Fahd Bin Jolaid

Al-Jazeera

 

Victims of some crimes are usually afraid to speak out and often suffer silently. They neither reveal what happened to them nor the identity of the offender despite the fact that the offender deserves to be punished. This is especially the case with crimes that are the result of botched cosmetic surgery at plastic surgery centers.



Dozens of women who go under the knife become victims of medical error. Women elect such surgery in order to enhance their beauty. They are often in a hurry and fail to realize that the doctors have not taken the necessary precautionary measures including medical analysis or ascertaining that the cosmetic procedures will not cause any complications. Here, the eye of the doctor is always on the client’s pocket while the eye of the client is on having a beautiful body.



Unfortunately, there aren’t any published or confirmed figures about these hidden crimes. This is mainly because victims try to distance themselves from the problems that they may face for fear of being publicly shamed. This situation will not change unless victims have the courage to file grievances with the Ministry of Health.



Any woman who is a victim of botched cosmetic surgery can ask for her rights – through the intervention of the ministry in a confidential manner – so that the erroneous party shall bear the consequences of the medical error.



Perhaps it is appropriate to recall the recent verdict of a French court in which the founder of the French company Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) was sentenced to four years in prison after being convicted for selling tens of thousands of defective breast implants. This put an end to a controversy about the use of industrial grade silicone that was prone to leak, produced by PIP. A large number of young women in Europe were victims of this fraud, which was discovered two years ago. In Saudi Arabia, we know there are errors being committed in our plastic surgery clinics but the victims choose to remain silent.