Three days later my right eye dropped'
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Monday November 24 2008
One Friday, Mary (not her real name) walked through the narrow alley that leads to the doctor's clinic on the north side of Dublin and had two procedures done -- Botox for the crow's feet around her eyes and a filler to plump out the creases that run from the nose to the mouth.
"I had been attending a dermatologist for Botox injections since I was 37 so I wasn't afraid of it," says the 45-year-old who heard about the doctor through a nurse treating her cellulite.
"He was a cosmetologist with certificates all over his walls and he offered a discount for two procedures, so I thought, why not?
"Three days later, my right eye dropped. I rang the doctor on Monday and said, 'My eye is drooping.' He said to give it until Friday and it would probably be fine. I went back to him that Friday and he agreed that my eye had dropped, but he hadn't a clue what had caused it! He said it could be Bell's Palsy and referred me to a specialist in St Vincent's Hospital. The specialist ruled that out and said that this was the result of incorrectly administered Botox.
"A short while later, a dark purple mark appeared on the side of my mouth. It was very obvious. I went back to the doctor and he said, 'You have very thin skin.' He asked if I wanted my money back and I said yes. Then he offered to put collagen on top of the marked area! I declined.
"My husband noticed the mark. He said, 'What did you do to yourself?' I told him I'd bruised myself getting out of the car.
"He is dead against cosmetic treatments, so I couldn't tell him what had really happened. That became part of the problem as the months wore on -- not only did I have to deal with the physical damage to my face, I had to hide the truth from my husband.
"I steeled myself to go back to the dermatologist whom I had originally attended and asked for her help. She removed the filler which deflated the whole area and left a large dent in my face, which I had to live with for some time while the filler broke down, before a natural sculpturing agent could be injected to plump up the sunken area.
"I needed three to four sessions at €750 a session to get my face looking the way it did before all the damage. Believe me, it was money well spent!
"Every time I looked in the mirror I thought, 'How am I going to stop people looking at me?' It wasn't just the physical disfigurement that was difficult, it was psychologically traumatic. I was in shock.
"I couldn't believe this had happened to me. My eye was half-closed for four months as I waited for the Botox to leave my system and I became extremely paranoid and spent two years trying to camouflage my face.
"It angers me that this man and others like him are still allowed to practise.
"He never even enquired about my medical history or asked any of the usual questions you would expect a doctor to ask. I did seek legal advice, but my solicitor told me that if it went to court, because it is a relatively unusual case, it would be likely to attract publicity and I couldn't face that.
"But I do want other people to know what happened to me -- that's why I'm telling my story -- and I want to warn anybody thinking of having cosmetic work, please be careful.
"Go to a good dermatologist. Don't take risks with your face."
