The news of 21-year-old Kannada television actor, Chetana Raj, who lost her life during plastic surgery at a private clinic in Bengaluru is doing the rounds and has given rise to the same old questions — how often does this happen and is it worth it? She reportedly underwent a liposuction surgery that went terribly wrong.
It was at Dr Shetty's Cosmetic Clinic that she was undergoing the treatment and the same clinic has now been served notice.
We try to understand the trends behind getting plastic surgery done, why society turns up its nose when it comes to it and how frequent are extreme cases like death?
Where does India stand when it comes to the number of people who underwent plastic surgery?
The number of people opting for plastic surgeries has jumped to new heights over the last five years. According to a 2016 global survey by the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery (ISAPS), India ranks fourth in the world, with 8,94,700 surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures, accounting for 5.2 per cent of all procedures recorded globally.
Why is it a trend, especially during COVID?
Plastic surgeons in India have seen up to 40 per cent rise in surgeries during the pandemic, mostly among working professionals who are between 25 years and 45 years of age. Also due, to the possibility of working from the comfort of one's home or even a remote location, the downtime associated with any cosmetic surgery hardly interferes with anyone's work schedule.
Emerging trends also are that more and more celebrities are embracing the truth that they did go under the knife instead of denying it in public, à la actor Priyanka Chopra, Shruti Haasan and others.
Does stigma around plastic surgery still exist in India?
As soon as people listen to the word plastic surgery, most just imagine the worst-case scenario. They relate it with something unnatural, oversized or absurd-looking. Others think that plastic surgery is only approached by desperate people who want to fit into the social ideal of beauty.
While some believe it's only done by celebrities from the glamour world forgetting about reconstructive surgery which aims to treat the discomforts of people who are disfigured caused by illness or accident and people who are born with a deformity.
Does it really cause frequent deaths?
On a whole, plastic surgery complications are rare. In accordance with the 2018 review of over 25,000 cases, complications occur in fewer than 1 per cent of outpatient surgeries. As with most surgeries, plastic surgery complications are more common in certain people.
Although some common complications of cosmetic surgery do exist and it includes hematoma, nerve damage, infection, scarring, implant failure and organ damage, hematoma nerve damage, infection, scarring, implant failure and organ damage.
However, as the global cosmetic surgery industry sees a boom, a number of private clinics offering cosmetic surgeries and beauty quick fixes are mushrooming in the country. And that is cause for concern. What rings loud alarm bells is the fact that recently, at least three people have reportedly died in the country due to life-threatening complications during cosmetic surgery procedures.
In the absence of regulations, many such make-shift clinics are thriving mostly because they are inexpensive and offer short-term treatment.
Has this caused any death though?
One of the most recent deaths that did make headlines was of Telugu actor Aarthi Agarwal in 2015. She died of a cardiac arrest at the age of 31, following a liposuction surgery in New Jersey.
