Women fall prey to illegal silicone injection services

Tuoi Tre,SGTT
Updated : Sun, May 1, 2011,8:41 AM (GMT+0700)

St. Paul Hospital in Hanoi for the past four months has treated three patients suffering from complications of liquid silicone injection which was carried out by unidentified people.
N.T.V., 28, from Nam Dinh Province, who was hospitalized one week after she had her breasts injected with silicone, doesn’t know anything about the people who gave her the service.
Through a friend’s advice, she called the number 01258380xxx and was told to come to a house in an alley on Hoang Van Thu Street.
She came to the house, which didn’t have any sign that suggested it was a clinic. V. didn’t care because she herself wanted to keep it all a secret.
At the house, she was told that silicone injection was effective and painless. Better yet, her breasts would look so natural that nobody would know.
Without suspicion, V. agreed to the service. She paid up front, VND40 million for two 30-minute shots in two days, without any kind of warranty.

V. said four people with a southern accent conducted her injection. They told her they came from a trusted business in Saigon and had a lot of customers in the north.
As they were already a “brand name,” they could provide injection fast right at patients’ houses or a hotel.
V. and four other customers were treated at the same time. Each lay on a bed and had silicone injected directly into their breasts.
“The breasts after injection were indeed beautiful,” V. recalled.
It was one week afterward that beauty gave way to pain. V. felt her breasts ache and stiffen and had trouble breathing and had to be taken to St. Paul.
The doctors who treated her had also treated another woman who had her breasts injected at the same place and on the same day as V.
V. said she didn’t want to sue as she didn’t sign any paper. As for the number 01258380xxx, it can no longer be reached.
Nguyen Vu Hoang, head of the Plastic Surgery Department at St. Paul said in May, he would conduct a surgery for a third woman who has also suffered from complications after receiving injection from unidentified southerners.

23-year-old L.T.T. from Hanoi had her breasts injected in Hai Phong City one year ago. The injection was carried out at a hotel on Tran Phu Road. After the injection, T’s breasts stiffened and ached and she wanted to take the silicone out.
But St. Paul’s doctors said they would have to be cautious because the silicone had been injected too deep into her breasts. When it is taken out, it may deform the breasts.
Hoang said most of the patients St. Paul has treated said they received services from unidentified southerners.
The patients, most of whom come from Nam Dinh, Quang Ninh and Hai Phong, paid VND30 million to 40 million for what should cost only VND1 million to 2 million.
Hoang said liquid silicone injection is dangerous and may lead to deaths. But unlicensed businesses providing injection services are increasing and difficult to control, he said.