Mum's treatment to remove stretch marks leaves her with serious scarring

A mum who was insecure about her stretch marks after pregnancy has been scarred after undergoing a £400 treatment to remove them.

Amiee Ward, 30, wishes she had never had the procedure after she was left with infected wounds on her stomach.

Amiee, from Suffolk, visited Tinks Top to Toe Beauty Parlour in Felixstowe, Suffolk, last November to receive a session of fibroplast – a treatment that involves using a device to administer a ‘plasma flash’ to produce a tightening effect, reducing wrinkles and stretch marks.

A year on, Amiee still has red scarring on her stomach.

She said: ‘I felt so insecure about my body and because of my vanity, I have been left with all this scarring. It looks even worse than before.

‘My confidence is at an all time low. It has affected my marriage, I don’t want to be intimate, so I’m working on trying to accept my body now and embrace it.’

Amiee had been nervous to have the procedure, but said the salon manager reassured her, telling her it wouldn’t be painful.

During the treatment Amiee says she could smell ‘burning flesh’.

‘It was really painful,’ said Amiee. ‘She did say during the consultation that it would be relatively painless procedure so I was not expecting the pain.

‘Afterwards I had to pick my son up and my friend said: “Oh my God you look ill, sit down.” I just knew something wasn’t right.

‘I have got a really high pain threshold- I’ve got a lot of tattoos in lots of different areas.

‘It was worse than childbirth.’

Amiee said she sent various photos to Gemma of her stomach through the different stages and said initially they were in regular contact with each other.

She added: ‘It just wasn’t getting better. She said the redness should go down and the scabs would drop of.

‘Everything I was told to expect didn’t happen. It was a bit worrying because I didn’t know anything about the procedure.’

Amiee was told not to cover her stomach, not to get it wet and to apply cream that she bought at the salon for £25.

The salon said that after 10 days her scabs would begin to fall off but that it could take up to three months to fully heal.

But Amiee’s recovery didn’t go to plan.

‘After a while it started to smell and look weird,’ she said. I just knew it looked wrong and wasn’t supposed to be looking like that.’

Amiee claimed Gemma had started to ignore her messages and out of ‘desperation’ reached out to another beautician who told her it ‘wasn’t normal’.

She then visited her GP who Amiee said was ‘outraged’ at her injuries and gave her a burns cream to apply to her skin.

Amiee said: ‘My GP couldn’t believe it. They said my stomach was severely burnt and they gave me some burns cream.

‘Obviously they didn’t mean to hurt me but it was the way they dealt with it afterwards.

‘You hear about these things and just think it won’t happen to you but then it did. Some people don’t even fully read the contract.

‘I was just focused on the end result and thought everything was going to be fine and my body was going to be amazing. I didn’t think about the risks.’

A year on Amiee’s stomach is still scarred. While she’s considered more procedures to remove the marks, she is too scared to try anything else.

The salon owner, Gemma Richardson, said the procedure was done correctly and that Amiee was to blame for the infection/

She said Amiee had been given detailed aftercare advice on avoiding adverse reactions, which Amiee says she followed.

Gemma said: ‘We have taken this complaint very seriously.

‘We have at every stage communicated with Amiee.’

The procedure was recorded and was due to be posted on the salon’s Facebook page advertising fibroblast. Gemma told the local paper that this video was seen by an independent beautician, Ruth Munroe, who confirmed it was done correctly.

Although Amiee has tried to seek compensation, her no-win-no-fee solicitor would not proceed because the salon was not insured for the procedure, making a pay-out unlikely.

Gemma acknowledged that the procedure had not been covered by insurance when Aimee had it. She says the salon is now fully insured and licensed with her local council.

The complaints received by Amiee had been referred to police as harassment by Gemma, who said they had a ‘massive effect on my health and my family’.

Amiee said she only made comments on a Facebook post, which subsequently went viral to warn others.

Amiee says she’s shared her story to encourage other mums to embrace their post-baby bodies rather than rushing into any treatments.

She said: ”I wish I had just accepted my body. People should embrace the female body and be proud of their scars.’

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