Andressa Urach, 27, a Brazilian model, says that plastic surgery landed her in intensive care and almost cost her a leg.

Andressa Urach Plastic Surgery Nightmare

Urach, a 2012 runner up in Brazil’s Miss BumBum contest, a beauty contest to find the country’s best booty, revealed that butt injections she received to make her backside rounder almost killed her.

Urach reportedly had both hydrogel and PMMA injected to make her butt look larger – the exact date of the initial procedures is unclear – and began complaining of pain in July. At the time, doctors drained 400ml of hydrogel from her thighs and she told reporters that the fillers were attacking her body.

“The hydrogel was not absorbed by my body and started to harm me. Now I’ve discovered that the PMMA is sticking to my muscles and causing the tissue to rot,” she said.

According to Brazil’s Plastic Surgery Society, Urach had 200 times the amount of silicone gel in her body than is legally sanctioned by the government and the hydrogel used is not approved in the US.

Urach’s pain continued to increase, and in November it was revealed that the wounds caused by the fillers had become infected. After two more drainage procedures, Urach went into septic shock and was moved into intensive care. After a long recovery, Urach has emerged from the hospital in a wheelchair, with holes in her legs where the gel rotted her muscles.

Andressa Urach Cautions Against Plastic Surgery

Urach was once an outspoken advocate for cosmetic surgery. “There are plenty of ugly women. If you have the money, you can be beautiful. This pretty face you see here, my dear, it costs some,” she is quoted as saying in 2013.

Now Urach has changed her tune. During a recent appearance on Rede TV, Urach cautioned against the dangers of plastic surgery, saying, “I hope that these wounds at least serve as a warning to other women.”

Speaking about her nine or so procedures – including a nose job, silicone implants and botox injections – Urach said she fell victim to vanity and societal pressures to be perfect. “I put that poison in my body, mostly because of having too much vanity,” she admitted.

Previously, Urach revealed that she believes her health troubles are a “punishment” for her vanity. And the model intends to live her life in recovery with a new purpose: to keep other women from repeating her mistakes:

“I’m ashamed of the holes in my legs, the scars that will be there for the rest of my life. But they are also a trophy that I got through this alive. Now, thanks to God, I’m able to tell other women that vanity isn’t everything. If all this serves as an example to warn others of the dangers of these things, to save other women from a premature death, then that was the reason I had to go through it.”

Urach revealed that, before her health scare, she thought of getting another cosmetic procedure like buying groceries. “Plastic surgery became an addiction for me. Even when the hydrogel started causing me problems and I began to have it removed, I was there on the surgery table planning the next procedure I wanted,” she added.

Brazil has become a huge hub of plastic surgery, with a reported 5,000 certified plastic surgeons practicing medicine, and another 12,000 doctors performing cosmetic procedures without any special training. 1.5 million cosmetic procedures were carried out in Brazil in 2013.

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Article by Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Olivia Truffaut-Wong was born and raised in Berkeley, California, where she developed her love of all things entertainment. After moving to New York City to earn her degree in Film Studies, she stayed on the East Coast to follow her passion and become an entertainment writer. She lives on a diet of television, movies and food.

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