I Was Petrified I Was Losing My Sight, Admits Salon Customer

A Glasgow lawyer has called for lessons to be learned after a woman was forced to cancel the trip of a lifetime to Las Vegas when a simple cosmetic treatment went wrong and left her with infected eyes so badly swollen that she could not see.

Anne-Marie Colgan was left in agony after a trip to the Vanity K Beauty Salon in Uddingston for an eyelash tint and eyelash extension on Friday 17th September 2010.

After the botched treatment left her eye area infected and swollen, she turned to lawyers at Irwin Mitchell Scotland for help – and has now secured an admission from the salon that it was at fault.

The salon has admitted it failed to:

• Carry out a correct skin patch test – one was performed, but on an area of dry skin that did not show a reaction
• Leave the recommended 48-hour period after testing before carrying ou the procedure

Now, having seen similar treatment kits available on the shelf in chemists, Ms Colgan says she doesn’t want anybody else to go through the same pain she suffered.

Anne-Marie said: “I had a trained beautician carrying out my treatment and it still went wrong – I am pleased they have now admitted they were at fault, but I want lessons to be learned from this.

“Beauticians should certainly be following the recommendations to ensure people aren’t likely to suffer extreme reactions to the treatment and members of the public considering doing this themselves should only do so if they really know what they’re doing.

“I was forced to cancel a trip to Las Vegas but at the time, I didn’t care – I just wanted the pain to stop and for the swelling to go down.”

Elaine Russell, partner at Irwin Mitchell Scotland, said that although a skin patch test was carried out to see if the treatment was suitable, it was done so on an area of psoriasis, which meant the test was ineffective.

Furthermore, he said the salon failed to allow the recommended 48 to 72 hours between testing the skin and carrying out the procedure, instead allowing just over 15 hours.

As a result, the next day, her eyebrows became itchy, swollen, and were oozing a red liquid – by the following Monday morning, they were forced shut.

Elaine Russell said: “Ms Colgan’s eyes very quickly became incredibly sore and infected – she was forced to attend accident and emergency because her eyes were totally shut.

“The salon she visited has failed her on two counts – firstly to carry out a correct and suitable skin test, and then by failing to wait the recommended period before carrying out the procedure.

“The most important thing to come out of this is that lessons must be learned – both by the professionals involved with carrying out these treatments, but also by members of the public who may be tempted to try these treatments themselves.

“The eyes are incredibly sensitive and prone to painful, or even potentially dangerous, infections – they should always be treated with the utmost care and that absolutely means following instructions to the letter on cosmetic treatments of any kind.

“We are pleased the salon has admitted it was at fault and we are now working to calculate a settlement.”