NAKHON PATHOM - An unqualified plastic surgeon and four assistants have been arrested while operating on a patient at an illegal cosmetic clinic in Sam Phran district.
A team of police, soldiers and health officials raided Niyom clinic in Sam Phran district late on Tuesday night following complaints by unhappy customers sporting disfigurements.
Police, soldiers and health officials raid Niyom clinic in Samphan district of Nakhon Pathom late on Tuesday night. (Photo taken from Help Crime Victim Club Facebook page)
Five people, two men and three women, were detained and equipment seized. No names were released.
Authorities said the clinic was unlicensed and the person giving the patient a nose job was not a qualified doctor. Drugs with possible harmful side effects were also found in the clinic.
The five suspects were handed over to Phor Kaew police station for legal action.
The raid followed a complaint by the Help Crime Victim Club that several of the clinic's patients had been left with facial disfigurements and surgical injuries after using the plastic surgery services at Niyom clinic.
The victims sought help from the club, which later alerted authorities, Thai media reported.
Songkran Atchariyasap, chairman of the club, said one victim complained she had undergone surgery on her forehead at the clinic and later suffered bleeding from the surgical scars.
She went back to Niyom clinic but was told by a doctor that the bleeding was a result of her not caring properly for the incisions.
As the scars had not healed, the complainant then asked the clinic to remove the silicone from her forehead, Mr Songkran said. She also asked the clinic to take responsibility, but it refused and threatened to sue her if the woman filed a complaint with police, according to Mr Songkran.
The clinic had been operating without a permit and the person performing the surgery was not a surgeon, he added. The clinic had advertised its services online.
The clinic was previously raided in November when health officials and local police arrested people for illegally performing surgery.