Twenty women have come forward to complain about their ordeals at the hands of a fake medic exposed by the Daily Mail. They were left with severe bruising, swelling and infections after appointments with lip filler practitioner Golam Chowdhury.
One woman even had to take a week off work because damage to her lips left her unable to talk or eat properly.
Mr Chowdhury runs a clinic in Birmingham and refers to himself as a ‘qualified doctor in Bangladesh’ – though he is not registered with the General Medical Council.
Last Sunday, he declined to apologise to the women. The complaints about Mr Chowdhury come amid growing anger at the Mail’s revelation last Saturday that amateurs with no medical training are offering to inject schoolgirls with dangerous lip fillers for as little as £59.
The cosmetic treatments can cause irreversible damage but a lack of regulation means anyone is allowed to set themselves up as a practitioner. Some beauticians target young women on social media and offer to inject groups at lip filler ‘parties’. Others offer special deals, including the chance to cut costs by sharing a syringe with a friend.
Mr Chowdhury, 41, was one of three lip filler practitioners who offered to inject 17-year-old Ellie Ducker when she visited clinics with undercover reporters.
And campaign group Save Face, which raises awareness about the dangers of non-surgical cosmetic treatment, said it has had more than 20 calls about him.
Save Face compiles a register of accredited practitioners, which is approved by the Government. Last Saturday, its director Ashton Collins told the Mail: ‘Mr Chowdhury has created a false persona to gain trust and confidence by masquerading as a registered doctor.
A Government review by Sir Bruce Keogh four years ago warned that unregulated fillers was ‘a crisis waiting to happen’.
It stated that fillers ‘can have major and irreversible adverse impacts on health and wellbeing’.
Mr Chowdhury had said he was a bachelor of medicine and a bachelor of surgery.
He said he did not mislead patients into believing he was a registered medical doctor. Speaking outside his semi-detached home in Acocks Green, Birmingham, he added: ‘I’m not saying I am prescribing medicine, but I’ve done my training for Botox and carrying out lip-filling procedures. I’ve got my certificates. You don’t need to be registered with the GMC to do this.’
Mr Chowdhury writes he is a doctor on official forms and is referred to at the Arcadia Care Clinic as ‘the doctor’.
But speaking to the Mail last Saturday: ‘I haven’t said to anyone I’m a doctor. I am a qualified doctor in Bangladesh, I completed training to do work in the UK. I never mentioned that I’m a qualified doctor in the UK.’
