She wanted to lose weight – but instead, she lost money and self-esteem.
UK mum Julia Lanni, 58, says she forked out about $155 last summer for 16 stomach fat-dissolving Aqualyx injections in the hope they would boost her body confidence.
What he got was a 2.75 inch hole in his stomach that required emergency surgery.
“This treatment was certainly life-changing, but not in the way I wanted it to be,” Lanni, from Hertfordshire, England, admitted to SWNS. “My confidence is even lower than before. My weight was the same after the treatment and I’m left with a scar.”
Fat dissolving or lipolysis injections are marketed as a non-surgical alternative to removing body fat. These injections are usually administered to “problem areas” such as the chin, legs, upper arms and abdomen.
Lanni requested the injections in July 2023 after menopausal weight gain left her unhappy with her appearance.
Looking for a cost-conscious, non-invasive way to lose belly fat, she booked an injection session at a local salon. The practitioner injected 16 doses of Aqualyx into Lanni’s midsection.
She said she signed a waiver and was told to wait three to four days before seeking medical attention if she had any negative side effects.
Immediately after her treatment, Lanni felt intense heat and pain around the injection site, which she tried to relieve by applying wet paper towels.
Her pain worsened in the days that followed, and she eventually developed a fist-sized abscess in her stomach.
“After a week, it was so painful, no one could touch it and I could barely move,” Lanni recalls. “It was unbearable.”
Her pain brought her to the hospital, where she was taken into emergency surgery.
“All the medical staff I saw said they’d never seen anything like it… I said to the surgeon, ‘It feels like a baked potato,’ and he said, ‘It’s worse, it’s like a small cabbage,'” Lanni recalled . .
Lanni was left with a 1.5 inch scar. Her post-operative care required her to have the wound packed and dressed for five weeks, “It was so painful when they touched it – like hundreds of bee stings.”
Her week-long recovery meant Lanni, a child support worker, was out of work. Having signed a consent form that listed abscesses as a possible side effect, Lanni was not eligible for compensation from the salon or the makers of Aqualyx.
“I have been researching the treatment online for over a month and have not seen abscess listed as a side effect. I think the form I signed was too general,” Lanni explained. “The practitioner said the worst that could happen was that the treatment wouldn’t work. I took her word for it.”
According to SWNS, the salon Lanni visited has since closed. The makers of Aqualyx did not respond to a SWNS request for comment.
Dr. Kasim Usmani in the UK, who specializes in injectables and cosmetic dermatology, told the media that like any medical treatment, there are risks to fat-dissolving injections.
“It is important to go to a qualified medical professional who understands the anatomy of the area being injected, as well as the correct depth of product placement and the amount of product used,” advised Usmani.
Usmani reports that many fat-dissolving injections are purchased online and contain questionable ingredients that can lead to adverse reactions.
“These complications are also present with approved, safer products like Aqualyx, but are greatly reduced when done in a medically controlled environment by a qualified medical professional,” Usmani said.
Out of a job with mounting debt, Lanni says she had to rely on $3,000 in savings to get by while she recovered. The failed procedure has taken its toll physically and emotionally.
“The whole experience has been extremely distressing. I could accept a reaction that needed a course of antibiotics, but an abscess of this size and emergency surgery is not in order,” she said.
Kybella, which targets chin fat, is the only fat-dissolving drug approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). It is not rated for use on other areas of the body.
However, unapproved liposuction injections are being used in clinics and medical spas across the US. These include Aqualyx, approved for use in the UK since 2012.
In December, the FDA warned of potential side effects of unapproved fat-digesting injections, such as permanent scarring, serious infections, skin deformities, cysts, and deep, painful nodules.
Fitness influencer Beatriz Amma says she was left with a flesh-eating disease and severe scarring after receiving unapproved fat-burning injections.
The FDA warned against seeking treatments from unlicensed personnel and self-injecting at home because of the risk of infections and other serious complications.
Doctor of obesity medicine Dr. Dan Maselli, of True You Weight Loss in Atlanta, told NBC News that “the patient may not know what they’re injecting” if they try to treat themselves.
“They might think it’s adipose tissue,” he explained in December. “It could be muscle tissue. It could be your blood vessel, or it could be around a nerve.”
Lanni hopes her stomach ordeal will serve as a cautionary tale to others, “I would advise people to be aware that this treatment can have serious consequences – think very carefully before doing it and only go to an esthetician who has been recommended by someone you know.”
She added: “Don’t wait the recommended time before seeking medical help and if possible, start taking antibiotics before treatment.”
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