/ In a journey in search of beauty, many Lebanese women suffer from skin infections and frightening sagging in Syrian clinics, which tempted them with cheaper prices for these operations, but they pay the price with disease complications that disfigure their bodies.
Among these cases is “Abeer”, whose journey turned from a desire to improve her appearance into a horrific nightmare in the corridors of death and scars. After her friend told her about her experience with liposuction surgery in Syria at a low cost, she decided to travel to have the operation on her buttocks, to get a more fit and beautiful body.
At first, things were going normally, but soon she started to develop painful complications, from her wounds becoming inflamed to her body temperature rising, etc. She contacted the doctor who performed the operation and traveled to see him in Syria. He tried to reassure her, but her condition deteriorated terribly and her skin began to “erode,” as she described in an interview with Alhurra.
At first, the doctors in Lebanon refused to follow up on her case, asking her to follow up with the person who performed the operation. After her condition deteriorated significantly, she was admitted to a hospital in Lebanon, where it was discovered that she had contracted bacteria during the surgery. She then spent a whole year in intensive care, between life and death, and underwent several surgeries to treat the wounds, which were similar to burns and extended to several areas of her body.
Abeer suffered from painful complications.
Doctors removed tissue from Abeer’s legs to transplant it to replace the burns, leaving deep scars. She lost a lot of weight, was paralyzed for a period, and suffered from an inability to speak normally. She says, “There are no words that can describe what I went through, which the doctor following my case summed up by saying to me: I pulled you out of the grave.”
In a world filled with images of ideal beauty, “plastic surgery has become an obsession for many, without some hearing warnings of dangers that may hide behind them dire consequences, while some do not care about these warnings and risk their health and beauty to save money,” according to Dr. Raed Ratil, the advisor to the head of the Lebanese Doctors Syndicate for cosmetic affairs.
The cheap prices of surgeries in Syria tempt many Lebanese people looking for beauty at a reduced cost, but inside the corridors of some hospitals and cosmetic clinics there are tragic stories of complications, deformities and even deaths, according to what Ratil told Alhurra.
Abeer suffered from painful complications.
The purpose of highlighting “cosmetic tourism” in Syria is not to tarnish the reputation of Syrian doctors, as “many of them are known for their competence and high professionalism,” Ratil stresses, “but rather to warn against intruders into the medical profession there who cause disasters that destroy people’s lives.”
He confirms, “The number of testimonies we receive from people who underwent surgery in Syria and were left with disfigurements that were beyond recovery is increasing, including the case of Abeer, who was afflicted with necrotizing cellulitis, a serious skin condition that causes deterioration in deep skin tissue, resulting from multiple factors, including bacterial infections transmitted through wounds or scratches.”
The disease is characterized by symptoms such as “redness, swelling, severe pain, blisters or bubbles, and pus discharge.” According to Ratil, its treatment requires “removing the affected tissue, caring for the wounds, and using painkillers to relieve pain. Possible complications include blood poisoning, gangrene, and tissue death. In severe cases, amputation of the limbs may be required.”
He added, “There are people who have died after undergoing cosmetic surgery in Syria, including a young Lebanese man who underwent a nose job, in addition to cases of people who suffered from infections as a result of illegal Botox and filler injections, without that eliminating the existence of these risks in Lebanon as well.”
Battle of the Scars
Lebanese people heading to Syria for cosmetic surgery is nothing new, according to Dr. Ratil. “Some of them gather in groups of five to ten people and go to Syria in buses to have the surgery and return the same day. However, the recent increase in the number of people preferring this destination is due to the economic crisis that Lebanon is going through,” he says.
Abeer suffered from painful complications.
As for the head of the Arab Beauty Ambassadors, beauty expert Rania Othman, she believes in an interview with the “Alhurra” website that one of the reasons behind the phenomenon of the spread of cosmetic surgeries in Syria is “the low cost, and some people are influenced by their acquaintances who underwent cosmetic surgeries there and their results were acceptable, without that canceling out the presence of Syrian doctors who are known for their experience,” adding, “Unfortunately, after Lebanon was a destination for those seeking beauty, that declined for several reasons, most notably the economic crisis, the emigration of doctors, and the high cost.”
According to Ratil, the deteriorating economic situation in Lebanon is prompting some Lebanese doctors to “receive patients who have faced complications after undergoing cosmetic surgery in Syria, where they go for corrective surgeries.”
Abeer’s family spent huge sums of money to cover the costs of her treatment, exceeding $150,000, according to what she says, “and she still needs more cosmetic surgeries to remove scars in several areas of her body.”
Despite the passage of about four years, Abeer is still living in a psychological conflict, as her self-confidence has been shaken and negative feelings have taken over her, such as sadness, anger, anxiety, and fear of people’s looks. She says, “I am trying to be strong and here I am living in the hope of having the financial means to complete my treatment journey until I declare my victory over the scars that embitter my life.”
According to Ratil, the high prices of surgeries in Lebanon compared to Syria are due to “the cost of hospitals, the fees of anesthesiologists and plastic surgeons, in addition to the low purchasing power of foreign currency in Lebanon, while some Syrian doctors perform surgeries in clinics using local anesthesia, in addition to the purchasing power of the dollar in their country, where two hundred dollars is enough to cover a family’s expenses for a month. Unfortunately, some Lebanese doctors have started following the same procedures.”
ill-advised adventure
According to Othman, some people consider plastic surgery “a necessity to correct their beauty, while others suffer from an obsession with beauty as a result of the culture of societies that give great importance to outward appearance, and their dissatisfaction with their appearance develops negative feelings such as anxiety and depression.”
Social media also plays a role, according to Othman, “in encouraging some people to undergo cosmetic surgery in an attempt to achieve the ideal appearance promoted in these media outlets. If their financial situation does not allow for this, they start looking for doctors with reduced prices, regardless of the risks they may face.”
Obsession with aesthetic perfection prompted Yasmine to make the decision to enlarge her breasts, “even though their size was acceptable,” according to what she told Alhurra. Given that the cost of the surgery in Lebanon was high (no less than three thousand dollars), she found the option of seeking asylum in Syria to achieve her goal a solution to the financial obstacle standing in her way.
After consulting her friends, one of them advised her to go to a doctor who had previously performed a nose job on her. His prices were reasonable and his results were satisfactory. She gave her his phone number, and before contacting him, she searched for his personal page on the social networking site Instagram, to get an idea of how skilled he was in this world. After that, she contacted him via WhatsApp, where the conversations and arrangements for the operation that she would undergo in a hospital in Tartous took place.
The doctor told her that the cost of the operation would be $1,500 and that he had contracted with a taxi driver to transport her to and from Lebanon, and that she could return the same day or stay one night in the hospital.
Yasmine did not hesitate to make an appointment with the doctor, and that morning, she and her daughter headed to the Dora area where the taxi driver was waiting for her, and they all set off for Syria. Yasmine described the trip as easy and quick, the distance from the northern Lebanese border to the hospital did not take one hour, she underwent the operation, and returned to Lebanon, but “this time the road from Syria to Beirut was very tiring.”
She told Alhurra, “I was feeling unbearable pain, in addition to dizziness and the desire to vomit because of the remnants of the drug in my body. On top of that, the driver did not take my condition into consideration, as he was driving at a crazy speed, not caring about the potholes and bumps that were deeply shaking my pain.”
What happens in some Syrian hospitals and cosmetic centers, as Ratil explains, is “quick operations, and this entails great risks. Performing operations in a short time will lead to unsatisfactory results. Operations that take hours in Lebanon are sometimes performed in Syria in minutes. On top of that, patients leave the hospital shortly after the operation is over. Who can guarantee their safety on the return trip?”
Shocking results
Yasmine began to recover gradually, and during that period she was in contact with the doctor who performed the operation to inform him of her condition, and from the first days after the operation she felt that the size of her breast was very large.
A month later, the doctor came to Beirut to see her patients in a hotel room, where Yasmine was amazed by the large number of women who were waiting for him. She told him that she was not satisfied with the operation, and his answer was that what she was looking for needed more time. But a year passed without anything changing, and in fact her health condition got worse, as the large size of her breasts caused her back pain that increased with each passing day.
Yasmine’s dissatisfaction with the result of the operation prompted her to search for a Lebanese doctor to restore its size to what it was, and she says unfortunately, “The cost of the operation is beyond my ability.”
After the experience she had, Yasmine learned a costly lesson: “Don’t look for the cheapest price for cosmetic surgery. Ensuring that you get the desired results without risking the possibility of facing any complications is what you should focus on.”
The head of the Syrian Doctors Syndicate, Ghassan Fandi, warned last December against attacks on cosmetic medicine, whether in the skin section or cosmetic surgery, as reported by the Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the Syrian regime.
Fandy confirmed that the Ministry of Health in the Syrian regime government and the Doctors Syndicate are following up on the work of beauty centers, “and a large number of them have been closed in several governorates for not meeting the required conditions, including the presence of a specialist doctor, and major violations of the specialty of beauty were detected in them through non-doctors performing injections and other cosmetic matters.”
He stressed the need for cooperation between all concerned parties and activating the culture of complaints to control the work of beauty centers and prevent violations, saying: There are complaints resulting from cosmetic operations and matters that are shameful.
To maintain integrity
Regarding beauty standards, Othman explains, “Everyone has their own beauty, so we should not compare ourselves to others. It is essential that the decision to undergo cosmetic surgery is thoughtful and responsible, and includes reviewing the potential risks and choosing a qualified doctor. Potential risks such as infections that may be transmitted through failure to adhere to sterilization and hygiene rules, and deformities that may occur as a result of unprofessional procedures in unlicensed places, should not be taken lightly.”
“Unlicensed beauty centers are spreading” in Syria, as confirmed by the Secretary of the Syrian Association of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons, Rizk Al-Frouh, to the Athr Press website, which is close to the regime, noting that the association has submitted more than one letter to the Ministry of Health regarding this matter.
He added, “Many people resort to injections, tightening, and nose beautification without taking into account the sometimes disastrous side effects if done by an inexperienced hand.” He warned against the spread of so-called paid training courses that cost large sums and last for several hours or days, and provide a certificate in filler injections, Botox, and others.
He said, “These courses are not covered by the Ministry of Health and are dangerous to society. A specialist doctor studies plastic surgery for 6 years to obtain an academic degree licensed by the ministry. It is not possible for someone who has completed a course of several hours to become authorized to perform these operations after obtaining a training certificate that is attached to the chest of his workplace and that the trainee exploits for that purpose.”
He pointed out that a number of doctors from various specialties have turned to cosmetic surgeries, which means that the specialty of cosmetic surgery is floating and the remaining specialties are moving away from their real therapeutic field, as he indicated that the number of doctors specializing in cosmetic surgery does not exceed 250 male and female doctors.
Regarding the most requested cosmetic surgeries in Syria by the Lebanese, Ratil says, “Rhinoplasty, followed by facelifts, liposuction, breast augmentation, Botox and filler injections, as facial inflammation has become a common condition due to the use of counterfeit materials and incorrect injections without knowledge of the face, its arteries, and the location of the nerves and muscles in it.” He points out that “cosmetic materials are dangerous, so what if they are counterfeit or injected in an incorrect manner?”
He stresses that as doctors, we spend long years studying and take continuous courses to keep up with technology, while those who are new to the medical profession are content to undergo a course that lasts a few days, after which they call themselves specialists!
He concludes by stressing the need to follow the correct criteria before choosing a plastic surgeon, such as verifying his registration with the Doctors Syndicate if he is Lebanese and ensuring his specialization. He says, “Beauty deserves a safe journey and satisfactory results, not risking one’s health for tempting offers.” As for Othman, she concludes by saying, “A person’s beauty is a trust that he has and deserves the best care from experienced and competent doctors who adhere to the highest safety standards.”
Source: Alhurra website