A Russian woman “lost her face” following a botched cosmetic surgery.
- A woman, 37, sues cosmetic surgeons after suffering a botched cosmetic procedure destroying the collagen in her face.
- The victim claims she underwent the treatment because of her ex-boyfriend, who repeatedly told her she looked “old.”
- She is now sharing her story to “warn other girls and women” about the dangers of cosmetic surgery.
Svetlana, a 37-year-old Russian architect, claims her face aged 10 years overnight after undergoing a beauty treatment. She decided to do the cosmetic alternation after her then-boyfriend told her she looked “old.” Terrifyingly, she realized her face “shrank like in mummification” following the procedure.
The woman said the cosmetic surgeon used a recently-approved drug called Longidaza, which ended up destroying her looks “irreversible aging her ten years.”
As per Daily Mail, Svetlana explained:
“My skin sagged like a rag, the face completely departed from the skull. The connection of the skin to the skull, the so-called ligaments of the face, disappeared.”
The woman claims her love life, as well as her career, have been ruined after the botched treatment.
Following the distressing incident, a criminal case has been launched in Svetlana’s home country. The victim uses her experience to warn other women about the dangers of cosmetic surgery. She said:
“It’s very scary. As if you were killed, you decompose – and see it every day in the mirror. It’s like your face is melting and you can’t stop it. Doctors don’t know how to treat it. If I had even had the slightest hint that this could happen, I would never have gone to a beautician at all.”
According to the Russian changed NTV, Svetlana’s issues began when she was advised by her cosmetologist to remove old lifting gel implants with injections of Longidaza. She decided to undergo the procedure driven by insecurities triggered by her boyfriend, who repeatedly told her he would find himself “a younger model.” But when the surgery went wrong, instead of supporting her, he broke up with her.
Although the drug was supposed to make Svetlana look younger, it ended up “destroying” the collagen on her face and making her skin look “saggy.”
The architect recalled:
“In the evening I went to the mirror and saw that my face had begun to change. The skin under my eyes dried up and literally fell through.
In the morning, the volume of dried tissue under the eyes increased even more. Rapid changes were taking place, every hour my face was altering.
Within three days, not only the under-eye but also the upper eyelid was completely dry. My eyebrows dropped down, the outer corners of the eyes dropped. I couldn’t understand what was going on.”
Dr. Irina Freimanis, the beautician who treated Svetlana, tried to fix the issue by injecting more of the same drug into her face. However, the medicament was actually “eating away” the woman’s tissues. The victim said:
“After all these injections, I saw another person in the mirror every day. It was clear that some kind of chemical process was taking place and the face was changing. This was really scary.”
Doctors warned Svetlana her vision would suffer due to the irreversible damage done to her eye area.
Following the series of terrifying experiences after her botched surgery, the woman completely shut herself away. She was petrified to even look in the mirror. Meanwhile, looking back at her photos, she realized she never needed surgery to look good as she was already beautiful. She noted:
“In most cases, women do not need any procedures. You just need to drink vitamins, eat well and lead a healthy lifestyle. But society imposes its stereotypes on us, the cult of beauty is actively imposed on us.
I am telling my story here to warn other girls and women… what might happen to them.”
She continued:
“You can’t blindly trust doctors, even with many qualifications. You need to love yourself and watch Instagram less, and not listen to people who say: ‘You’re getting old.’ Better to grow old with dignity and do nothing with your face. I am very sorry that I even applied for any procedure. I wish I hadn’t.
I just wanted to correct the minimal age-related changes, but I could not even think that my face would be ditched in such a way that it would cost me my whole life.”
Longidaza has been used widely in Russia and other neighboring countries in the last 15 years.
Amid investigations related to Svetlana’s case, a video emerged revealing Dr. Freimanis telling her: “Go and prove I injected you with Longidaza.”
However, when confronted with the footage, the cosmetologist said: “I don’t care what you brought… goodbye, go away.
Svetlana admits she regrets her decision, saying:
“Two years ago I was successful, everything worked out for me, my career was going in an upward trajectory, everything was fine. And this fatal mistake – my visit to a beautician – broke my whole life. It looks like appearance is not important. But appearance is very important, especially for a woman.
Your face is your calling card. I would agree to anything to get my face back. But this is unreal. Even after (restorative) surgery, it will be a completely different face, and the skin will not be completely restored.”
