A WOMAN’S “vain decision” to get a liquid BBL left her rotting from the inside out and almost killed her.
Charlotte Booth, 36, spent nearly £2,500 in May 2023 on a non-surgical Brazilian Bum Lift (BBL)with an injectable filler, hoping it would be a quick fix for the “ideal bottom.”
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Instead, the consultant from Manchester, claims it’s “ruined” her life and urges others to avoid the treatment.
“I was hoping for a quick fix to having the ideal bottom, but instead it nearly killed me and left me with a bum none of us want,” she said.
It comes just weeks after the UK recorded its first victim of the risky procedure, more commonly referred to as BBL.
Alice Webb, 33, was having the liquid BBL cosmetic treatment at a studio in Gloucester on Monday evening when it “went wrong” and she died in hospital the following day.
A liquid BBL is when fillers (usually hyaluronic acid, the same put into the face), are injected into the bottom, while a surgical BBL uses liposuction to transfer fat from other parts of the body to the bottom.
Hundreds of British women have undergone the liquid BBL in Britain with disastrous consequences, according to campaign group Save Face.
Charlotte’s experience left her medically disabled.
The woman, who used to love pole dancing in her spare time, now needs a cane to climb stairs and lacks the energy to walk her three dogs.
Describing the aftermath, she says her backside resembles “a machete wound on one cheek” and “like I’ve been shot on the other.”
Before her treatment, Charlotte was a fitness enthusiast, visiting the gym up to seven days a week.
Drawn in by promises of quick, non-surgical results, she underwent the procedure at a local clinic she’d used before.
After being injected with 100ml of filler, Charlotte recalls being sent away with no aftercare instructions.
“I was told I’d be sore for a bit and to drink lots of water,” she says.
They were talking about putting a stoma in to let my bowels rest. I was absolutely horrified
Charlotte Booth
But within five days, she started noticing severe symptoms: her skin grew hot and red, and she assumed it was normal as the filler absorbed water, as advised by the clinic.
Twelve days after the procedure, Charlotte began developing abscesses, eventually “passing out from the pain” at home.
She took herself to the hospital but was shocked when, she says, NHS staff “judged” her decision and turned her away.
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“They told me there was nothing the NHS could do,” she says.
Instead, she was instructed to return to the clinic to have the filler dissolved.
Desperate and unwell, she went back to the original clinic, where clinicians attempted to dissolve the filler – but not before she claims “pus and filler rolled down her leg.”
Charlotte’s health deteriorated rapidly.
When her skin turned black and began to “rot from the inside out,” she was finally rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery.
What are Brazilian Bum Lifts and why are they so popular?
Buttock enlargement surgery – known as a Brazilian bum-lift (BBL) – is used to make the bum look bigger, rounded and lifted.
Surgeons transfer fat, inject filler or insert silicone-filled implants.
It is the fastest-growing cosmetic procedure but also one of the most dangerous, according to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS).
Many patients are travelling to the likes of Turkey or seeking out unregistered surgeons in the UK and are not given full information on the risks.
BBLs carry the highest risk of all cosmetic surgeries – with more than one death occurring per 4,000 procedures.
Due to celebrities undergoing such ops, many women are hoping to emulate their looks.
Consultant clinical psychologist Dr Anu Sayal-Bennett, a chartered member of the British Psychological Society, told the BBC: “Despite there being so much about body positivity, there are pressures for women – and men too – to look a certain way.”
Many people travel abroad for the procedure because it is cheaper and advertising is “terribly seductive”, combined with the idea of a beach holiday, added Dr Sayal-Bennett
Her clinical notes later revealed she was hours from death, suffering from sepsis, gangrene, and necrotic abscesses.
“It was disgusting. The consultant said he’d never seen anything like it. He said I was ‘foaming out of both buttocks’,” she recalls.
“You could actually see the black in one of the abscesses. I was literally rotting from the inside out,” she adds.
Doctors then told her she might not make it through the night.
“They were talking about putting a stoma in to let my bowels rest. I was absolutely horrified.”
Lingering complications
Describing the experience as “worse than childbirth,” Charlotte says she endured agonising dressing changes in the hospital and later required five months of twice-daily dressing changes from district nurses.
“My entire left buttock was affected. I hardly have any left buttock left because it all rotted away and they had to remove a large amount of it,” she explains.
Even now, 18 months on, her body is still struggling to recover.
“One little vain decision and months later I’m still really struggling. I’m still a long, long way from being fully recovered,” she explains.
Charlotte has lost significant weight, muscle mass, and stamina, and she vomits almost daily from lingering complications.
“I was a size eight to 10 before butt filler. Now I’m aged 11 in clothes,” she says.
“I’m trying desperately to put weight on but nothing’s working.
“My body is putting all the energy into recovery rather than trying to gain weight.
“I didn’t get out of bed for five months. I can hardly sit comfortably. This one decision has stripped away my health,” she reflects.
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BBL dangers
Charlotte’s story is part of a growing call for increased safety and regulation of liquid BBLs.
Sor far, reported complications include infection, abscess, necrosis, cellulitis, migration and nodules.
The procedure can also trigger sepsis, a life-threatening condition that occurs when the body’s immune system overreacts to an infection or injury.
Following the tragic death of a mother of five, Alice Webb, in September 2024, Charlotte is campaigning for “Alice’s Law” to ban liquid BBLs in high-street clinics.
She hopes her story will help spread awareness of the dangers.
“When I looked up liquid BBL, there wasn’t much bad press. I thought if there wasn’t a warning, it must be fine. I was wrong.”
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Reflecting on her decision, Charlotte warns against the hidden risks of the procedure, pointing out how vascular the bottom area is.
“Liquid BBLs are more dangerous than going to Turkey for implants,” she says.
“They’re injecting filler without ultrasound, which is massively dangerous.
“If even one person is put off because of my story, it’s worth it.”
‘Do some extra squats instead’
Today, Charlotte can barely keep up with her former lifestyle and regrets every aspect of her choice.
“I miss the life I had before. I used to go to the gym every day.
“Now, I’m struggling just to walk my dogs and get up the stairs,” she shares.
Her ordeal has also motivated her to warn others.
“Don’t take the risk,” she urges. “Do some extra squats instead – it’s not worth ruining your health and your life over.”
‘More must be done to stop rogue injectors’
By Lizzie Parry, Head of Health
IT might sound less invasive, but just because liquid BBLs are ‘non-surgical’ they are no less dangerous.
Any medical procedure comes with risks.
But when those procedures are carried out by any Tom, Dick or Harry with no medical qualification at all, the risks skyrocket.
Campaign-group Save Face has warned of an “alarming increase” in the number of patients complaining of severe complications from liquid BBLs and boob jobs.
The list of nasty complications is long, sepsis, infections and abscesses that require hospital admission and often surgical interventions.
These procedures, often advertised on social media as being ‘risk-free and cheaper alternatives’ to surgery can be lethal.
In every single case of complications reported to Save Face, the ‘practitioner’ had absolutely no healthcare qualifications, not one. It’s terrifying.
These unscrupulous rogue traders, who charge on average around £2,000, are putting people’s lives at risk, while raking in the profits.
Equally as alarming is the fact that most qualified medics say they don’t offer non-surgical BBLs because they are unsafe and come with high risk of complications.
If doctors and nurses aren’t comfortable doing liquid BBLs, it should be reason enough to outlaw them.
Save Face is calling on the Government to crackdown and ban these procedures, warning more people will die if action is not taken.
It’s a crisis waiting to happen, and more must be done to ensure people seeking aesthetic treatments are safe and have access to the best possible care
