A Chinese woman who spent 13,000 yuan ($1,850) on cosmetic double
eyelid surgery has become unable to fully close her eyes, even when she
sleeps.
Around 50 of Asians are born without a visible eyelid crease above
their lash line, which basically means they have what is called a
“monolid”. In 1896, to address this aesthetic issue, Japanese surgeon
Mikamo developed a procedure called blepharoplasty or double eyelid
surgery, which has since been performed millions of times. It’s the most
requested plastic surgery in Asia, and in countries like South Korea,
it’s been normalized as a way of becoming more attractive. But while the
results of double eyelid surgery can indeed be visually appealing, in
some cases it can have some really nasty consequences, like leaving
patients unable to fully close their eyes.
Oriental Daily
recently reported the case of a Chinese woman surnamed Li who paid
13,000 to get double eyelid surgery and epicanthus corrective surgery,
but ended up regretting her decision. She reportedly asked for the
procedure in order to make her eyes seem larger, but wasn’t too happy
with the results, so she asked the clinic to perform another
intervention and make the double eyelid effect more prominent.
Doctors agreed to operate again, but the results of the second
surgery failed to please the woman. In fact, her eyelids got even worse,
and she noticed that she couldn’t fully close her eyes. The clinic
tried explaining that the second operation was very close to the first
one, so the scars from both stuck together, which made the patient
unable to fully close her eyes.
Representatives of the clinic allegedly told the woman that the side
effect was perfectly normal under the circumstances, but that she would
be able to again close her eyes all the way once the wounds healed
completely. They also offered to perform a third procedure to correct
this problem, but the woman reportedly refused, instead requesting
compensation.
Claiming that she had to sleep with her eyes half open, and that
being unable to fully close her eyes made her vision blurry, Li was able
to reach a settlement of 30,000 yuan ($4,200) with the clinic. She now
hopes that her eyes will heal in time, like doctors said.
