On Wednesday (19 Jan), Tiers Marie, an unlicensed beautician, pleaded guilty to four counts under the Medical Registration Act for administering fat-melting injections to four customers when she was not qualified to do so.
Reportedly, the 36-year-old woman is not a registered medical practitioner with the Singapore Medical Council, nor does she possess a practising certificate.
Nevertheless, it did not stop her from having an Instagram account that advertised that she offered fat melting and botox injection services.
Tiers might not have the smarts to obtain a practising licence, but at least she had the intelligence to make her customers sign a form that denoted all the possible side effects and risks to the treatment, to free herself from any liabilities of her inability.
Her Customers
One of her customers was a 28-year-old woman who came across her Instagram account on 6 February 2021 and made an appointment for fat melting injection on the same day.
Upon arriving at Tiers’ flat at Geylang East, she was brought to a bedroom and informed that Tiers was a beautician.
Well, at this point, the word “beautician” is highly subjective, and did you see any certificates lining the hallway of the place?
Afterwards, Tiers asked the women to sign a consent form, indicating that she understood that many small injections would be used in the treated areas, the risk of side effects, and to release Tiers from any accountability.
After the form was signed, Tiers got down to business: she applied numbing cream to the parts of her client’s body before giving three injections on the right side of the customer’s waist, five to ten injections on her abdomen, three to five injections on her left waist, and five to ten injections on each of her arms.
I have no idea how these “fat-melting injections” work, but that sounds like a lot of needles.
Following, Tiers applied an ice pack over the injection areas to reduce the inflammation and swelling. The customer paid Tiers $864 via Paynow before departing.
The Health Sciences Authority (HAS) later received information about Tiers’ practices, and officers from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and HSA started conducting joint inspections at her place on 8 Feb 2021.
Naturally, the odds stood against her and she was convicted for the unlicensed practices.
Tiers confessed to the court that she performed fat melting injections for nearly 30 customers and 10 customers for Botox injections between Sep 2020 and Feb 2021.
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Dangers and Complications
In order to assess whether Tiers had been acting as a medical professor, an expert opinion was taken from a licensed doctor who affirmed her conduct.
He stated, “Tiers had applied local anaesthetic to areas of the women’s bodies, administered medication beneath the skin surface, and administered post-procedural treatments such as ice packs and dressings.”
The doctor supplemented there were potential complications like whether the fat-melting injections she used contained dangerous ingredients. Those ingredients might cause side effects like diarrhoea, headache, pain, skin rashes, swelling of hands and feet, vomiting— in worst case scenarios, even death.
Had the procedure gone badly, the injections could cause lifelong scarring or worse.
Therefore, you should always ensure that the practitioner you are seeking is present in the Singapore’s Medical Council’s Register or ask for their licence before requesting for their services.
The cheapness of the treatment is not of the same value as your life.
The Verdict
MOH Prosecutor Andre Moses Tan proposed two to four weeks of jail.
Tan mentioned to the court that the two other customers paid $388 and $576 for Tiers’ services respectively, but the remaining one no longer remembers how much she paid.
In Tiers’ defence, Lawyer Andrew Wong stepped up to the plate to say that his client had not impeded the public confidence in the healthcare system because she had informed her customers of the side effects and risks.
(Not the risk of her not being unprofessional though.)
Wong continues to argue that his client suffers from long-term chronic mood disorder which would be worsened if she was incarcerated. The lawyer tried to reduce her sentence to a fine, arguing that Tiers’ case was neither fatal nor appalling, at least not to the extent where she needed to be punished as severely as possible.
In the end, Tiers was given a sentence of 12 days in jail, which is quite short, all things considered.
Tiers could have been jailed up to a year or fined up to $100,000, or both, on the first conviction of acting as a medical practitioner without a licence.
Just like attempts to slim down, it’s best not to take too many shortcuts and try to get a licence first.
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Featured Image: Shutterstock / dimid_86