awful news.
It is outrageous that laypeople feel it is appropriate for them to offer treatments that surgeons will not perform because they are too dangerous.
We will not stop campaigning until these procedures are banned and those who cause harm to people are held criminally accountable.
