Woman in Nghe An hospitalized after beauty treatment at Berry Clinic International Aesthetic Institute

The customer disagreed but still did it.

On August 28, Ms. LTT (38 years old, Nghi Kim commune, Vinh city) was discharged from the hospital after more than a week of treatment at Nghe An General Hospital. "In the next few days, I will have to go to Hanoi for further examination, but I am not completely cured yet," Ms. T. said.

Ms. T. is the person who accused "Berry Clinic International Aesthetic Institute", located at 6 Mai Hac De (Vinh City), of many shady behaviors, causing her to be hospitalized after using services here.

According to Ms. T., on August 15, through an advertisement on social networks, she went to this beauty salon to get her lips tattooed. “When I arrived, the staff approached me one by one, trying to convince me to use other services. But because I didn’t need it and didn’t have much money, I refused. After that, I only agreed to get my lips tattooed, with a down payment of 4 million VND,” Ms. T. said. However, after paying for her lip tattoo, Ms. T. was not taken in to get the procedure done right away, but had to wait a long time.

“The staff here told me that today a doctor from Hospital 108 would do it for me and I would have to wait. Every 30 minutes or so, the staff would try to convince me to use another service. If they couldn’t convince me, they would switch to another staff. When they saw that I didn’t change my mind, they would take me to the room to get my lips tattooed. When I lay down, a woman in a blouse, calling herself Doctor Tham, came and said she would be the one to do it for me,” Ms. T. said, adding that she was then blindfolded, surrounded by about 4 staff members of the beauty salon.

“After lying down, these employees continued to persuade me, whispering to me to do other services. The person who called herself Dr. Tham kept touching my ear, saying that my ear was crooked, had bad feng shui, so she had to fix it to have "lucky ears". She even said that my ear had bad feng shui, affecting my husband and children, to persuade me. I said I didn't have any money, so she said I had to pay on credit. At this point, I was also suspicious. Besides, because I didn't need it, I firmly refused, asking them to absolutely not do anything more,” Ms. T. said.

However, according to T., while she was having her lip tattooed, she felt a sharp pain in her ear. “I sat up and asked, ‘What did you do to my ear?’ She said she didn’t do anything. A moment later, I felt a burning sensation in my ear, so I asked again and she admitted that she had already done her “lucky ear”. At this point, the staff said all the services were done and showed me a bill of 30 million VND, of which 15 million VND was for the “lucky ear”, 15 million VND for the smile lines, not to mention the 4 million VND for the lip tattoo that I had paid in advance,” Ms. T. said, adding that during the process of being blindfolded, she did not feel like she was doing her smile lines, and afterwards she did not see any changes on her face. However, she was still charged.

Ms. T. and the beauty salon staff then argued, because Ms. T. thought that there was no agreement but the staff still did it, so she did not agree to pay. However, at this time, many staff surrounded Ms. T., filmed a clip and threatened to post it on social media to accuse "customers of beautifying themselves but not paying". "The staff asked me to call my family to pay before letting me go. I was alone, so I had to give in and sign the debt paper," Ms. T. said.

After returning home on the evening of August 15, Ms. T. immediately had swelling and bleeding at the site of the needle prick in her ear. Ms. T. texted the person claiming to be Dr. Tham who had treated her, and this person replied, "It's okay, just clean it and it will be fine tomorrow." This person then prescribed antibiotics for Ms. T. to take. However, in the following days, the more antibiotics she took, the more serious her condition became.

Cosmetic facility disclaims responsibility

On August 20, unable to bear it any longer, Ms. T. was taken by her family to Nghe An General Hospital. There, doctors diagnosed her with bilateral ear abscesses after an unknown cosmetic procedure. A day later, she underwent surgery to drain the widespread inflammation in her maxillofacial area.

At this time, Ms. T. contacted the cosmetic facility and was immediately denied responsibility. "They said it had nothing to do with them. They also did not do anything invasive. While I have full evidence," Ms. T. said, adding that she also investigated and learned that the person who called himself "Doctor Tham" was actually one of the staff here, whose real name was Hien.

To clarify the content that Ms. T. reflected, on the morning of August 28, the reporter went to this beauty facility at No. 6, Mai Hac De Street. However, the staff refused to work here, saying that the manager was away. These staff also said that they "could not contact the manager", and also refused to provide the reporter with this person's phone number to contact for work.

Discussing this incident, the leader of the Nghe An Department of Health Inspectorate said that the cosmetic facility at 06 Mai Hac De was not licensed as a cosmetic clinic, so it was only allowed to perform non-invasive services, not use anesthetics, not use rays and not prescribe medication.

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Previously, in early July, Nghe An Newspaper had a series of articles about thechaotic beauty salons and loopholes in management.On July 12, one of the cosmetic facilities, "Mayo Clinic Cosmetic Institute", located on Nguyen Phong Sac Street, was fined more than 100 million VND by the Department of Health Inspectorate and suspended for 4.5 months.

On July 22, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health) sent a document to the Department of Health of provinces and centrally run cities about many cosmetic facilities impersonating hospitals and having ambiguous expertise.

The document stated that the Department had received information from the media about many cosmetic facilities impersonating hospitals and having ambiguous expertise.

According to reports, there are many unqualified cosmetic facilities that are still operating "illegally", many beauty facilities have impersonated major hospitals to deceive customers and many people have been victims of these impersonating facilities (for cosmetic service names such as "Beauty Salon", "Beauty Institute", "Beauty Center"...

The Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management requests the Department of Health of provinces and centrally-run cities to implement a number of contents, specifically:
Urgently inspect and verify the above-mentioned media reports at the local level under the management of the Department of Health. Coordinate with relevant authorities to detect and handle violations against cosmetic establishments that impersonate hospitals, have unclear expertise, and are not qualified to operate illegally, causing many consequences for society and the health sector, affecting people's health.

At the same time, handle according to the provisions of law and Decree No. 117/2020/ND-CP dated November 15, 2020 of the Government regulating administrative sanctions in the health sector. At the same time, the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management requests the Departments of Health of provinces and cities to continue to strengthen inspection, supervision, and legal education for medical examination and treatment facilities to strictly perform medical examination and treatment in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment, Decree No. 96/2023/ND-CP dated December 30, 2023 of the Government and guiding documents.

Discussing this issue, Mr. Tran Nguyen Truyen - Chief Inspector of Nghe An Department of Health said that after receiving the directive document, the unit coordinated with Vinh City Police to establish an inspection team for cosmetic facilities in the area. "Currently, the inspection is still in progress. We are inviting a number of cosmetic facilities to explain and prepare documents for handling," Mr. Truyen said.

Nghe An Newspaper will continue to inform about this incident.

Tien Hung