Table 2.
Reports of botched aesthetic medical procedures
| Year | Location | Incident reported | Ethical concern |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Thailand (foreign national woman) | A bad nose job that resulted in the woman being unable to breath easily through one nostril (Head 2015) | Misleading marketing practice or false advertisement |
| 2014 | Malaysia (Australian man) | A 31-year-old man died due to blocked lung artery caused by blood clots days after undergoing liposuction, abdominoplasty, and upper lip augmentation (Brender 2017; Malaysiakini 2017) | Inadequate postoperative care |
| 2014 | Thailand (British woman) | A 24-year-old woman paid £2000 for a buttock’s augmentation (silicone implant) which became infected, and after returning for a second surgery, she died which under anesthetic (International Medical Travel Journal 2014) | Unlicensed practitioner |
| 2014 | South Korea (local woman) | A 49-year-old woman sought 15 cosmetic surgeries that cost close to $28,000 to correct her nose but was left with multiple medical problem such as unable to close her eyes or stop her nose from running (Park 2014) | Lack of specialization |
| 2015 | Thailand (Australian woman) | A young Australian woman was left permanently scarred due to botched cosmetic surgery; breast lift and augmentation and extended tummy tuck which cost up to $16,000. She was given the wrong implants (NZ Herald 2018) | Misleading marketing practice or false advertisement |
| 2018 | Singapore (local man) | A 44-year-old man died during a liposuction procedure after the doctor administered sedative improperly leading in the man being left attended and unable to breath (Tang 2018) | Medical malpractice and dishonesty |
| 2020 | Malaysia (local woman) | A 23-year-old woman died due to a MYR2500 liposuction that gone wrong (David 2020) | Ambiguity in practitioner’s qualifications |
| 2020 | South Korea (Hong Kong woman) | A 34-year-old heiress died while getting a liposuction and a breast augmentation which led her to a coma due to the sedative administered improperly (Lapin 2020) | Uncertified surgeon and absence of an anesthetist |
| 2021 | South Korea (local man) | A 24-year-old man died seven weeks after an aesthetic procedure to make his jaw more slender, during which time become unconscious after bleeding out (Seo and Hollingsworth 2021) | “Ghost doctor” issue |
| 2022 | India (local woman) | A 21-year-old Indian actress died due to complication during a botched liposuction procedure (Karthik 2020) | Unlicensed clinic |
| 2022 | Malaysia (local man) | A man sued his aesthetic doctor for MYR2.7 million due to a botched nose job that left him deformed (Hariz 2022) | Misleading guarantees |
| 2022 | Malaysia (local transgender person) | A cartilage graft rhinoplasty that cost MYR13,466 which left her with a deformed nose (Zack 2022) | Procedure conducted by a foreign doctor |