'Barbaric’: The women blowing the whistle on the cosmetic surgery industry
investigation has laid bare the dark underbelly of the cosmetic surgery business, where patients are left unprotected by a system that allows risks to be downplayed, profit to be put before patient safety, and laws that allow doctors with minimal surgical training to call themselves cosmetic surgeons – some after undertaking courses in facelifts and tummy tucks over a weekend.
That expose triggered a series of regulatory inquiries and most of Lanzer’s associates had conditions imposed on their medical registration. But, six months on, the inquiries continue and the body count of unhappy patients mounts.Now a fresh investigation has uncovered a litany of troubling practices across the country’s biggest cosmetic procedures group, Cosmos Clinics, founded by Dr Joseph Ajaka, which has clinics and day hospitals in five states.
Amoah, 26, was in pain for months, unable to pick up her young children. She had revision surgery to fix up the mess in December.Plastic surgeon Mark Ashton, a professor of surgery at the University of Melbourne, said Amoah could have died if she hadn’t called an ambulance. In the eight months that followed, Reza continued to operate out of the Melbourne practice, performing surgeries on many patients including Shanade Mulelly, who says she has uneven buttocks and shooting pains down her leg after an unsatisfactory BBL and liposuction procedure.
Taylor S is another Cosmos patient in pain after a fat transfer and BBL with Reza. After the surgery, she was left with an egg-shaped rock in her right buttock that makes it hard to sit down. She gave up and saw a plastic surgeon who told her he could remove the lump but it would leave a hole in her buttock and he couldn’t guarantee it would relieve the pain.
“It looks like someone put a piece of fake plastic on my abdomen … like rolled out Play-Doh in the shape of a snake, bulging from one side of my abdomen to the other,” she says.Ever since the surgery, her suffering is constant and unbearable. The case continues and so does Rebecca’s trauma. “It’s destroyed my life. If it wasn’t for my family, I would be homeless. I physically cannot work full-time. It is too exhausting,” she says.
Terre stopped posting about Cosmos but says there is no doubt the legal threats frighten people. “People are scared. They threaten people … They have so much money.” In this case, the influencer was left in chronic pain. When they complained and asked for compensation, Cosmos offered a refund with strings attached: an NDA with no admission of liability and a non-disparagement clause.
Social media experts Maddison Johnstone and Michael Fraser have been investigating social media use in the cosmetic surgery industry.Social media experts Maddison Johnstone and Michael Fraser have been examining 100 cosmetic surgery operators. They say Cosmos was already popular and was able to expand its reach when Lanzer and associates removed themselves from Instagram after the expose.
Johnstone and Fraser believe cosmetic surgeons are attempting to bypass this law by sharing videos or photos of patients happy with their results. Johnstone says sexy photos are becoming increasingly common across some cosmetic surgery organisations. “In some instances, it is hard to know what’s being advertised. Is it a bikini shot? Is it makeup? What’s actually happening here? There’s no procedure that’s being mentioned … These women are being used. These patients are being used in a very vulnerable sexualised way, to advertise cosmetic surgery,” she says.
Made popular by celebrity Kim Kardashian and singer Beyonce, the BBL is considered so dangerous that most trained plastic surgeons such as Ashton refuse to do them. In 2019, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons recommended its members not to perform BBLs after a string of deaths. They stand by that decision. Some disagree, citing research that states they are less dangerous than a tummy tuck.
He turned up at a no-frills bulk billing facility in Werribee, 32 kilometres south-west of Melbourne’s CBD, with plans to start offering cosmetic procedures.
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