I was raced to hospital after dodgy fillers made my lips swell to twice their size and turn blue – and then I got sepsis
MUM Bethany MacPherson knows only too well the long-term impact poorly-injected lip fillers can have on your health.
The 22-year-old, from Livingston, Scotland, decided she wanted "more even lips".
She happily paid £150 to a woman to have them done - but the fillers immediately clumped in her lip.
So the woman advised her to come back and have them sorted out, which is she did.
But the results were worse and Bethany developed a haematoma, when blood collects under the skin.
She had to go to accident and emergency to have it treated.
"It was terrible," she told Fabulous, explaining afterwards she developed abscesses which ultimately led to her being hospitalised with sepsis - blood poisoning - for two weeks.
Now she's supporting Fabulous's Had Our Fill campaign which is calling for Britain's growing filler industry to be thoroughly regulated.
Here she tells her story:
I always wanted better lips - I thought my bottom lip was bigger than my top one and they should be more even.
So, in April 2017, aged 20, I decided to finally bite the bullet and get fillers.
I knew people who have had them done and it didn't seem like a huge deal. But, even so, I decided to do my research and looked online for someone who had glowing reviews.
HAD OUR FILL
FABULOUS is working in conjunction with to demand that anyone considering a non-surgical cosmetic treatment should be well informed and able to make a safe decision.
Our campaign is backed by the Royal Society for Public Health, the British Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons and the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons.
Read more at
Satisfied with what I found, I booked in at a place near my home in Livingston, Scotland.
Paying around £150, I wasn't scared. I've got a pretty high pain threshold and I'm not frightened of needles.
I signed a disclaimer saying I was fine with having them done and numbing cream was put on my lips.
But after they were done, I wasn't happy at all as a lump had formed on the left-hand side of my bottom lip.
The woman injecting the filler frantically tried to smooth it down but it wouldn't settle.
She agreed it wasn't right, so suggested I return for her to improve it.
In early June I went back, this time accompanied with my partner Jackson, 24, to make it better. I didn't think she was going to inject me again, but she did... and it was worse.
Jackson winced as a needle was pushed into my lip. A section of the top left hand side of my lip bulged out.
He said it burst out quickly, didn't look right and was uneven.
I was in pain and it started swelling immediately, but even so I left the salon.
The salon was around an hour from my home but as Jackson drove me home I felt in loads of pain.
And the swelling just got worse and worse. Snapping a photo on my phone, I sent it to the woman who did the fillers and she suggested I go to hospital.
I was in hospital for four hours and was terrified I would lose my lip.
Bethany MacPherson
I was terrified. It looked dreadful, and I didn't know what was happening. I was scared as I cried in the passenger seat.
At St John's Hospital in Livingston, where she met me, accident and emergency staff called their colleagues in plastic surgery.
They didn't know what to do, told me they hadn't seen someone in my state before.
Unable to reduce the lump they worked out I'd suffered a haematoma, when blood collects under the skin.
I was in hospital for four hours and was terrified I would lose my lip.
Eventually I was sent home and told to keep my lip clean and cool and told to return immediately if it worsened.
The next day I was at a spa - a long-planned trip - when in the sauna my lips gradually started to shrink in size.
Maybe it was the heat? I don't know.
But I still felt really self-conscious about the and embarrassed that they was so uneven and there was a huge bulge there.
They carried on shrinking, although I was left with - and still have - a scar.
However, after that I developed abscesses in my mouth.
I don't know if they are linked. They might not be and I can't say for certain that they are but they were really painful.
They would come and go but I didn't think much of them.
Until, in October 2018, after arriving home from the dentist I felt awful - really fluey and exhausted.
I remember lying on the sofa as my kids, my daughter Charlie, now four, and son Tommy, now two, reaked havoc around me.
Normally I am very house proud but I could see them mucking about, crushing crisps into the carpet as I lay on the sofa, and I did nothing.
I was just too ill to move.
Eventually I got them to bed and fell into my own.
But in the night I went to the loo and collapsed on the floor.
Calling a family member, I told her 'take me to hospital, I need to go now.'
At the same hospital where my fillers were treated I was diagnosed with sepsis which is when the body over reacts to an infection and your blood becomes poisoned.
The source of my infection was the abscesses in my mouth.
Doctors told me if I hadn't come in I wouldn't have made it through the night.
Treated with antibiotics, I was kept in for two weeks and eventually released.
Now, I'm much better. But it hasn't been easy.
FILLERS BY NUMBERS
£2.75 billion - estimated value of UK’s non-surgical cosmetic industry
59% - 13 to 24 year olds see lip fillers as routine as getting a haircut or manicure
68% - young people say friends have had fillers
160 - different types of dermal filler available for use in Europe, compared to only 10 in the US where they have tighter regulations
1,617 - complaints received by Save Face last year regarding unregistered practitioners
1.2 million - posts for #lipfillers on Instagram
3.9 million - Google searches for ‘lip fillers’ in UK last year
40% - 13 to 19 year olds say images on social media cause them to worry about body image
I've consulted a lawyer with regards to what happened to me and we are in the process of discussing a claim. It is still back-and-forth though, so I can't go into much detail.
Even after everything I would have fillers. Done well, I think they look good. But, I also think there needs to be more regulation surrounding the legislation of them - which is why I am supporting Fabulous Digital's campaign.
And I certainly don't think companies should advertise on social media. There is enough pressure there as it is - young men and women don't need more.
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