Boob job clinic forced to pay $25million

A cosmetic clinic that offered ‘boob jobs for the cost of a cup of coffee a day’ has been ordered to pay $25million to more than 1,000 of its former patients.

The NSW Supreme Court this week signed off on the settlement against The Cosmetic Institute (TCI), which was found to have ‘ruined’ the lives of the clients who formed the 2017 class action.

TCI offered breast augmentation surgery for as little as $5,990 and used a ‘One Size Fits All approach’ to streamline its services.

‘[This system] was allegedly employed regardless of a patient’s anatomy … and the associated requirement for different or additional surgical approaches and techniques,’ Justice Richard Weinstein said, news.com.au reported.

TCI is currently under liquidation. 

The massive lawsuit was led by 12 women who gave detailed evidence of the intimate procedures by TCI, which led to serious health complications. 

Justice Richard Weinstein acknowledged the ‘lasting harm’ the women faced during the proceedings.

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‘Without their participation, this representative proceeding, which will benefit so many women, would not have been possible,’ he said.

‘In this case the expert reports refer to the plaintiffs’ breast augmentation surgery in detail and they have had their private anatomy examined multiple times and photographed.

‘It is reasonable to expect that the discomfort and embarrassment caused by this intrusion into their privacy was magnified because of the intimate nature of the claims.’

Those 12 women are set to receive $2.81million to split between them.

An estimated $10million of the settlement will pay the class action’s legal and administrative costs.

The remainder of the money – about $12.19million – will be shared by the more than 1,000 lawsuit signers. 

Several horror stories about TCI have come to light in the last 10 years with the affected clinics based in Sydney and the Gold Coast.

In 2015, former patient Sarah Jaremenko revealed a breast implant from TCI had migrated to her armpit and caused severe damage.

‘I’ve now got torn ligaments, torn muscles, implant displacement, I need a complete reconstruction and it’s just a mess,’ she told 7News. 

That same year, a woman went into cardiac arrest after receiving a high dose of local anaesthetic from the company’s Bondi clinic.

One woman has suffered seizures since her procedure with TCI while another was forced to undergo emergency surgery.

Narelle Bayon suffered neurological damage from her $6,000 boob job.

‘It’s pushing on nerves on my arm and that’s creating pain every day, I’ve got pins and needles,’ she said.

Other issues mentioned in the class action included heart problems and punctured lungs.