I underwent the same procedure as the tragic BBL mother, I was moments away from death
WHEN mum Bonnie-Louise Cooper heard about the tragic death of Alice Webb, a 33-year-old mother of five, who underwent liquid BBL, she broke down in tears.
“I read the story and was immediately overcome by waves of fear and anxiety,” the mother-of-one explains.
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“Nine months ago I had the same procedure and almost died.
“It’s heartbreaking. My heart goes out to Alice’s family. I knew this would happen eventually.
“It could have been me. I begged the authorities to ban the procedure.
“Like Alice, I underwent the same procedure and within 36 hours I was so ill that consultants and hospital teams warned my family that I was hours away from death.
“I was diagnosed with rapid-onset sepsis and have long-term tissue damage from the liquid BBL.
“This was only nine months ago and I’m still recovering.
“How many people have to suffer and die before action is taken?”
In March this year, Bonnie Louise told Fabulous exclusively about her near-death experience after paying £1,500 for a liquid BBL.
Single beautician Bonnie, from Swanage is mother to five-year-old Kash and decided to have a liquid BBL in the UK rather than fly to Turkey as many others have done.
“I was too afraid to fly abroad, to Turkey,” she says.
“I thought choosing a clinic in Great Britain would be a safer alternative. I had seen it advertised on social media with a lot of likes.”
The standard surgical BBL involves removing fat from the patient’s own body and re-injecting it into the buttock area.
A non-invasive liquid BBL uses a range of dermal fillers, including hyaluronic acid, which is injected into each buttock using a large cannula to add volume.
The liquid BBL is promoted as relatively pain-free because the filler contains lidocaine, a local anesthetic.
It seemed like the perfect option for Bonie and the mother had the procedure carried out in Romford Essex in November last year.
She recalls: “I was told I was having 250 mils of filler injected into each buttock. In total, that is half a liter of filler injected into my buttocks. That’s a lot.
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“I was given some lidocaine, but I was not prepared for the pain of the cannula injection.
“I’m a beautician and I wasn’t asked the standard health questions I ask when I do basic eyebrow tinting.
“I gave birth and found it the most painful experience. It’s nothing compared to what I went through.”
According to Bonnie, her liquid BBl injections were administered while she was standing up in a “beauty salon environment” and not in an operating room, and caused persistent pain.
“It’s a stomach-churning pain,” she says.
“I felt that the cannula had to be pushed under the skin over my buttocks. It wasn’t what I expected.
“I was in shock after the procedure. I tried to put on a brave face. I was told that I would probably feel a little strange because of the lidocaine.
Alice’s tragic death
Alice Webb, 33, was undergoing a non-surgical BBL at a studio in Gloucester when things “went wrong”.
The mother-of-five was traveled from her home in Wotton-under-Edge to a clinic in Gloucester for a training session where she would learn how to carry out the procedure before having her own procedure done.
Later that evening she was rushed to Gloucestershire Royal Infirmary, where she died in the early hours of September 24.
Her devastated partner Dane Knight, 38, posted a tribute online, saying: “I would like to say a big thank you to all the family and friends who were here for us in our time of need, including all the kind messages sent to my children and myself.”
Alice’s ‘second mother’, Dianna Webb, 58, said she told her younger cousin she didn’t need the procedure just hours before she died after going under the knife.
A tearful Diana told The Sun: “We had talked about it a lot before she had the procedure.
“She told me she was going to have this done and I said she didn’t need it; she already looked beautiful.
“And she was beautiful on her own.
“We were on the phone for two hours before she left. Alice said they looked very professional and made her feel comfortable about the procedure.”
Two people were arrested after Alice’s death, one of them Jordan James Parke, a Kim Kardashian-obsessed TV star dubbed the “Lip King”.
“I asked if I could drive home and was told it was fine.
“That didn’t seem logical to me. I had just had half a liter of filler injected into my buttocks. I thought I would be offered a special cushion to sit on.”
Bonnie claims she was given no aftercare instructions and sent home without antibiotics.
“By the time I got home, I was screaming in pain and couldn’t get out of the car. I started vomiting and fainted trying to get into my house,” she says.
“If my sister hadn’t been there to help me, I would have collapsed in the driveway.”
“I called the clinic in pain. They told me they would send antibiotics the next day and go to bed.”
Bonnie explains that she couldn’t keep water down and was grateful that her sister, Lisa Hughes, 32, a stay-at-home mom, was visiting that evening.
“I am a single mother. I couldn’t keep the water down. I was told to take some codeine and paracetamol, but the pain I experienced was worse than during childbirth.
The next morning, Bonnie’s temperature had shot up.
According to her sister Lisa, she was shocked by Bonnie’s condition.
“She was screaming in pain, sweating and vomiting,” says Lisa.
“She tried to get up to go to the toilet and fainted.
“My sister didn’t feel like it and was hallucinating. I knew she had to go to the hospital immediately.”
Paramedics were so concerned about the young mother’s condition that she was taken to hospital by blue light and rushed to intensive care in the emergency department.
Bonnie’s tests showed she had rapid-onset sepsis.
She was given regular morphine and intravenous antibiotics for the next four days to combat the injection.
“My sister was told I could die,” Bonnie says.
“It was only her quick thinking that prevented that. My son would have been orphaned.
“I had an emergency MRI scan and it showed that the procedure had caused muscle damage. It was so serious that I was referred to Salisbury Plastics for dissolution procedures.”
Alice shouldn’t have died. Her legacy must be the banning of these liquid BBLs
Bonnie Louise Cooper
It took almost five days before Bonnie was well enough to be sent home.
“I had to take two different types of antibiotics for a month and am still taking painkillers,” she says.
“The antibiotics promised by the clinic never arrived and I was never told anything, despite asking what type of filler they used.
“The hospital tried to call the salon, but they didn’t answer. It was terrible.
“I felt like I was being thrown to the wolves. I had no aftercare and no follow-up.”
Nearly a year later, Bonnie still has pain when sitting and still has pain in her left leg.
“I know I agreed to the treatment, but if someone had explained it even in extreme circumstances, I could have ended up in hospital sepsis,” she says.
“I know that as a single mother I would have thought about it again.
“To this day I still don’t know what was injected into my butt. It could have been any combination of fillers or dermal injectables.”
Bonnie still has nightmares about the pain and hallucinations she experienced after the procedure.
“When I read that Alice had died, I cried for her children, her family and the fact that no one is listening to the survivors of this deadly procedure,” she added.
‘Alice shouldn’t have died. Her legacy must be the banning of these liquid BBLs.”
Save Face, a national, government-approved register of accredited non-surgical practitioners, says complaints about non-surgical BBLs have been rising at an ‘alarming’ rate.
Save Face is calling for the procedures to be banned, while the Local Government Association has asked the government to take urgent action.
GP and MP for Stroud, Dr Simon Opher, said Ms Webb’s death was “absolutely tragic”. He also urged people not to have BBLs because it is not known if the procedure is safe.
Gloucestershire Police’s major crime team is now investigating and the two people arrested have been released on bail.
“This should have happened earlier. Too many people think they can have a lunchtime procedure and it’s just like getting your hair done. It’s not,” says Bonnie.
“I know people want the cheapest and fastest option”; looks good,” but I found out the hard way that it is deadly.
Bonnie is continuing her campaign, using all women who have booked liquid BBL in the UK to cancel their procedures.
“I’m still alive to wave goodbye to my son at the school gate. Alice doesn’t and we need to change that.
“Alice’s death and the near-death experiences of countless other women should not be in vain.”
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