How a £5 nose job nearly ruined this aspiring model's life

Getting medical procedures – be they necessary or for cosmetic purposes – can be a frightening affair.

Often what prevents people from being overwhelmed by fear is the trust they have in medical practitioners – after all, if they’re undertaking these operations, they must be qualified, right?

Unfortunately that’s not always the case, and frauds often moonlight as professionals.

Filipino model Ellowe Alviso paid the equivalent of £5 for a nose and chin job back in 2012, when he was still a teenager.

However two years later he noticed that his chin and nose were becoming deformed. Worried, he visited the doctors.

It turned out the solution which had been injected into his nose wasn’t collagen – it was allegedly a mixture made up of petroleum jelly, wax and sealant.

As the solution solidified over time, and his body rejected the toxic chemicals, his nose and chin began to swell.

Eventually he received emergency care, but the operation left him scarred.

Alviso got in contact with the beautician who had originally done the procedure, going by the name Euge Edward Udangan.

However, when Alviso asked Udangan to pay for half of the medical bills, she had supposedly threatened his life.

A warrant is out for Udangan's arrest, but she appears to have disappeared.

After losing his modelling contracts, and the loss of two of his family members, Alviso and his mother became briefly homeless.

He’s since managed to find work selling bamut (a type of street food, made of bird embryo) and as a character in horror events.

Illegal, black market plastic surgery procedures are not a new phenomenon. Transgender woman Rajindra Narinesinch was the victim of a plastic surgery procedure which left her face permanently deformed. She had been injected with a toxic cocktail of Super Glue, mineral oil and cement.

Narinesinch’s plastic surgeon, Oneal Ron Morris was jailed for practising healthcare without a licence.

HT: ABS-CBN.com

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