A little more than four years after the tragedy, his parents could no longer remain silent and decided to tell their story to our colleagues at Nieuwsblad in order to prevent it from happening again.
Operation, coma and brain death in less than a week
Having already gone under the knife for breast augmentation and rhinoplasty with the same surgeon, Astrid wanted to test the “Russian Lips” technique. Following the injection, severe pain in the lips, painfully alleviated by ice, and violent headaches occurred. “As she sometimes suffered from migraines, we didn’t panic directly,” says her sister Charlotte.
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But two days later, his condition got even worse. “She was lying in a strange position and trying to say something, but she couldn’t. […] We immediately called an ambulance and carried her downstairs because she could no longer walk or hold her head up on her own. Since that day, we have never been able to speak to him again,” she adds.
As her condition deteriorates hour by hour, Astrid is first plunged into a coma before having to be placed on artificial respiration. Helpless, his loved ones did everything to help him wake up, without success. “Her boyfriend slept next to her for 5 days, we sprayed her with her favorite perfume hoping she would react and jingled her beloved cat’s collar. Nothing helped.” , his relatives tell the Flemish daily.
gullWe donated his organs. We later learned that these transplants were successful. It makes us happy.
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The dreaded verdict finally comes: Astrid is brain dead and her loved ones must make the difficult decision to let her go, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Everyone was able to say goodbye, even his friends. We donated his organs. We later learned that these transplants were successful. That makes us happy,” consoles his mother Conny.
The autopsy will reveal that the young woman’s death was due to a bad injection in the lips. “The product was probably injected directly into the vein and this caused a cerebral thrombosis in our daughter,” confides her mother.
A closed case and threats after a negative online review
Astrid’s family filed a lawsuit against the doctor but the court dismissed the case. And after leaving a negative review on the website of the beauty clinic where the practitioner worked, his mother was contacted by lawyers threatening her with claims for damages. “I eventually deleted the review,” she concedes.
gullAfter my daughter passed away, I saw that this same doctor continued to advertise lip fillers on social media. You have to dare to do it.
Astrid’s parents say they don’t care about the money that legal action could bring in. “It won’t bring her back to us but the doctor admitting his mistake would help. After my daughter passed away, I saw that this same doctor continued to advertise lip fillers on social media We have to dare to do it,” laments Conny.
