A Chinese actress has warned about the dangers of cosmetic surgery by sharing photos of her damaged nose after a procedure went wrong.
Gao Liu is a singer and actress who has starred in several movies and TV shows, and has been seen as something of a rising star. But she has fallen out of the spotlight in recent months.
She posted on the popular social media platform Sina Weibo, explaining that her months-long absence was due to a “cosmetic surgical incident”, which left her with necrosis of the nose, meaning the tissue had died at its tip.
Graphic images follow
Ms Gao shared images with her five million fans, sparking discussions about cosmetic surgery, which is very popular in China.
She said a friend of hers introduced her to a plastic surgeon at a clinic in the southern city of Guangzhou in October.
The actress said she decided to continue with surgery on her nose because of suggestions that she was getting a “slight finish”, and she thought it would help her career.
“The whole procedure took four hours. I thought I would get prettier within those four hours,” she told her followers.
“I did not expect these four hours to be the beginning of a nightmare.”
She said her nose felt ‘irritated and tingling’ after the procedure and then became infected repeatedly, although she was told she would be able to work again by December or January.
“The skin at the tip of my nose … became darker and darker, and my nose became necrotic,” she said, adding that she had thoughts of suicide.
Ms Gao said she was eventually hospitalized for two months and lost 400,000 yuan ($ 61,800; £ 45,200) to work.
She said that due to the extent of the damage, it would not be possible to undergo a follow-up, reconstructive operation for at least a year.
The popular news website The Paper shared public data from the Tianhe District Health Bureau in the city, which shows that the clinic where Ms Gao was treated received five administrative fines between March and October 2020. It is unclear what rules it violated.
According to The Paper, a number of complaints have been lodged with the bureau about the clinic since Ms. Gao posted.
An investigation is underway.
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On social media, some people have asked that those involved in Gao’s proceedings be held accountable. Others have called for better regulation of China’s cosmetic injuries in general.
Cosmetic surgery has been popular in China for many years – to such an extent that in 2004 the country hosted a beauty contest for those who went through the knife.
Procedures occur especially among young people. The South China Morning Post reported in 2019 that nearly two-thirds of the 20 million people who underwent procedures the previous year were under 30, and ‘one in five were’ post-millennials’, under the age of 21.
According to the newspaper, many high school graduates chose to “go under the knife before starting university, believing it would improve their chances at work and falling in love”.
But the growing demand for procedures has led to clinics operating without certificates or employing unqualified surgeons.
It is unclear what the situation was in the clinic that Ms Gao visited.
China’s state council said in April that it had seen “signs of an increase in violations” across the country and reiterated the need for “licensed medical staff” to perform surgeries.
But, as noted on the Global Times news website, many Chinese citizens view the existing regulations as ‘chaotic’, not to mention difficult to pin down, as the number of unqualified plastic surgery clinics in 2019 exceeded 60,000. .. six times the regular clinics. ‘