NAKHON PATHOM - An unqualified plastic surgeon and four assistants have been arrested while operating on a patient at an illegal cosmetic surgery clinic in Nakon Pathom.
A team of police, soldiers and health officials raided Niyom clinic in Samphan district late on Tuesday night following complaints by unhappy customers sporting disfigurements.
Five people were detained and equipment seized.
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 the local police station for legal action.
SURGICAL DISFIGUREMENTS & INJURIES LED TO COMPLAINTS LED TO RAID
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.
The same clinic was earlier raided in November, when health officials and local police also arrested people for illegally performing surgery.
VICTIMS OF FAKE SURGEONS
One victim complained she had undergone surgery on her forehead at the clinic and later suffered bleeding from the surgical scars.
This is according to Songkran Atchariyasap, chairman of the Help Crime Victim Club.
The patient 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 the 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.