Woman 'considered suicide' after having cosmetic treatment
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Your support makes all the difference.A woman considered suicide after she was "pressurised" by a doctor to have anti-wrinkle treatment that left her face marked and swollen, the General Medical Council (GMC) was told yesterday.
The woman, known only as Ms H, was signed off work with clinical depression and avoided leaving home because of the side-effects of the treatment.
She wept as she told the GMC's professional conduct committee that she had wanted treatment to remove only two fine lines on her upper lip but claimed she was pressured into having further injections on her cheeks. The woman said Dr Huw Jones was "very insistent" on administering Restylane injections to parts of her face she had not wanted treated.
Ms H, then in her late thirties, said she woke the next day with "very pronounced" swelling and such a high temperature that she fainted.
Dr Jones, a GP in Oakwood, north London, is also accused of failing to obtain the woman's medical history and failing to warn her of the risk of the injections. He gave Ms H some unused Restylane in a syringe to take home for future top-up treatments, contrary to the manufacturers' instructions. Dr Jones denies serious professional misconduct.
On the first day of the hearing in London, Ms H said: "I became very conscious of the lines and I tried to avoid going out or meeting people."
She said that during the consultation at his private practice in October 2000, the GP was "adamant" that he could give her an extra £250 treatment that would make her "very happy." She said: "I actually felt very pressurised and I actually felt that he would not let me go until I had the other treatment."
Jeremy Donne, for the GMC, told the committee that although the swellings on Ms H's face subsided, the dark lines on her cheeks remained. "By early 2001 her appearance so distressed her that she entertained suicidal thoughts."
Ms H was told that the dark lines would eventually disappear. Not until this year did she believe her facial appearance had improved and that the effects of the Restylane had started to disappear.
Restylane is a similar "wrinkle filler" to Collagen but the effects often last longer.
The case continues.
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