A devastated woman has revealed how a botched fat-freezing procedure by an unregistered nurse left her disfigured.
Lidia Devoti underwent the bungled cryolipolysis treatment by Linda Tsiokas, who is not registered and owns Beautiful Body Clinics at Moorabbin in Melbourne’s southeast.
What resulted was a body riddled with uneven results and lumpy fatty deposits where she was promised there would be none.
Ms Devoti has now been quoted more than $50,000 by surgeons to fix the damage caused by the procedure.
“I would do anything to have my old physique back,” she tearfully told Nine’s A Current Affair.
“It was advertising itself as a medical clinic and as nurses, registered nurses.”
Ms Devoti was just 56kg before the procedure and hoped it would help remove some small fat deposits from her hips, thighs and arms.
This was promised by Ms Tsiokas who charged $2144 for the treatment and asked prospective patients “why trust your body with unregistered clinicians” in an online ad.
However, medical regulator AHPRA took Ms Tsiokas to the Magistrates’ Court in 2021 where she admitted to faking her claims of being a registered nurse.
The exposure led to a “diversion” being put in place which vetoed the need for a criminal record.
Ms Tsiokas also agreed to pay Ms Devoti $4030 in compensation, make a donation to a hospital and AHPRA’s $6500 legal bill.
Cryolipolysis hit headlines last year when former supermodel Linda Evangelista had similar claims of disfigurement after the procedure.
The botched treatment led to her spending five years as a recluse and left her body “unrecognisable”.