Sasha Dean took pride in her appearance and, as well as regular workouts to maintain a toned figure, she had fillers and Botox to help her keep a youthful complexion – but ‘the one thing I felt let me down was my backside’, she says. ‘I felt one side was rounded while the other was flat.’
After workouts with a personal trainer failed to achieve the shape she wanted, Sasha, 54, opted to have a liquid Brazilian butt lift (BBL) – a non-surgical procedure where filler is injected into the buttocks to make it bigger, more rounded or lifted.
But it’s a decision she bitterly regrets, as the experience almost killed her – and 18 months on, she is still not fully recovered.
Sasha, who runs a transport company in Bedfordshire, fell seriously ill within days of having a volume-enhancing jab into her buttocks with sepsis, a life-threatening reaction to an infection.
Within hours of being blue-lighted to hospital Sasha suffered a heart attack, a collapsed lung and her kidneys began to fail.
Doctors had to put Sasha into an induced coma as they battled to save her life.
She is speaking out now to warn others contemplating having the procedure to be aware of what they might be letting themselves in for.
‘If you had told me how dangerous this procedure could be I would never have agreed – it nearly killed me,’ says Sasha, who has a son, 26, and a daughter, 23.
Sasha Dean, 54, opted to have a liquid Brazilian butt lift – a non-surgical procedure where filler is injected into the buttocks
This week the Chartered Trading Standards Institute warned that untrained practitioners have turned the market for cosmetic procedures such as butt lifts and Botox into a ‘wild west’ that was ‘putting lives at risk’.
It had reportedly uncovered cases of the procedures being offered in public loos and hotel rooms – and warned people to check the qualifications of those offering cosmetic procedures.
A BBL traditionally involves surgery to take fat from a patient’s thighs, hips or abdomen – by liposuction – and injecting it into the buttocks to add volume.
It is widely considered one of the most dangerous cosmetic procedures by experts because large veins within the buttocks can be easily injured or torn.
What’s more, the fat can accidentally be injected into the wrong area, leading to embolism – a serious complication where fat blocks blood flow to vital organs including lungs, heart and brain.
The liquid BBL Sasha had is a newer technique where synthetic filler – typically hyaluronic acid, the same compound used to cosmetically plump up lips – is injected into the buttocks instead.
Because it doesn’t involve surgery to remove fat, it is supposedly safer than the conventional BBL. But is it?
Those undergoing a liquid BBL will experience ‘some swelling straight after that will need to settle down’, says Mo Akhavani, a consultant plastic surgeon at the Royal Free Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London.
‘Liquid BBLs should be banned completely. It is hailed as a safe “lunchtime” procedure but I am proof that it involves playing Russian roulette with your life,’ Sasha warns
This may take up to six months to ‘fully subside,’ but he adds: ‘The real danger’ is potential infections.
‘Hyaluronic acid is safe in the lips but more dangerous in the backside because of the large volume that is used there,’ he says.
‘In addition, you are stabbing into an area that is naturally not very clean, so the risk is higher.
‘The lips also have an amazing blood supply and therefore fight infection quite easily, however in the buttock the same is not true,’ adds Mr Akhavani, who also has a private clinic but does not offer BBLs of any kind.
The added problem is that whereas BBLs are conducted only by doctors, liquid BBLs can essentially be done by anyone, with no healthcare training or experience required.
‘Liquid BBLs are often advertised online as being a risk-free, cheaper alternative to the surgical BBL, which is why so many people are opting for them and are suffering life-threatening complications,’ says Ashton Collins, director of the charity Save Face, a government-approved register that connects patients with trusted practitioners.
Since 2023, the charity says it has supported more than 700 women with complications and problems caused by liquid BBLs – and more than half have ended up in hospital with sepsis.
‘All these procedures were carried out by practitioners with no medical experience and were either unable or unwilling to manage the complications,’ he adds.
The charity believes the tragic death of 33-year-old Alice Webb, a mother of five from Gloucestershire who lost her life due to complications arising from a liquid BBL last September could have been prevented by tighter regulations about who can offer these services.
Save Face is among those now calling on the government to reclassify liquid BBLs as surgical procedures that can only be carried out by plastic surgeons.
‘Unlike the surgical counterparts [i.e. traditional BBLS] anyone can administer liquid BBLs from any type of setting, even though they carry the same degree of risk as their surgical counterparts,’ says Ashton Collins.
‘We estimate that thousands of liquid BBLs are performed annually in the UK, mostly by non-medical practitioners operating in unregulated environments. Without decisive action, more lives will be lost.’
The Royal College of Surgeons of England (RCS England) wants changes in the law meaning all cosmetic procedures – whether surgical or non-surgical and including all injectable treatments such as Botox – should only be carried out by qualified surgeons.
‘Non-surgical injectables can be dangerous,’ says Professor Vivien Lees, senior vice president at RCS England.
‘In the hands of an untrained person they can place members of the public at significant risk of harm, injury and potential death.’
‘injections performed by someone untrained could cause tissue damage and serious infection – they can inject stuff into places that should not be injected, such as blood vessels,’ says Mr Akhavani.
This is what is thought to have happened in Sasha’s case.
When she discovered that the clinic where she had been getting Botox injections into her face for three years had started offering liquid BBLs, she was thrilled. It was billed to Sasha as a ‘walk-in’ procedure.
‘They said it was safe, much safer than a traditional BBL,’ says Sasha. ‘I felt it was completely trustworthy.’
‘I was not warned about the side-effects,’ she says.
‘In fact, the consent form was no longer or different to the one I often signed for Botox.’
Sasha had three 200ml injections of filler injected into her buttocks at the clinic over a 20-month period starting from the beginning of 2022. She was cleaned with a sterile liquid beforehand and ‘the whole thing was very professional’, she says.
But she wasn’t satisfied with the result of the treatment – which usually costs around £5,000. So her aesthetician offered her a discount on a fourth procedure – which she said she could perform at cost price, £1,500, at her own home, says Sasha.
‘I knew her, trusted her and knew she had a room at her home for appointments – which I’d previously visited – so I agreed,’ she says.
Sasha went for the appointment, with her partner Alan, 47, on 30 December 2023 – ‘the room was clean with a proper surgical bed’, she recalls.
‘It was only during the procedure I found out she shared this space with her mother, a hairdresser, and there was hair everywhere. It looked clean but was not as sterile as I’d thought.’
The procedure was the same as before – ‘but as I was leaving, I instantly felt cold,’ Sasha recalls.
‘It was winter, but this was something different. Back at home, I went straight to bed, still shivering.’
The next day was spent in bed, shivering, unable to eat, drink or even pass urine. A day later, Alan found her in bed still fading in and out of consciousness – so he called 999.
‘I remember paramedics coming into my room and hearing the word “sepsis” – then all hell breaking loose,’ says Sasha.
She was blue-lighted to hospital where sepsis was confirmed. There was little doubt the liquid BBL was to blame.
Sasha was placed in intensive care and her distraught family were warned she might not survive as her organs were failing.
Doctors explained they needed to put her in an induced coma if she was to have any chance of survival.
‘I was in and out of consciousness,’ says Sasha. ‘I remember the look on Alan’s face and on my dad’s. I knew I was severely unwell.
‘It sounds weird, but I felt at peace. I am not sure whether it was the drugs overwhelming me, or if this is what it feels like when you are dying.’
When she came round after being unconscious for five days, Sasha couldn’t speak and remained in hospital for five weeks, learning to walk again with physiotherapy and on high-protein drinks to help her regain weight and strength lost while in a coma.
When she was discharged in February 2024, ‘life as I knew it was over,’ she says.
‘I’d lost a stone and muscle, plus I couldn’t work so my transport business was on its knees – and I had PTSD from the trauma as did my family.’
When Sasha tried to contact the aesthetician who had treated her, she discovered that she’d blocked her on email, phone and on all the clinic social media accounts.
‘I was utterly stunned, I would have thought they’d have some accountability and care if I lived or died,’ she says.
Eighteen months on, Sasha is still recovering.
‘My hair fell out. I have post-sepsis syndrome, where I have chronic fatigue – and if I do any exercise, I am in bed by teatime.’
She no longer has cosmetic procedures and now warns other people: ‘Liquid BBLs should be banned completely. It is hailed as a safe “lunchtime” procedure but I am proof that it involves playing Russian roulette with your life.’
