|
Unregulated cosmetic surgery yields nightmares in China
April 26, 1997
Web posted at: 5:03 p.m. EDT (2103 GMT)BEIJING (CNN) -- Ma Xiaoqing, a 64-year-old Chinese woman, decided to have cosmetic surgery to make her eyes look more beautiful. Her first operation in 1993 left her with one eyelid inside-out.
Three operations quickly followed, and Ma was left with severely scarred eyelids. The first four operations were carried out by a doctor at a military hospital, which first tried to fix the problem but later refused to provide further treatment or give any compensation.
Ma, like thousands of others in China, experienced the horrors first hand of an unregulated industry in which people are at the mercy of untrained surgeons. Currently there are more than 700,000 beauty parlors across China. And, according to one Chinese newspaper, tens of thousands have had their faces destroyed by unqualified plastic surgeons in the last five years.
One of the most popular operations in China is known as the double eyelid, a procedure that ideally makes eyes look larger, rounder and more beautiful -- the same surgery Ma had hoped would improve her looks.
During the operation, a small incision allows the surgeon to remove excess skin from the upper eyelid and stitch the lid in a way that creates a wrinkle in the skin -- the double eyelid. The operation usually takes about 40 minutes and costs about 400 to 800 renminbi ($50 to $100).
In Ma's case, the normally straightforward procedure went seriously awry. It took eight surgeries, a private practice surgeon and nearly four years before her eyelids were fixed.
But despite the nightmarish consequences of some cosmetic operations, thousands are willing to put beauty before danger.
Zhang Xin, 27, said she is pleased with her double eyelid surgery. She had worked in a beauty salon that performs cosmetic surgery for two years before going through with the surgery.
Plastic surgery became widespread in China in the late 1950s and 1960s, and was most often used to help victims of China's involvement in the 1950-55 Korean War. Cosmetic surgery has boomed since 1979 following China's reform policies that opened China to the West.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Related sites:
Note: Pages will open in a new browser windowExternal sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
Sound off on our message boards
Tell us what you think!
You said it...
© 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.