Personal Injury Solicitors

A 37-year-old yoga instructor has recovered after suffering eight strokes and a cardiac arrest, as a result of having a cosmetic procedure involving a filler injection in her chin.

Hayley Terrell from Colorado in the US was working as a yoga instructor and studying for a Masters degree in Real Estate at Cass Business School in London at the time she underwent the procedure in May 2012.

Ms Terrell decided to have the procedure after seeing an advertisement for a special deal on fillers. She researched the practice and decided to go ahead after learning that the filler injection would be administered by a qualified nurse.

However, Ms Terrell suffered a “near fatal” reaction to the filler jab, the Daily Mail reports.

The day after the procedure Ms Terrell found she was unable to swallow after eating a portion of pitta bread.

“I tried to tell my friend I couldn’t swallow my food properly but the words weren’t coming out. Suddenly I had an awful lisp and it was still there the next day,” she said.

“A friend told me I might have had a stroke. I thought only old people or overweight people had strokes but I agreed I should get checked out.”

Ms Terrell went to hospital and two days later was sent home with a prescription for a suspected food allergy.

“The next day I knew I couldn’t eat but I made myself a really good dish anyway. On my first bite I just kept chewing and chewing and it got stuck. I started choking and thought I was going to die. I made myself sick before going straight back to A&E, but again no one realised I was having a stroke.

“By this point I couldn’t even swallow my own spit and I was drooling profusely. They gave me a wand to stick in my mouth, which sucked out all the saliva. I had to type messages into my phone to ‘speak’ to the doctors. I had been back in hospital for three days and I was really scared,” she said.

Ms Terrell says that the last thing she can remember before suffering a cardiac arrest the next day is pleading for a nurse to stay and hold her hand through the night “because I didn’t want to die behind the curtain”.

The next day she went into cardiac arrest during which her heart stopped for 30 seconds and she suffered a final bout of strokes before doctors placed her into an induced coma.

Ms Tyrell says that she was clinically dead but that doctors managed to revive her – although at one stage it was feared she might never be able to breathe unassisted again.

Ms Terrell spent five weeks in hospital and underwent intensive rehabilitation, although has been left with an acquired learning disability as a result of the incident.

She said:

“I’d had injections before with no issues and nothing about this practitioner seemed out of the ordinary.

“She was qualified and a registered nurse, so I thought that aspect was all I had to worry about.

“Having a stroke and nearly dying for beauty is something I’m not willing to ever risk again,” Ms Terrell added.

“What happened to me just shows that the dangers are still there even if you go to a registered practitioner.

“I really hope my story inspires others to look for beauty in the only place it can truly be found – inside.”

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