If we turn back time 20 years, Tracie Samara, originally from Worcester, Massachuesetts in the US, was a bona fide beauty queen.
Having left the modelling world and starting a family, it wasn’t until she was in her forties that Tracie decided to fulfill her dream of returning back to the beauty biz that she once loved so much.
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This was the catalyst for Tracie’s decision to undergo a cosmetic touch-up or two. Because, in her own words: “I decided to go back into the industry so things were just needing a little rejuvenation.”
However, what happened to Tracie next, no-one would’ve ever expected.
As reported by The Daily Mail, Tracie decided to get a few “free, non-invasive” injections in a bid to help her skin appear as youthful as it was in her modelling heyday.
Following the procedure, which Tracie says involved a Miami-based doctor injecting her with non-organic silicone fillers around her cheeks, lips and eyes.
Weeks after the injections, Tracie was left badly bruised, swollen and infections began to fester under her eyes.
WARNING: Graphic content ahead.
Tracie posted this picture to Facebook, saying: “Many surgeries ago…”
“Last Unbotching Surgery yesterday, with Nanofat Transfer into lower eyelids, cheeks and temples, filling in the loss and mess, leaving a smooth finish and a side benefit, liposuction of my muffin top!”
The infections got so bad, delving deep in her skin’s tissue, that, The Daily Mail are reporting, almost left Tracie blinded.
“I sort of went underground after that. No going out, no socialising,” Tracie explains to 7 News Miami.
Now, 11 years later, Tracie has endured countless treatments to extract the fillers from her face, leaving her face partially deformed.
Tracie had fat transferred from her waist and re-injected into her face following her botched silicone fillers.
“The removal of non-FDA silicone can be just as disfiguring in the process,” she says.
According to Tracie’s doctor, Dr John Martin, who works on patients who have had botched filler jobs, it can take numerous treatments, and a lot of pain, to correct the damage done.
“The most common illegal product we see being injected is something called Biopolymer, and this is a type of silicone,” he tells 7 News Miami.
“After two to three weeks, it can start to form what are called granulomas, which are inflammatory nodules.”
(The product injected into Tracie’s lips and under her eyes resulted in these lump-like nodules.)
Tracie at 31, pre-surgery.
It’s taken 11 years of treatments to heal the damage done by her face fillers.
Now undergoing Ultherapy (an ultrasound-heating unit used to soften, break up and decrease those hard nodule in size), Tracie is now hopeful she can, one day, have reconstructive surgery to fix the damage that has been done to her face.
“It hurts. I won’t say it doesn’t,” she says.
“I’m still not happy with the way I look, but I feel hope. And I didn’t have that before…”
