Neurologist Gina Anderson decided to go for some cosmetic fillers in honor of her 40th birthday but the results were anything but a dream come true.
It also began when a colleague offered to help, suggesting Gina try cosmetic fillers. However, four years after having the work done, Gina noticed a horrific reaction.
It was discovered that Gina had a giant granuloma, an area of inflammation, under her right eye. And it turned out that instead of injecting filler, Gina had been injected with silicone, which left her with a huge growth, which ended up as a gaping hole in her cheek.
And as Gina desperately wanted it to be fixed, she sought out Botched doctors, Dr. Paul Nassif and Dr. Terry Dubrow, who both were floored to hear this had happened to Gina, as she is a doctor.
Dr. Dubrow explained: “When you get a granuloma which is foreign body inflammatory action it typically happens within four months to a year. The fact that Gina didn’t start to develop them until way later shows it’s a very slow [smoldering] inflammatory chronic response that could [be] difficult to treat.”
Appearing on the show, Gina revealed how she came about having silicone injected into her face.
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She said: “A colleague offered to do filler for me and I was like I’m in my 40s I’m going to look a little bit better and I thought I was getting restylane or juvederm, but it was silicone.”
Silicone is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and is illegal to inject.
The FDA states that when injected into areas with many blood vessels, silicone can travel through those vessels to other parts of the body and block blood vessels in the lungs, heart, or brain.
Gina says she has only experienced the issue on one side of her face but added that no silicone has been found in her left cheek. Prior to visiting the Botched doctors, Gina said she had undergone five surgeries to try and fix the issue.
She said: “The first one wasn’t bad, they removed the granuloma but it came back….Four months later they tried to get the silicone out and that didn’t work because the granulomas had come back. Then a month later it just got so much worse. The granulomas actually made a hole in my cheek. They actually did a flap to the lower eyelid area to reattach the skin.”
About a year later, Gina had the same procedure – a local skin flap, but revealed that less than a month later medics had to clean it out again after the granulomas came back.
She added: “When you can’t sleep and you’re in constant pain it’s hard to think on your feet all the time.”
“I’m in agony, I don’t sleep, my hair started thinning like a hair loss and I just started feeling weak and fatigued, it’s been a nightmare.”
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Dr. Nassif went on to reveal that he had found ‘unusual things’ in her face and also removed what he said looked like a piece of gauze.
And while after the first surgery she had reportedly felt a lot better, the swelling in her cheek came back.
Dr. Nassif shared how she had recurrent seromas, revealing his only option was to open her up again and completely remove the granuloma. After going under the knife with Dr. Nassif a second time, a total of seven surgeries, she is now happy with the results.
She added: “My hair loss has stopped and actually my hair is starting to grow back… my thought process is actually getting faster. I mean, it’s just a miracle. It’s just life-changing.”
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