A Russian beauty queen has opened up about a plastic surgery nightmare which left her unable to close her eyes or even smile.
Yulia Tarasevich, 43, was a runner-up in the Mrs Russia-International beauty contest two years ago, but soon after decided to undergo a range of procedures at a clinic in Krasnodar, southern Russia.
The mother-of-two said her face became badly swollen and inflamed after the £3,000 surgeries, which included a facelift, a blepharoplasty (cosmetic correction of the eyelids) and mini-liposuction.
‘I came to them with a beautiful healthy face,’ she said.
‘I just wanted to correct some nuances caused by ageing. But sadly, I lost my health.’
Yulia said she is unable to move large parts of her face or close her eyes despite having recovered from the surgery and has spent £20,000 in attempts to correct the issue, to no avail.
She has now filed a criminal complaint against the two doctors involved in her original operations, though they claim the complications arose as a result of a rare genetic defect.
Russian beauty queen Yulia Tarasevich has opened up about a plastic surgery nightmare which left her unable to close her eyes or even smile
The mother-of-two said her face became badly swollen and inflamed after the surgeries, which included a facelift, a blepharoplasty (cosmetic correction of the eyelids) and mini-liposuction
Yulia said she is unable to move large parts of her face despite having recovered from the surgery and has spent £20,000 in attempts to correct the issue, to no avail
Tarasevich, 43, was a runner-up in the Mrs Russia-International beauty contest two years ago, but soon after decided to undergo a range of procedures at a clinic in Krasnodar, southern Russia
She told Russian Channel 1: ‘I have scars that formed in my cheeks when they ripped out all my tissue.
‘My eyes don’t close, and I can’t smile.
‘I can’t lift my upper lip, and one part of my face doesn’t work at all.’
‘I went quietly to the operation, firstly, because all my tests were in order.
‘Secondly, because I had plastic surgery before this, I did rhinoplasty, and it went perfectly for me, without any genetic abnormalities.’
She claims to have spent £20,000 to try and recover from the damage, with more bills ahead.
But the beauty queen will not regain her looks from before the surgery.
Yulia is now suing two doctors involved in the operations, though they claim the complications arose as a result of a rare genetic defect. Andrey Komarov (L) and Omar Khaled (R) claim that the beauty queen had a rare condition – scleroderma – that it was impossible to predict and deny any responsibility for her nightmare
Yulia said she believes the surgeons are wrongly trying to pin the blame on an undetected genetic defect, arguing that she previously underwent a nose job with no complications
Yulia said she was forced to have an emergency follow-up procedure by another doctor to save her eyes from necrosis.
The surgeons involved in her original procedures – Andrey Komarov and Omar Khaled – claim that the beauty queen had a rare genetic condition – scleroderma – that it was impossible to predict and deny any responsibility for her nightmare.
Scleroderma results in hard, thickened areas of skin and can sometimes cause problems with internal organs and blood vessels as the victim’s immune system attacks connective tissue under the skin.
But no evidence has come to light thus far to suggest that Yulia was suffering from this condition.
She claims to have spent £20,000 to try and recover from the damage, with more bills ahead, but the beauty queen will not regain her looks from before the surgery
Yulia is pictured at the Mrs Russia beauty pageant in 2020
Yulia said she was forced to have an emergency follow-up procedure by another doctor to save her eyes from necrosis
The beauty queen is now accusing the surgeons of malpractice, blaming their mistakes on a condition which they say could not be detected.
‘The surgeons made me the only one guilty for what has happened,’ she said.
‘The doctors who disfigured my face relieved themselves of all responsibility.
‘I decided to have my day in court.’
Dr Khaled meanwhile said the case had been ‘exaggerated’.
He and Dr Komarov are now under investigation for flouting laws on the ‘safety of life and health’, according to the Russian Investigative Committee.
Committee spokeswoman Anna Pushkina said: ‘A forensic medical examination has been appointed to determine the severity of the harm to health, and other patients who could have suffered from poor-quality services in this clinic are also being identified.
‘The investigation of the criminal case is ongoing.’
