Two women who posed as health workers arrested to perform illegal aesthetic treatments in Madrid

When the agents arrived, the two women, a supposed doctor and her assistant, were surprised red-handed while they injected a substance into the nose of a client, while nine others waited in an adjoining room to receive aesthetic treatments without any type of health control that the National Police calls illegal. The women who posed as health workers, of Ukrainian nationality, have been arrested in the course of an investigation that began after the complaint of a victim, who suffered serious injuries to her face for which she ended up in the hospital due to a aesthetic intervention in this traveling clandestine clinic. In the searches of the premises and the homes of the arrested women, the police found a multitude of drugs, chemicals and utensils for aesthetic interventions, as well as more than 10,000 euros in cash. They charged an abusive price of up to 5,000 euros for a lip augmentation and without an invoice. There are already two complaints against them and the police, who have the operation open, hope that more will be added.

The first victim reported the women on September 27, a police spokesperson detailed to this newspaper. The woman told the police that she contacted a supposed doctor through a well-known social network to undergo cosmetic treatment. After making an appointment at a place for physiotherapy treatments located in the Central district of Madrid, he received several injections and was not given an invoice or indication of the substances that had been administered, despite having requested it and it being mandatory. As a result of this intervention, the woman suffered serious injuries for which she had to be admitted to a hospital. Once she was discharged, she contacted the perpetrator, who “disappeared” when she demanded her information as a healthcare professional.

Drawing on this thread, the agents confirmed that women were advertising on the networks, especially Instagram, where they offered aesthetic treatments such as a lip augmentation for 5,000 euros or a buttock augmentation for 2,200 euros with Botox and hyaluronic acid, among others. The clandestine clinic was traveling. “They moved through various aesthetic and physiotherapy treatment establishments, to which they rented rooms, at least two in Madrid and some in other provinces,” details the spokesperson.

Both women were located and arrested on January 31, when they were preparing to inject a substance into a woman's nose in a room they had rented for a day in a physiotherapy clinic in the Moncloa district. The intervention was paralyzed by the agents, who asked them to provide their accreditation for the exercise of said activity, but they did not have it. In addition, nine other women waited in a room to be treated by the supposed doctor, born in 1984, and her assistant, born in 1969. The woman who was almost injected in the nose filed the second complaint against them. Both these two victims who have reported and the nine who were waiting in line said that they had trusted them “because they had many followers” ​​on Instagram, which acted as a “guarantee” of their professionalism. The accounts no longer exist.

The investigators searched the establishment and home of the two arrested women, where they seized a large amount of medical supplies such as numerous syringes, vials, cannulas, needles, glass bottles, medications, and scalpels. “They even had insulin,” says the spokesperson. They also had more than 10,000 euros in cash. The alleged health workers, who had no criminal record, have been arrested as alleged perpetrators of the crimes of trespassing, injuries and crimes against public health and were placed at the disposal of the judicial authority. The investigation remains open, so the appearance of more victims is not ruled out. The women had lists of clients, so the police are contacting them to alert them of the fraud.

Dr. Elena Berezo, medical director of the EB Clinics, warns about the growing practice of wearing anything anywhere without any type of health control. “The border is the needle. In any aesthetic treatment in which something is injected that penetrates the epidermis, a doctor must intervene,” she explains. Thus, a staticen can cleanse the skin, but never inject Botox. The second thing to take into account when undergoing a treatment after verifying that a doctor specializing in Aesthetic Medicine will do it is that the premises have a “health license and a medication warehouse that is attached to a pharmacy, which is the one that dispenses botulinum toxin.” “A physiotherapy center has one license and an aesthetic treatment center has another,” the doctor recalls.

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Berezo reminds that botulinum toxin is a medicine that “must maintain a cold chain for its correct conservation” and that it must be purchased in a pharmacy with all guarantees. “If it breaks down, the drug loses its properties and unwanted side effects may arise,” he warns. Thus, upon arriving at the medical office, the professional must open “the vial of botulinum toxin or the product that will be used in the treatment in front of the patient,” to ensure that vials are not shared or reused. Upon treatment, clinics must offer the patient a personal record with all the information on the product that has been injected – commercial brand, manufacturing laboratory, batch number, date of issue and expiration date.

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