Vicki Belo Charged with Quack Medical Practice on Josefina Norcio's Botched Butt Job

Lu Tong Mancau is ecstatic not from ecstasy drug but what he thinks was a juicy affair of Vicki Belo of the BMG (Belo Medical Group) that turned to disappointment when he found out that it was not about Vicki Belo’s missing sex tape but about the botched butt job in using a juice like substance Hydrogel in implantation/injection procedure.
Josefina Norcio a businesswoman who is a regular at the BMG clinic for dermatological services and where she also refers her entertainers she fields abroad thought she was dealing with highly competent cosmetic surgeons. So in 1992 contemplated to have a butt augmentation procedure upon seeing Rosanna Roces testimonial on her well endowed and perfectly shaped round butt as the work of Dr. Vicki Belo of BMG. She decided to consult with BMG clinic at Tomas Morato in Quezon City with Vicki Belo herself if she can also safely have the same procedure.

According to the documents filed with the Philippine Regulatory Board after being assured enthusiastically by the famed Dr. Vicki Belo that it was a “safe procedure” she went ahead and consented to undergo the procedure at a whopping cost of P120K not realizing or expecting this would be her worse nightmare for years to come that will almost cost her, her life. Actually the cost is not as expensive compared to how much the procedure will cost you if done by well experienced licensed specialist in the US of A. Little did Josefina Norcio knew because of the assurance she got that the implant used to augment her butt known as Hydrogel is a banned substance in the US, Europe and China. Worse the substance is not even registered with the Philippine Food and Drug Administration meaning it did not undergo any laboratory tests, research and study and therefore is illegal.

Asymmetry or the unevenness of the butt cheeks is a problem that one faces in butt augmentation procedure even on those done through a liposuction procedure performed by expert cosmetic surgeons with experience to rearrange body fat for a rounder bigger butt. In the case of Norcio the doctors who performed the procedure were not even surgeons at the time of the operation so it is no surprise that Norcio had the result of having one cheek of her butt bigger than the other. A problem where those who had the asymmetry would have wished had not undergone in the first place or would have been better off with the shape of what they had before the procedure.

She could have resigned herself to that condition but the mesmerizing giant billboards of the 2 competing beauty doctors are so surreal that gives you the feeling that you are in a world surrounded by beautiful men and women with perfect complexion, features and well endowed body perhaps even enlarge dongs unless you have not heard of Louem Martinez dinged dong. One can easily get enticed to be part of the beauty and the beast errr best crowd of good looking people especially when you read and see print and visual endorsement by famous successful celebrities. Norcio’s confidence with BMG was again bolstered and was again enticed to undergo another “corrective” procedure 3 years later and paid P120K again thinking it will solve her problem coupled with the assurance given her by Dr. Francis Decangchon. She then instructed Dr. Francis Decangchon to inject her butt 30cc on one cheek and 50cc on the other side. Instead of following the instruction Dr. Decangchon who I suspect was a math student of Garci added 30 plus 50 thus injecting each butt cheek with 80cc each. Yikes, so now they are wondering why it sagged and ballooned when she had one to many Hydrogel that her butt can take and of course the infection exacerbated her deformity.

Ross Bautista, executive officer of the NBI office of the Deputy Director for Intelligence Services (DDIS) was quoted by an Inquirer report on their initial evaluation of the evidence: revealed negligence in the use of Hydrogel. The doctors who undertook the butt augmentation failed to ascertain the source of the Hydrogel as well as assess the material. They also found out that the patient was not properly informed or was not informed of the risk involve in the procedure.

Interesting finding I should say but that is the Philippines where proper disclosure seems to be unheard of so a patient is able to make informed decisions. There is definitely a risk of infection with butt augmentation since it is near the rectum, where a patient may die as in the case of Norcio who suffered from septic shock due to massive infection. Buttock implants is a very risky procedure which is discouraged by specialist as gleaned on this site:

Infection may happen after any surgery and may rarely occur after liposculpture. The rate of infection increases with in increase with the amounts of injected fat, as the risk of Seroma formation increases; but the overall rate still remains very low due to routine use of peri-operative antibiotics. On the other hand, there has been reported a significantly increased risk of infection with the use of buttock implants, which can be as high as 25-30%. This is most likely due to the vicinity of the incision to the rectum. Because of this, I usually discourage patients to have an implant unless they are fully aware of this serious risk and are very meticulous with their post operative care. If a mild infection develops it might be treated with antibiotics. Otherwise, the implant has to be removed, and the wound has to be left open for it to close gradually, which can take several weeks. Extremely rarely, infections may be serious or life threatening such as in cases of necrotizing fasciaitis (bacteria that eat away at the tissue) or with toxic shock syndrome, a serious, sometimes fatal infection caused by a bacteria, that is associated with surgery (such as is sometime caused by the use of tampons).

Why Vicki Belo a medical practitioner enthusiastically promotes and encourages this procedure seems really odd but then again one only has to read the legal documents filed by Norcio through her legal counsels Roberto “Argee” C. Guevarra and Rose Beatrix “Trixie” Cruz-Angeles to get a clue why it was so.

Some people are asking if Vicki Belo is a snake oil panacea saleswoman or a cosmetic surgeon. Well, she is neither a snake oil panacea saleswoman because a saleswoman only sells her product and a cosmetic surgeon has to meet the strict qualification of Philippine Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (PAPRAS) of which she is not even listed, to quote:

1. RESPONDENT DR. BELO IS AN UNLICENSED MEDICAL PRACTIONER IN THE FIELD OF COSMETIC SURGERY. Dr. Belo did not undergo adequate training and does not meet the standards and criteria set by the Philippine Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (PAPRAS) to be considered a medical practitioner in the field of cosmetic or aesthetic surgery which explains why she cannot engage in the practice of cosmetic surgery and is not certified and licensed to perform any cosmetic surgery procedures or to hold herself out to patients and to the general public as an expert in the field of cosmetic surgery.

Ms. Norcio was led to believe – through advertising -- that Dr. Belo was competent to advice her on the hyrdogel implantation procedure. Dr. Belo’s exhortations for her to undertake the procedure bore the weight of expertise to a layman like Ms. Norcio. Thus, Ms. Norcio confidently underwent the implantation procedure after hearing its virtues from Dr. Belo.

2. RESPONDENT DR. BELO IS A CHARLATAN. Not having been the one to perform the Hydrogel Butt Augmentation Procedure on Complainant Josefina Norcio, Respondent Dr. Belo engages in the unethical practice of “ghost doctoring” whereby a doctor purports to a patient that he/she will perform the surgical procedure only for the patient to find out that another doctor or a substitute doctor will be the one to actually perform the said procedure.3. RESPONDENT DR. BELO IS A QUACK DOCTOR. A quack doctor in medical parlance is described as a person who “makes fraudulent and false representation of a substance, device or a therapeutic system as being beneficial in treating a medical condition.” In this instance, Dr. Belo has represented the hydrogel butt augmentation procedure as being safe and permanent in producing a round full butt. The reality is dangerously different. Hydrogel nearly did kill complainant Josefina Norcio. It has left her with two open wounds, and a permanently disfigured butt.

Dr. Belo relied on the services of other doctors who were equally incompetent. She was aware that Drs. Ronaldo Cayetano and Francis Decangchon are not surgeons or were not surgeons at the time the procedures were conducted on Ms. Norcio. They operated on Ms. Norcio despite their lack of expertise or training to do so. Dr. Belo was well aware that given their lack of expertise, these doctors would be unable and incompetent to recognize their own mistakes. Dr. Belo also allowed these doctors to in turn allow complainant Ms. Norcio to believe that Drs. Cayetano and Decangchon had the competence and training to conduct surgery on her.

As it turns out, Dr. Belo’s tolerance of the malpractice of her doctors in the Belo Medical Group, particularly the fatal mistakes committed by the doctors of implanting so much hydrogel into Ms. Norcio make her liable directly for the results of those practices.

Finally, instead of reporting the lack of competence and quackery of Drs. Decangchon and Cayetano, Dr. Belo instead tolerated and encouraged their continuing deception on patients who relied on Dr. Belo’s assurance that the other doctors operating under the Belo Medical Group, have the training and expertise to practice on their bodies.

This is a very scary proposition especially for those contemplating to undergo cosmetic surgery procedure in the Philippines because it is cheap. The likelihood of getting what you paid for and the risk of falling into the hands of quack doctors is very real. What makes it worse as others whose operation was botched as in the case of Louem Martinez is it will be next to impossible to seek damages since Philippine doctors does not have medical malpractice insurance. Victims of Quack doctors has a hard time filling a case to seek redress because of the social stigma attached to it and worse are subjected to further indignities by the other side’s legal counsel uncalled for sarcasm. This is exactly what Adel Tamano is trying to do paint a negative picture on the victim asking for P200M that Trixie Cruz-Angeles posted at Facebook regarding said matter. I would ask for more if I was in Norcio’s shoes and I believe it was cruel, callous and insensitive in my response to Trixie’s posting to which she responds below:

The victim here is still not healed. It will take two years. She is permanently disfigured. Doctors can attempt to reconstruct only after two years, and reconstructive surgery is likely still experimental.

Can you imagine that she was in so much pain, she actually asked to die? And she nearly did. Can Adel Tamano pay for that much pain? How much does he think she is worth?

You're right. Cruel, callous, insensitive, snide, malicious, irresponsible...

Patients in the Philippines especially those who suffered through criminal negligence, incompetence and fraud are on the losing end. They are treated like a commodity or in this case as if her butt augmentation was a case of fixing a car part installation that can be pulled out of the shop for them to correct their stupid mistake. Norcio went broke selling most of her properties to pay for life threatening medical emergency that was caused by the botched butt augmentation.

Since she is deep in debt and could not pay for her medical bills at St. Luke’s Hospital she instructed her fiancée Jun Calle to appeal for financial assistance from BMG. As if it was a simple case of a car repair Dr. Filipino Bunag Medical Director of BMG stated that they can only help Norcio if she drops her attending physician Dr. Lawrence Loh and check out at the St. Luke’s Hospital so she can be treated at the BMG clinic. Mr. Calle then urge BMG to send a competent representative to asses her condition if that is even possible to which the representative Dr. Alcantara after several text message finally arrived late saw that she was immobile and in a prone position and observed she should not or could not be moved out of St. Luke’s without endangering her life. Since it was not in their guidelines, Norcio did not get any financial assistance form BMG.

Patients in the Philippines are the most abused and at the mercy of practitioners who are not even qualified to do the job they claimed was their expertise. Looking at Norcio’s experience it is just so pathetic that it was the patient responsibility through their representatives who follows up to plead and get their medical records to hand over to the attending emergency physician is just preposterous. Who in his right mind will go through that kind of hellish life and death experience when medical records should be automatically released to the attending physicians? Unless the medical associations steps in to cleanse their ranks medical tourism in the Philippines will die of quackery and surely validate the fiction of the dialogue of the Desperate Housewife that elicited so much furor over the internet.

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Vicki Belo's Cyberspace Libel Suit Ought to be Heard Nowhere but on Netizen's Facebook Forum

Here we go again, libel, libel everywhere, where it stops no one knows? The Philippines indeed is teeming with onion skinned indiciduals, as if filing a libel suit really clears what they believe was their good name and refutation. As if we don't have enough pending cases due to the snail paced justice dispensation we see frivolous libel suits clogging the system when there are serious pressing cases that deserved to be heard expediently.

Once again we are about to witness a spectacle involving Dr. Vicki Belo of the botched ass job against activist lawyer Argee Guevarra, I am posting this article sent to my FB inbox

Facebook User Welcomes Dr. Vicky Belo's Libel Suit "As First of its Kind" in the World

Facebook user and activist-lawyer Argee Guevarra today welcomed the libel suit filed by the Belo Medical Group and Dr..Vicki Belo against him at the Office of the City Prosecutor in Taytay, Rizal, Philippines, for his status updates and shout-outs in his private Facebook account.

Guevarra, who acts as counsel for Belo victim Josefina Norcio over two botched butt augmentation procedures performed by the Belo Medical Group using the banned substance Hydrogel, was sued for libel over status update posts in his Facebook account where Guevarra called for a national patients’ boycott of Belo Clinics and for referring to Dr. Belo as “Reyna ng Kaplastikan, Reyna ng Kapalpakan” (Queen of False Pretenses, Queen of Incompetence).

Dr.Vicki Belo is a celebrity doctor previously involved in a video sex scandal. She operates upscale plastic and cosmetic surgery clinics frequented by this impoverished nation’s elite and owns various offshore clinics and booking offices in Thailand, South Korea and the United States. Dr. Belo, however, is not licensed by the Philippine Association of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons (PAPRAS) to perform cosmetic surgery procedures. She presides over a multi-million dollar empire consisting of plastic surgery clinics, beauty salons and manufactures health and beauty products.

The suit is the first Facebook libel case in the world where the complainant does not even belong to the defendant’s network of Facebook friends. A previous Facebook libel case was, however, filed in UK where businessman Mathew Firsht sued a former school friend over a false personal profile on the site that included private information about him and untrue allegations about his sexual orientation.

The libel suit against Guevarra was commenced vicariously through Dr. Belo’s general manager who managed to add herself to Guevarra’s network of 1,472 friends.

Guevarra, a political activist previously jailed by the Arroyo regime for his participation in two failed uprisings, similarly faced a Php 300 million ($6 million) libel suit from former First Lady Imelda Marcos 13 years ago after Guevarra wrote in his erstwhile column in BusinessWorld, a series of commentaries accusing the former strongman’s wife of widespread plunder during the reign of the Marcos dictatorship. The libel suit was eventually dismissed.

Guevarra welcomes the libel suit as an opportunity to invite public attention to the hazards and dangers of cosmetic surgery clinics performing surgeries with untrained, unskilled, incompetent and unlicensed medical practitioners and advertising such services as safe and hopes to ring alarm bells at the Health Department against the proliferation of such colorum clinics which is destroying the country’s medical tourism industry and earning for the country the moniker of being Asia’s No. 1 Chop Shop. More than this, Guevarra seeks to defend himself all the way to the Supreme Court in order to elicit jurisprudence regarding internet-based libels.

Guevarra reacted to the libel suit in his Facebook status update which states: "A wannabe mortician masquerading as a cosmetic surgeon will never be able to stitch up the difference between formalin or botox, between free speech or slander when suing for libel a Facebook user for his shout outs and status updates. Such surgical stupidity results in mistaking Facebook for Erasebook”.

For his part, Atty.Guevarra’s counsel, Atty. J.V. Bautista, a U.P. classmate of Dr. Belo, laughed off the libel suit and pointed out its material defects – “The libel case filed by Dr. Belo needs a serious facelift before it could even be dignified in any court of law. The pleading itself reads and looks like a failed surgery on the laws of libel …

First, the venue is improperly laid. It should not have been filed before the Taytay Prosecutor Office and instead filed before Makati City Prosecutor’s Office which is the place of the offended party (Dr. Belo) and where Facebook, Philippines holds Office. The filing of the case in Taytay may have sinister motives. What is so special about filing the case in Taytay?

Second, the libelous statements were printed and published by Dr. Belo’s own general manager and upon the authority given her by Dr. Belo’s estranged husband and Belo Medical Group Corporate Secretary Atom Henares, which should make said general manager a co-respondent of Atty. Guevarra. In effect, Dr. Belo should be suing her own general manager;

Third, the alleged defamatory statements are privileged communication and are per se, not libelous. Said statements of Atty.Guevarra fall under constitutionally protected exercise of free speech;

Finally, the analogous libel case of Alfonso Yuchengco/Pacific Plans vs. Philip Piccio, arising from a blog written by Mr. Piccio against Pacific Plans was ordered dismissed by the Department of Justice which ruled that there is no such thing as internet libel since Art. 355 of the Revised Penal Code strictly provides that libel can only be committed by means set forth therein (writing, printing, radio etc.) and does not include the internet. Furthermore, criminal statutes are construed strictly in favor of the accused.”

The preliminary investigation is set on Sept. 24, 2009 at the Taytay Hall of Justice, Taytay, Rizal before Asst. City Prosecutor Cheloy Garrafil.

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A Dinged Dong, Leaking Boobies, Sex, Lies, & Videotape Scandal in the Philippines complete with Sagging Butt

As one drives down the chaotic Edsa Highway that resembles a maze (one of the main thoroughfares in Metro Manila, Philippines) one cannot help but notice the huge posters of competing beauty clinics of Rosario Calayan of Calayan Surgicenter Corp. and Vicki Belo of Belo Medical Group (BMG) flaunting their piece of work in sexually suggestive poses. Handsome men, Beautiful women and even those in between as in gay or should we say reconditioned or perhaps reconfigured ooops no that is not the right word, let us just say beautifully enhanced perfectly molded models so shiny and bright in their almost Caucasian silken complexion so endowed in all the right places.

Gazing at these giant billboards almost gives you the feeling that you are not in the Philippines but in a tropical paradise island somewhere in dreamland where all the inhabitants are perfectly endowed with shapely figure so stunningly beautiful. Then there is this giant poster of a sexy actress/model with a foreign sounding name, the type I see in the bike paths of California’s picturesque landscape rollerblading or simply playing in the sands in their thongs trying to get as much sun to get that lovely tan. Except this actress/model was not exactly fair complexioned in the first place but with the wonders of the beauty clinic made her look like a sexy beach siren for a whopping cost of P500K to whiten her dark complexion according to our friend making a joke about the poster girl. The only problem was that her true colors errrr dark skin was evident as her offspring came out in this world with a dark complexion because the actress/model has dark complexion in the first place. So much for that farcical irony this article is all about what is going on with the beauty/cosmetic surgery clinic in the Philippines? Or better yet what is wrong with cosmetic surgery in the land where corruption is so endemic?

First we heard of the woes of a dinged dong of Filipino-American Louem Martinez who came to the Calayan Surgicenter Corp. for the removal of a cyst. Say what? Cyst removal so how in the name of Garcified backdoor Comelec electoral cheating did his dong got dinged? Heck, this is like a young clueless naive car buyer going to a used car lot sweet talked by hustler salesman into buying a lemon because he was offered whistles and bang like the stereotypical used car transaction to have his cyst removed, together with liposuction thrown in and an offer he can’t refuse...... a penile enlargement. Of course with a deal like that you ought to have a bad feeling that something amiss is going to happen and it did. True enough not only was his cyst not totally removed his prized possession also went bonkers and as if by a stroke of a Madam Auring psychic prediction I asked a while back which I quote:

A patient seeking redress for his deformed pride and glory being counter sued is not pleasant and truly makes it a horrible experience. Top that with a banned device if it is true as claimed by Martinez lawyer and BFAD Director Gutierrez implanted inside your body is not exactly safe and reassuring. Calayan claims that it was Aquamid that she used and just made a mistake in saying Aquagel but the point is these substances are irrelevant if both were not approved by BFAD. Think of what will happen if a woman goes for breast augmentation, or reshaping some snub nosed Filipinos that may end up shaped into a bursting tomato using banned medical devices is just scary..... yikes and you get bullied with a counter lawsuit is like adding insult to injury and what about organ transplant? Oh never mind, lets deal with that some other time....... continue reading.

So now after the sex, lies, and videotape scandal of a Hayden Camera errr Kho the young doctored errr physician lover of antique oooops mother figure lover boy to the reconditioned yikes I meant beauty doctor Vicki Belo’s scandal reports are coming in if accurate on the leaking boobies of Gloria Arroyo no less points to Belo’s direction. This reminds me of a very funny satire written by Manuel Buencamino who wrote that as soon as Gloria woke up after the surgery at the Asian Hospital half dazed was muttering the famous first words :

Yon dagdag? Yon dagdag?

To which I responded with:

Did the doctor not respond with…… Don’t worry Madam President we had Garci assist us in making sure we counted the augmentation the Comelec way………

Anyway, this is really getting worse and it does not help Medical Tourism that the Philippine government is promoting when another botched operation scandal once again mars the fake errr beauty industry. There it is again as Trixie Cruz-Angeles posted a video below she aptly describes as Butt, lies and videotape...

Businesswoman Josefina Norcio who went to Belo Medical Group clinic for butt augmentation, things would have been fine except one butt cheek came out bigger than the other. She went back to have it corrected and another doctor attended to her but now instead of just a sagging butt she found herself in the intensive care of St. Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) for serious bacteria infection spreading to other parts of her body reported to have been caused by the hydrogel implant. An ordeal where the patient almost died is not exactly one would imagine finding themselves in such a situation over beauty enhancement is just scary.

This one is something to watch one that has similarity to the Louem Martinez dinged dong ordeal wherein the principal conveniently absolves themselves from responsibility because they were not the one who personally operated, inserted or did the procedure. According to Trixie Cruz-Angeles responding to my query the complainant will be running after all those who are responsible:

Though in general we are after the BMG as a corporate person on two grounds:

1. Fraud in misrepresenting the safety of the procedure and of the polyacrilamide hyrdorgel; and
2. Reckless imprudence both in the use of the untested hydrogel and the use of untrained physicians who are neither surgeons nor plastic surgeons.

Let us see how this will turn out, another one of those scandals people who are contemplating on having a procedure done in Manila to do their own due diligence before jumping into the beauty enhancement that may turn out to be life threatening.

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Philippine Medical Tourism & the Woes of Louem Martinez

Imagine yourself in a pristine white sand beach enjoying what the tropical paradise has to offer sipping a cocktail relaxing in all serenity…… heaven, pure heaven with no worries in the world away from the rat race unwinding in your own leisure time. Welcome to the wonderful mecca of Philippine Medical Tourism .........

Everything is so cheap where your depreciated dollars go a long way, people catering to your every whims and caprice not a worry in the world. Ideal, isn’t it?

That is exactly what the brochures and internet site entice you, vacationing in the Philippines’ beautiful tropical paradise while at the same time taking a journey towards life-enhancing cosmetic surgery procedures which can restore or enhance your features. A trip so rewarding in terms of gaining inner confidence looking and feeling years younger in your quest for affordable rejuvenation at a significant cost savings that you can only dream of is possible in the tropics.

The growing industry shows a lot of potential that the Philippines have included medical tourism in their government program to get a share of the burgeoning market of neighboring Asian countries.

All is well that ends well in a fairy tall tale, but what happens if somewhere along the line something goes awry and instead of the enhancement you expect from the medical procedure it went south causing undue physical and psychological damage. What will you do? How will you deal with the problem when you are already back home thousands of miles away?

A boon or vain or worse a botched procedure that may not just leave you with a scar or permanent damage to the most delicate part of your body where you dread the most in joining the bandwagon of Philippine Medical Tourism but psychological as well.

That is exactly what happened to Filipino American Louem Martinez also known as Louem Boschuk who underwent a procedure for penile enlargement and ended up in pain and his cherished possession disfigured. Ouch!

At the risk of being the subject of ridicule it took some cajones or should we say his balls are still intact went to a lawyer and filed a P26 million suit against the doctor. Filing a case against the husband and wife popularly known as the “Doctors to the stars” Manuel and Rosario Calayan, registered owners of the Calayan Surgicenter for the botched procedure in 2007. Indeed a mess that Happy Thoughts wished Louem Martinez should have first researched Maxoderm: An alternative for men, than underwent the procedure avoiding the end result of having a "badly deformed, sagged and bumped" prized possession.

Take note, if ever you are contemplating on enhancing your “prized” possession you should check out the Philippine laws and regulation first because they are not exactly the same laws and regulation that you see in the US that protects the patient that holds the medical profession to the highest ethical standards. Also, while there are laws to that effect you have to make sure that the establishment you are dealing with strictly abide and follow said rules and regulations. After all, it is still a nation where corruption is so endemic that some people actually thrived on it and thus skirting the law is a common accepted practice.

It’s a messy legal battle with the Calayans' insisting that the patient signed a liability release form which the patient claimed was shoved to him by the clinics' personnel and no one explained exactly what it means. On the other hand Calayan insist that he explained everything to him and has been doing this procedure for quite some time. Confusing I should say especially when claims and counter claims are opposite what both parties are saying. What is interesting is that the substance used to enhance Martinez pride and glory errr however you want to call it should be enough for one to be ultra cautious if one is contemplating this kind of procedure or any procedure for that matter, to quote:

He and his lawyer Dioscoro Peligro showed reporters a letter from the Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD) stating aquagel and aquamid are two different products and chemicals.

“I have been told that aquagel is banned, while aquamid needs a permit for its importation and that this has already expired in 2006,” Martinez said.

In the letter, BFAD director Leticia Barbara Gutierrez said both aquagel and aquamid are “medical devices and their registration prior to importation and sale is mandatory.”

“Calayan Surgicenter Corp. is not the licensed importer of the above products,” Gutierrez said.

I know I heard this before that an illegal contract is not enforceable so I just don’t know if this applies in this case. If what the lawyer of Martinez is saying is true then a banned or illegal substance was used to enhance Martinez “pride and glory” that is now deformed so that should really give people the creeps if they are contemplating on similar procedure in the Philippines. Unless one is willing to risk ones deformed "pride and glory" and the hassles of messy lawsuits and counter suits, as shown in this case:

“I did not participate in any of the medical procedures performed on the complainant, nor did I give any opinion or medical advice to the complainant,” she said, adding that Martinez was never her patient.

In her complaint-affidavit filed in April, Rosario Calayan claimed there was no legal basis to hold her liable as she has never met Martinez nor did the patient consult with her.

She also accused the patient of perjury and unjust vexation because of the “malicious filing of the baseless criminal complaint.

Her lawyer Reggie Ukol maintained that such circumstances do not immediately hold her liable for the supposed crime.

“Those circumstance don't mean that there was a conspiracy to commit the crime,” he said in an interview Thursday.

A patient seeking redress for his deformed pride and glory being counter sued is not pleasant and truly makes it a horrible experience. Top that with a banned device if it is true as claimed by Martinez lawyer and BFAD Director Gutierrez implanted inside your body is not exactly safe and reassuring. Calayan claims that it was Aquamid that he used and just made a mistake in saying Aquagel but the point is these substances are irrelevant if both were not approved by BFAD. Think of what will happen if a woman goes for breast augmentation, or reshaping some snub nosed Filipinos that may end up shaped into a bursting tomato using banned medical devices is just scary..... yikes and you get bullied with a counter lawsuit is like adding insult to injury and what about organ transplant? Oh never mind, lets deal with that some other time.......

The problem started when Martinez went to doctor Calayan for the removal of a cyst through Liposuction and the penile enlargement was supposedly an added bonus or part of the package deal. Now what was that all about? Liposuction to remove a cyst? Guess how that turned out? According to the new P14 million complaint of estafa and reckless imprudence resulting in serious physical injury filed by Martinez the operation did not work and the cyst instead spread and grew bigger.

The bottom line is that you get what you paid for and come to think of it the hassles of the court system is not something one enthusiastically wants to get involved with. Dealing with the court system is bad enough and to get entangled in the justice system in the Philippines that is perceived by the public to be corrupt is an experience you don't want to be in. Then the distance which is thousands of miles away does not help either and the time, energy and resources you spend in going back and forth in a court system that is known for its turtle paced disposition is a very expensive proposition. What about the unrealized income that you will lose for the time you have to spend flying back and forth to attend your hearings? Is it worth it?

Luckily or perhaps unluckily whichever way you want to look at it this case was noticed by the press thus hopefully will send a message that people are watching attentively on how this will unfold. But that alone is not a guarantee that the aggrieved party will get justice so what happens if the case is not a celebrated case, what are the chances of getting a decision in favor of the aggrieved party? How many more botched procedures are out there that the victims are not reporting for fear of ridicule and the scandalous embarrassment one has to go through? Can't get enough of this, here go see the news video on this botched procedure.

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