A woman was sent to the emergency room after a facial treatment went wrong and communication between her and the business owner came to a halt. (Courtesy:Canva)
A Toronto woman is calling out a local business for allegedly ghosting her friend after she had to go to the emergency department due to a facial treatment that went terribly wrong.
A woman named Namra Malik took to social media to share a video of her friend whose skin appears to be extremely cracked and yellow, allegedly caused by a cosmelan peel done by a local esthetician.
A cosmelan peel is a professional brand used for depigmentation and targeting stubborn spots on the skin.
In the post, Malik explains that her friend experienced severe symptoms and irritation after the treatment and states that she was told that it was just a part of the healing process.
But communication was apparently cut off as the client got more concerned with worsening symptoms, to the point of seeking emergency medical help and was diagnosed with a chemical burn with severe impetigo. Impetigo is the medical term for a superficial bacterial infection.
Acknowledging that cosmetic treatments may come with risks, she is highlighting the lack of communication between her friend and the business owner.
“We are sharing this because people deserve to know that while cosmetic procedures can have complications, those complications need to be taken seriously,” she wrote in the post.
Dr. Renée Beach is a Toronto based dermatologist and the owner of DermAtelier on Avenue, and she weighed in on this viral incident and shared more insight on how a situation like this could potentially occur.
Although the details of the procedure were not shared, Dr. Beach shares the importance of protocol when it comes to pre and post care.
“With a chemical peel or other procedures that are done in office or in a commercial setting, there’s supposed to be a certain level of cleanliness of the tools, cleanliness of the provider, cleanliness of the technique. When cleanliness of any of these are compromised — so tools, setting, technique — there can be conditions like impetigo,” she told The Brandon Gonez Show.
She explained that a chemical burn like the woman in the video experienced, could’ve been due to the chemicals or ingredients not agreeing with her skin, potentially left on for too long or went to a deeper layer or skin and created that reaction.
While many comments on Malik’s post noted that after these types of treatments the skin often deteriorates before improving, however Dr. Beech says there are clear warning signs that indicate when the post-procedure stage is abnormal.
“Certainly things can look worse before they look better, in many of the procedures that I perform or that our staff performs here at our clinic,” Beech said. “However, if somebody’s experiencing increasing pain, if they’re experiencing discharge that looks like pus, if they’re experiencing anything like a fever, those are not normal for post-procedural outcomes.”
Beech urges anyone that experiences symptoms like this would contact the clinic immediately for evaluation and a solution.
She also shared the importance of approaching these treatments as medical procedures. Most medical procedures may come with risks and complications, so she emphasized making sure to research the clinic, ask them what their expertise is and their experience with the treatment and protocol if complications happen.
“None of us are perfect. I’ve had complications. We deal with them. It’s important to be upfront, communicate well, and own it, and be able to help the patient through it because they do happen,“ said Beach.
