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Jodie Nicholson, from Leeds, decided to have a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL), which she was told was completely safe. But the experience turned into a nightmare
A mum-of-two who was taken to hospital with sepsis after a botched Brazilian butt lift has backed the Mirror’s campaign to clean up the beauty industry.
Jodie Nicholson, from Leeds, decided to have a non-surgical BBL in July 2022, which she was told was completely safe by the clinic. But the experience turned into a nightmare.
She said: “It was sold to me as extremely safe, nothing like the surgical BBL, and I was told if I didn’t like it, it was only filler and could be dissolved, no downtime or aftercare needed.” But the next morning she woke at 4am to feed her baby son and realised something was very wrong.
Jodie, now 30, said: “I’ve never felt ill like it. It happened so fast. I felt sick, dizzy and my vision was blurred, my thighs were red hot and rock hard. When I looked in the mirror, purple rings were around the injection area. By 10am the next morning my buttocks were oozing with pus. It happened extremely fast.”
Jodie went to the doctor who prescribed antibiotics but she struggled to keep them down. Five days after the procedure, she was taken to A&E as she was drifting in and out of consciousness.
“They said I was days away from dying in my sleep, as I was so poorly when I first went in,” she said. “Thank God, in A&E they took my bloods and within about three hours of being there, they did the first operation on both sides to cut away the filler and infected tissue.
“They cut through muscle and tissue to remove what they could and put drains in to get any excess fluid. They drained 2.5 litres of pus from the areas. My blood infection was really bad and I was in another few weeks as they then had to do another operation a few days after as one side was burning and felt like nettles on the inside.
1. Cosmetic operations such as liposuction, surgical face lifts and surgical eye lifts, should only be carried out by properly trained surgeons on the General Medical Council specialist register. These surgeons should have UK Board Certification in Cosmetic Surgery for their area of practice.
2. All operations and high risk procedures must be surgically safeand carried out in clinics and hospitals inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
3. Make it a legal requirement for beauty clinics who offer non-surgical interventions to have malpractice insurance.
“They then cut away more tissue. I’m three years in and it’s not just the scars, it’s the disfigurement as one side is completely cut away.”
Doctors told her afterwards that this sort of procedure can go wrong even years down the line. Jodie, who is a carer for an elderly family member and has two sons, aged 9 and 3, said: “It’s awful. I don’t like that the people who do it aren’t held accountable unless you’ve actually died. You can’t believe they haven’t got a conscience and keep practicing on other people.”
Pointing to the case of Alice Webb, who died after complications from a non-surgical BBL procedure, she said: “I hope we can try to make people aware and get a change, especially for that young lady Alice who lost her life. That was awful.”
