Second victim recalls pain after beauty injections

Cayman Islands courts, Grand Cayman

(CNS): A Colombian woman who believed she was getting vitamin shots for dry skin around her eyes told a court on Friday how she later realised that it was probably some kind of silicone that was injected into her face when weeks after what was supposed to be a beauty treatment she was still in pain, with redness, bruising and unsightly bumps near her eyes. Zunilda Anaya Baldovino is charged with reckless and negligent acts in relation to two women she injected who sustained damage to their faces. Giving evidence for the prosecutors, the witness said she spent more than $4,000 in Colombia repairing the damage.

The woman is the second victim to reveal the details of what happened after she received what she was told by Baldovino were vitamin injections in December 2016. She explained how she had met Baldovino at a friend’s house and saw her give injections to a friend, and she decided to have the same treatment. On that first occasion there were no adverse consequences, so when she returned several months later and was offered more vitamin injections at a discount, she agreed.

But she recalled that this time, the areas where she was injected became painful days afterwards and redness, bruising and eventually bumps that were oozing blood and puss emerged. She repeatedly asked Baldovino, who is also from Colombia and was working in Cayman at a beauty salon on a work permit, what she had used but she kept telling her she had been injected with vitamins and was having an allergic reaction to them. Baldovina advised the woman to take Benadryl, but it had no effect.

The woman was not convinced it was vitamins and became concerned that it might be silicone, as she had heard about such cases in Colombia. When the bruising got worse, she visited doctors here in Cayman but then decided to go to Colombia, where she was given antibiotics and pain medication. She also had a biopsy performed near her left eye, which has left her scarred, and she received more antibiotics and pain medication, which, after some six months, brought down the swelling.

The woman said she did not ask Baldovino for compensation but had asked her to help pay the medical bills as she had no insurance, but Baldovino never gave her any money.

The case, which began in August, was adjourned again until December.