Late last year, a French surgeon who practiced–illegally–as a plastic surgeon was sent to prison for four years. Before being caught, Michael Maure had performed botched operations on literally dozens of women. Maure was sentenced and now awaits extradition from Spain, where he traveled soon after the scandal broke.
As is usually the case with cosmetic-quacks, Maure did not have proper credentials for performing plastic surgery. He attracted clients by offering unusually cheap rates at a substandard clinic. Many of the women who had procedures by him reported leaving the clinic either permanently disfigured and / or in considerable pain.
Each of the women testified at his trial. Though Maure was absent from his own trial, the court found him guilty of illegal practice, wounding, and endangering life. He not only will have to serve a prison sentence, but he was ordered to compensate his victims and to pay a fine of €75,000 .
Meanwhile, and almost at the same time, another quack surgeon was also destroying people’s lives in the West. In January, Costa Rican authorities picked up a cosmetic surgeon named Dean Faiello, who had been suspected in the death of a Manhattan man who has been missing for some time. The man had been a patient of the doctor’s, and police almost immediately suspected that the surgeon had killed him accidentally in a botched operation.. Police found Dr. Faiello drinking a cocktail at a tropical resort, by the pool, according to authorities. As soon as Faiello saw the police, he raised his hands and shouted, “No problem, no problem!”
The moral of this story is not that all overseas cosmetic surgeons are incompetent. In fact, there are quite a few excellent ones. However, remember that the United States has stringent credentialing requirements that are not always required in other countries. So if you travel overseas for a labiaplasty, vaginaplasty, or any other cosmetic procedures, ask credible authorities in the States if they know of the doctor, or if they can help you to verify his/her credentials.
