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Plastic surgery has long been considered something out of the ordinary. Moreover, they have ceased to be ashamed. When Tom Cruise straightened his buttocks, the whole world was talking about it, and the actor's rating jumped as if he had received an Oscar. A visit to a plastic surgeon is just one of the many links in the PR chain. The laws of modern show business are inexorable: success can be achieved only by being young, beautiful and sexy. And if nature did not supply something, the knights of the scalpel will correct her mistake. In many ways, it is the amazing ease with which famous people go under the surgeon's knife that turns plastic surgery in the minds of ordinary people into a common thing, something comparable to a trip to a solarium or spa salon.
But you can understand the stars: after all, their appearance is their product, trademark, brand on which they make money. And what makes housewives or accounting ladies go under the knife? In 2008, in England, a study was conducted among clients of plastic clinics: 80% of patients were women who were scheduled for liposuction. However, only a third of them really needed to pump out excess fat from the thighs and buttocks. The rest just wanted to be like celebrities and be as slim and attractive.
Have your breasts pumped up? Let's pump it up
However, what all these women do not know is that, according to all the same statistics, 30% of patients are not satisfied with the results of operations. Moreover, among the dissatisfied there are stars of the first magnitude, who clearly trusted not the first aesculapians who came across, and they did not skimp on the fees to the attending physicians.
… Jessica Simpson dramatically lost weight, which is why her breasts lost their former splendor: plastic surgeons took over the shape and elasticity of the bust. And - they failed. Even now, after several surgeries, Jessica's breasts look asymmetrical.
… Beauty Kate Beckinsale, the star of Pearl Harbor, also took it into her head to enlarge her breasts. And what: noticeable stretch marks appeared on her - now "outstanding" - bust.
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And what is the epic with our Oksana Pushkina worth? After injections designed to relieve her of facial wrinkles, the presenter was forced to hide her face. And now, if she appears in the frame, then only after many hours of makeup. Oksana even released a book in which she spoke in detail about her misadventures and urged everyone to be more careful about their health and not even trust trusted doctors!
Valery Leontyev's eyes stopped closing after the intervention of the surgeons. To return the age to its former mobility, a much more complex operation was required.
Is it any wonder that the courts are inundated with complaints against surgeons. However, our legislation does not imply any serious punishment for poorly performed plastic surgery. In the end, people themselves go for "cosmetic repairs" of the body, they are warned about possible complications. And the fact that this is done, as a rule, casually, between times, - Themis closes her eyes. In short, there is no truth on earth. But not everyone is ready to put up with this state of affairs.
Extreme profession
In September 2005, on the way from work, Evgeny Laputin, one of the most famous plastic surgeons in Russia, was killed. The queue for an appointment with the doctor was made for many months. He really was a good specialist, friendly, helpful - this was noted by his colleagues and competitors (!), And patients, among whom, according to rumors, were Anastasia Zavorotnyuk, Angelica Varum, Svetlana Sorokina, Tatyana Lazareva, etc. But even at the very the golden doctor, failures happen …
Therefore, the investigators received a very wide range of suspects: offended patients, envious colleagues, competitors from other clinics. In addition, it was impossible to discount one more important point: as you know, not only people of art, but also so-called criminals resort to the services of plastic surgeons. Wanted persons, whose signs are well known, know how to ask for services in such a way that they cannot be denied. It may be that the doctor had to perform an operation to change the appearance of one of the crime bosses, and then the surgeon was simply removed. Conjectures, assumptions, guesses …
Any of them could turn out to be viable: the version about the competition between surgeons was the most developed one. How did the investigation into the murder of Laputin end? There was not a word about this in the media - the hype lasted for about three months, and then all the gossip subsided. But I want to believe that the culprit was found and punished …
The body protests
Why is plastic surgery so dangerous? What is the reason for such a large percentage of complications after surgery?
There is no mystery here. Plastic surgery is like a lottery. Often complications arise not through the fault of the surgeon, but as a result of the patient's physiological characteristics. A doctor who has undertaken to correct your nose or ears can be an unsurpassed specialist with colossal experience. But he is not God, and cannot guarantee 100% success. Every person is unique. And these are not just nice words. You can paraphrase and put it a little differently, more precisely: every organism is unique. He reacts in his own way to medications, subcutaneous injections, and even more so to operations. A doctor who has successfully changed hundreds of noses can "pierce" by performing rhinoplasty just for you, and it will be absolutely not to blame for that. After all, it was your connective tissues, cartilage, nerve endings and blood vessels that protested against the rude interference of an outsider!
Nicole Kidman, for example, faced such "arbitrariness" at one time: the film star wanted to see her nose more graceful, but the transplanted cartilage simply did not take root. In any case, the first time.
It also happens in another way: when the person himself cannot get used to the transplanted "organ". In April 2009, New Zealander Clint Hallam stunned doctors with a request to cut off his hand, which had been transplanted with great difficulty three years ago: the man said that he could not get used to it. It turned out that it is easier for him to part with a hand than to live with an alien limb.
Alien face
In 2004, Thomas Culp, in a fit of jealousy, shot his wife Connie with a shotgun and then tried to shoot himself. Failed. As a result, Thomas thundered for seven years in prison, and 46-year-old Connie … ended up in hell. The husband's jealousy cost a formerly attractive woman dearly: the shot shattered the nose, cheeks, palate and one eye, knocked out teeth, touched the soft tissues and facial bones of the skull … Only the upper eyelids, forehead, lower lip and chin remained intact. She could not breathe on her own: she needed a special tube inserted into her throat.
Connie had to undergo 30 surgeries. To restore facial bones, doctors used her own ribs. The skin was grafted from the thighs. But all the grandiose efforts of the doctors did not change anything in the fate of the woman: she still looked like a character from a horror movie, so it was impossible to think about leaving the house and appearing in public. But what is even more terrible, she could not breathe on her own, distinguish smells, eat solid food. As a result, the medical council decided: to transplant Connie's face completely.
On December 22, 2008, a team of surgeons led by Maria Semyonova (don't flatter yourself: Semyonova is an American, albeit with Russian-Polish roots) for 22 hours they conjured over Connie. She had 80% of her entire face transplanted: with bones, muscles, nerves and blood vessels of a woman who died a few hours ago.
Already in January, Connie was able to eat pizza and hamburgers, smile and smell. In February she was discharged home, and in May she appeared before the public. Of course, you cannot call her a beauty even now: her face is puffy, her skin hangs in folds. But these are already flowers that doctors will deal with when blood circulation, the work of muscles and nerve endings are normalized …
As for Connie herself, she is happy: a stranger's face is better than none.
The quality of life
Note: surgical manipulations of plastics, albeit different in complexity, are aimed at the same result - improving the patient's appearance. Only in the case of Connie and Isabelle, an improvement in appearance was tantamount to an improvement in the quality of life, or rather, life itself. As for ordinary patients, then they unanimously repeat about the exceptional benefits of contacting plastic surgeons. (We are talking, of course, about the lucky ones who liked their reflection in the mirror after a visit to the clinic.) Say, they began to feel much happier. Changes in self-awareness are noticeable to those around them. And this is a scientifically proven fact.
In 2007, researchers at the University of Illinois set out to find out how plastic surgery affects "first impressions." Participants in the experiment were shown photographs of different people with a request to comment on how successful, happy, healthy, in-demand, etc., this or that character seems to them. At the same time, the "strict jury" was not told whether the person had been under the knife of a plastic surgeon or not.
That is, the purity of the experiment was observed. And what? Former patients of the Aesculapius from plastic surgery made a much more advantageous impression on the "judges": all as one noted that these people looked happy and rich!
Vicious circle
Disheartening result: it turns out that it is enough to change the shape of the eyes (nose, lips), and the path to social success will open to you? This is partly true. But the reason is not at all plastic: eyes of a different shape are just an excuse to feel more confident. In fact, plastic is an alternative to psychoanalysis, but not everyone is ready to understand this, let alone accept. While patients are getting hooked on operations (and the sneaky statistician claims that if successful, every second patient resorts to the services of surgeons), sociologists are sounding the alarm. Back in 1996, Dr. R. Gillespie from the School of Social Research at the University of Portsmouth in England was very clear: "The boom in plastic surgery can encourage injustice against women as a social group." The beautiful half of humanity is oppressed, but it stubbornly refuses to notice. Have mercy,Is there anything unfair in striving to be beautiful? Yes, yes and yes again!
The success of a woman depends much more on external data than the success of a man. Fact? Fact. Because of this, the most determined representatives of the fairer sex go under the surgeon's knife in order to adjust their appearance to the current standard of beauty. Fact? Fact. And since there are more and more such women, in the society inevitably increased requirements for the female exterior are fixed. As a result, we have a vicious circle. The one that provides plastic surgeons with work for many years to come.
The most offensive thing is that all the correct advice from the category: love the person in yourself, respect the person in yourself, etc., etc. - are unlikely to be heard. Because to discern a Human in oneself is a big job, in comparison with which saving money for liposuction does not cost anything …
Natalia KUVSHINOVA