She Trusted This Med Spa and It Nearly Killed Her
I sat down with Bea Amma, a 27-year-old influencer and patient advocate who survived what should have been impossible. What happened to her wasn't a freak accident. It was the result of a system that's failing to protect people like you and me every single day. Her story changed how I think about patient safety, and I believe it will do the same for you.
The Appointment That Changed Everything
"I thought it was all totally legit. It looked legit."
— Bea Amma, MedSpa Confidential Podcast
Bea walked into what appeared to be a professional med spa in Burbank, California. Beautiful Instagram page. Lots of followers. A gorgeous location inside a Salon Republic building, right next to a tattoo shop. Everything looked right.
The person in the white coat told her the B12 shots would work better if injected in multiple places. So Bea laid down on the table and received around 100 injections across her arms, stomach, and back. She even fell asleep during the appointment. It didn't hurt much. She left thinking she'd made a smart choice for her health.
By 3 p.m. the next day, brain fog set in. By evening, she could barely drive home. Within 48 hours, small nodules started forming under her skin wherever she'd been injected. They grew. They burned. Then they burst open, leaving her body covered in open, infected wounds.
She did what most of us do, she assumed that a clean space with professional branding meant legitimate medical care. She had no idea that the person who touched her wasn't licensed, wasn't trained, and was injecting products ordered from Alibaba that were contaminated with deadly bacteria.
What the Doctors Found
"Bea was placed on eight different antibiotics as doctors fought to contain the infection”
— Dr. Kate Dee, MedSpa Confidential Podcast
By the time Bea got to the hospital, the infection had spread throughout her upper body. Doctors diagnosed her with mycobacterium, the same family of bacteria that causes tuberculosis. It's rare. It's aggressive. And it doesn't respond to standard antibiotics.
Bea spent months in the hospital, sleeping 20 hours a day while nurses worked for hours just to clean her wounds. She was placed on eight IV antibiotics, including Amikacin, which caused permanent hearing loss. The treatment was so brutal that she describes it as "another level of hell."
Even after leaving the hospital in September, she wasn't cured. The bacteria kept coming back. She's still fighting it today, years later. Her body is covered in scars that people compare to leopard spots. She lives with permanent tinnitus and 30% hearing loss in one ear. And she's drowning in medical debt with no way to collect damages because the people who did this to her have no insurance and no assets.
But here's the part that keeps me up at night: the woman who injected her is still out there. Still practicing. Still acquiring clients through social media. Despite complaints filed with multiple agencies, despite media coverage, despite everything there have been zero criminal consequences.
We break down exactly why enforcement is so weak and what needs to change in the full episode.
The Questions She Wishes She'd Asked
"I had no idea that there were people out here, you know, illegally practicing medicine so easily." — Bea Amma, MedSpa Confidential Podcast
Bea didn't know that real medical directors need to be on-site, not just names on paperwork. She didn't know that even nurses can't legally perform certain procedures without a doctor present.
And honestly? Most people don't know these things. I've had highly educated attorneys sit in my chair who couldn't tell me who injected them last time or what credentials that person had. We assume that regulations protect us. We assume someone is checking. But the truth is, over half the growth in this industry over the last decade has come from people practicing illegally.
So what do you need to ask before any procedure? First, verify the person's license. Ask to see it. Look it up online through your state's medical or nursing board. Second, ask who the medical director is and request a consultation with them. If that person is never on-site, that's a major red flag. Third, ask where the products come from. They should be FDA-approved and purchased through legitimate U.S. supply chains.
These questions might feel awkward. You might worry about offending someone. But your safety is worth more than politeness. And any legitimate provider will be happy to answer.
Bea shares the one critical step she wishes she'd taken immediately after her appointment and it could make all the difference if something ever goes wrong for you.
Listen to Discover More
This conversation goes even deeper. You'll hear exactly what to do if you suspect you've been treated illegally, how to file complaints with the right agencies, and why having a police report on file matters even if nothing seems wrong at first.
We also talk about the loopholes that let dangerous providers keep operating, the role of social media in these scams, and what real change would look like in this industry.
[Listen to the full MedSpa Confidential episode with Bea Amma here]
The transcript
[00:00:00]
Bea Amma: I had open fleshed all throughout my upper body.
And I remember around three o'clock the next day, I started to get like this really bad
brain fog. Like I just felt I have no idea to this day like how I was able to make it home , the steroids are actually putting the bacteria on steroids
I was losing my hearing at such a fast rate people now kind of say that my scars look like,
And if I could take it back. Of course I would, ~you know,~ no one wants to go through something like
that,
there's been absolutely no consequences for, the business owners.
Dr. Kate Dee: Have you ever walked into a med spa and assumed everything was legit? You see a clean space, a professional looking setup, and you trust the person in a white coat knows what they're doing. But for today's guest, it nearly cost her her life. I'm revisiting my conversation with Bea Amma, an influencer and patient advocate who survived a nightmare that started with a simple B12 shot appointment.
I think her story needs to reach a larger audience. And now we're on YouTube. You'll learn the warning signs of an unlicensed provider. What questions to [00:01:00] ask before any injection and why even the smartest people fall victim to illegal practices. Bea will walk you through her months long hospital stay, the infection that spread through her body.
And why she still does not have justice stay until the end. You'll hear exactly what to do if this happens to you and one step that Bea wishes she'd taken sooner. Please subscribe if you're new to the podcast and Bea is still recovering, so please consider donating to her GoFundMe.~ I am back today with Bea Amma to talk about her experience at a unlicensed medical spot in California. ~Bea, thanks so much for being here today.
Bea Amma: Thank you so much for having me. ~Um, I really appreciate everything that you're doing. I love the podcast and I'm really excited to get to share my story and, um, also introduce you to my audience as well. Um, I have a YouTube channel where, um, my goal is to spread awareness on issues like this, and I know that you're going to help impact a lot of people today.~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Yeah. So for our listeners, um, Bea is a. Influencer and up and coming, um, advocate for, um, basically patient's rights in the aesthetic space. Right. Um, and I, I was hoping that you could, uh, well, for your listeners, I am, IM Dr. Kate DI am a, um, physician who has been doing aesthetic medicine for about 10 years.~
~I have a, uh, MediSpa in, uh, Seattle, Washington. And before that I was a breast cancer doctor. And if you wanna know all about me, it's uh, all on my website. Do dr kate d.com. Um, and I'm also, uh, on a mission to raise awareness about what's going on in medical aesthetics and to make sure that people know all the questions they need to ask to be safe and get really good treatments and not be.~
~Another victim. And um, ~so I was hoping that you could start by telling your story and what happened to you. ~This was, you're 27 now, right? You just turned 27. Happy birthday.~
Bea Amma: ~Thank you.~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Um, so this was all when you were 23, right? So can you tell, can you tell our listeners exactly what happened?~
Bea Amma: ~Yeah, so, sorry. Really quick. There is an echo, but are, is it gonna catch it?~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Yes. I have echo cancellation on and I do not hear an echo, so I think it'll be okay.~
Bea Amma: ~I do on my side, but hopefully it's fine. Um, okay. Sorry. Scratch. Alright. Um,~ yeah, so I'm 27 now. This happened when I was 23 years old. In the year of 2021. I was new to Los Angeles. I was working long hours at, um, a new job that I, you know, was, it was a sales job. It was long hours and I just didn't feel like myself.
I was having some,~ um,~ like stomach [00:02:00] problems, bloating. I felt tired all the time and I had previously done B12 whenever I lived in Dallas. And then one day I wake up and I see this notification on my Instagram that this. Med Spa,~ um,~ followed me and I go on their nice aesthetic Instagram page with lots of followers and I see,~ um,~ some really nice results and also that they offer B12 shots, so.
Um, we start messaging back and forth. Um, they worked with my,~ um,~ complicated schedule and I scheduled an appointment to go in. Whenever I went in for the B12 shots. ~Um, ~the person that was injecting me, ~uh,~ she told me that it was a combination of B12 and deoxycholic acid, which is a fat dissolver. Uh, she also said that there were,~ um, ~other vitamins like vitamin C for skin tightening and,~ uh,~ youthfulness and you know, me as a 23-year-old not knowing anything.
And of course just ignorantly thinking that these places [00:03:00] are better regulated and, and that. I had no idea that there was people out here, you know, illegally practicing medicine so easily. I trusted everything she said and I thought it was all totally legit and it looked legit. And it was in a gorgeous Salon, republics building in Burbank.
Um, there was a beautiful tattoo shop in the front of the building, so of course, you know it being attached to a tattoo shop. I would have thought also that. Everything was legitimate. And, um, then I laid down on the table and she basically starts injecting away,~ um,~ throughout my arms and my, um, stomach and,~ uh,~ my back.
~Um, ~prior, whenever I got B12 shots, I was only injected in my arm. Um, but she told me, she was like, well, the more places we inject you, the better it's gonna work. And so I just trusted her and I said, okay. ~Um, ~and I lay down on the table and I, I kind of closed my eyes and,~ um,~ I think I even fell asleep for a, a point in time.
It was, you know, pretty not painful [00:04:00] and
Dr. Kate Dee: the shots themselves were not painful because, so d for our listeners, deoxycholic acid is the same thing as Kybella. Um, presumably it was a generic, uh, because she, she didn't call it Kybella. Ella is actually quite expensive, but when you inject Ella, it's actually quite, uh, painful normally. But this wasn't.
Bea Amma: ~Well, ~to this day, we have no idea what they actually injected into me. We have no idea if it was actually truly deoxycholic acid or not. ~Um, ~later on in the story, you know, we find out that what she actually injected me with was ordered from Alibaba. ~Um, and, uh,~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Keep~
Bea Amma: ~yeah, so,~
Dr. Kate Dee: so, she injected you multiple spots all over your body. How many injections were there total? Do you know?
Bea Amma: ~um, ~quite a few, quite a few throughout my arms, my, my triceps, the fattier area of the arms, the fattier area of the stomach,~ um, you know,~ and then probably like six on each side. It's just difficult 'cause the way, uh, in my back, sorry. But the, the way that [00:05:00] the, the way that the injections turned out, it, I think it seemed like she injected me more than she actually did.
I, I'm really not sure, but I mean, probably like a hundred injections.
Dr. Kate Dee: Okay, so that's a lot. So all of your body basically,
Bea Amma: she just, she just went crazy. She just injected me everywhere and I didn't think
Dr. Kate Dee: and they didn't sting at all. And they didn't swell up right away.
Bea Amma: So they did swell up, uh, right away. Yeah.
Dr. Kate Dee: So typically with Deoxycholic injections, ~um. ~The, the, they sting a lot. This, it's an acid and it's very painful. Um, and it swells up right away, typically. ~Um, but go ahead, go on with your story. Sure.~
Bea Amma: Yeah. ~Um, ~so of course I didn't know that. ~Um, and also just to let you know, um, you know, when I had gotten to, ~when I arrived to Los Angeles,~ um,~ I, you know, of course saw a lot of influencers and models and actors and stuff like that, and tons of girls had their lips done and Botox and all these things. ~And so, um,~ I was also reaching a point in my influencer career where I was like, okay, I, I think I need to start getting stuff [00:06:00] done too.
~Um, ~and so 10 days prior to scheduling these B12 shots I had actually scheduled, um, to get my lips done. And it's just so funny the. Events and the story because I remember the injector that I had gotten my lips done with was raving about Kybella in my,~ um,~ my session with her. And she was like, oh, I love Ella.
I'll be at home sometimes and I'll just inject it into my stomach myself. It's like, it's so addicting. 'cause you know, if you have some, some fat, you'll just inject it over here. And, and she was just raving about Kybella. And so mind you, that happened just 10 days before scheduling these B12 shots. And so whenever the girl, no, no, no.
I got my lips done,~ um,~ in Dallas. ~Um, ~and whenever I had flown back to, I was visiting Dallas for a couple of days and decided I wanted to get my lips done there with a girl that, um, I was familiar with. Someone else had gotten their lips done with her as well. ~Um, ~I also was not very happy with her work.
Looking back, I know that it wasn't [00:07:00] good work. ~Um, ~but in the moment I thought that they looked good, I guess. ~Um, ~and so anyways, yeah, so she was raving about Ella in our session together. And so whenever I go to this, um, spa to get the B12 shots, I'm thinking, oh my gosh. Like, this is just such a nice coincidence.
This is so awesome that I'm also gonna be getting Ella and B12 injected into me. And ~well, ~I left that night thinking that everything was gonna be fine. She told me to take some arnica and,~ um,~ to not shower that night. And I, I didn't, and I went to bed and I,~ um,~ went to work the next morning thinking that everything was gonna be okay.
And I remember around three o'clock the next day, I started to get like this really bad brain fog. Like I just felt super woozy and I just kind of felt like this cloud came over my eyes. I just didn't feel right and I couldn't put my finger on it, and I didn't really know what was happening. And then I had a date that night that I [00:08:00] had been pushing off and I was like, I can't cancel on this guy again.
And so I go on this date and I'm all the way in downtown Los Angeles, which is like an hour away from Calabasas, which is where I lived. And all of a sudden I feel like I'm gonna pass out. I start feeling terrible. I can feel my body creating a fever. And I was like, I'm so sorry I have to go home. Like I feel like I'm getting really sick here.
And I thought it was maybe just like an immune response to getting the injections. I thought like maybe I was just low immunity and I got a fever or it was a cold, or you know, just something, something simple and I just needed to like sleep it off. So I am struggling to drive home on the highway while feeling like I'm gonna pass out and I start to shiver and tremble really badly.
I have no idea to this day like how I was able to make it home all that way, feeling the way that I was feeling. It was a very scary drive for me. When I finally got back to my studio, I remember I turned the heater on. [00:09:00] I wrapped up in blankets. I took Tylenol and I was just trying to, you know, reduce my fever.
And,~ um,~ essentially that was my last day, like really ever being able to work a full day at work. ~Um, ~things got so bad after that and things progressed alarmingly fast. ~Uh, ~so basically I was able to reduce the fever. ~Um, ~some days I would have a fever, some days I wouldn't, but day by day what ended up happening is under my skin where I was injected, these small nodules began to appear and the nodules would grow to about a skittle size ball.
They were very painful. They would swell and then came the heat. Once the balls reached a certain size, the feeling of the skin was as if I was like being burned from the inside out. It was incredibly painful. And then they would grow and spread and spread and spread and eventually the skin would get so hot and so [00:10:00] thin that it would finally break.
And puss and flesh.
Dr. Kate Dee: So you got basically abscesses all over your body and it would burst through your skin.
Bea Amma: Yeah.
Dr. Kate Dee: A hundred of them.
Bea Amma: Hundreds. ~Um, ~I had open fleshed all throughout my upper body. ~Um, ~I, when I was actually in the hospital, I had anywhere from four, two to four wound care nurses and it took hours to do
Dr. Kate Dee: How did you get to the hospital? What happened?
Bea Amma: ~Yeah. So then, um, ~we kind of reached the point in the story of like, oh my God, something serious is going on here.
What do we do? Where do we go? I go to the ER and I'm like, Hey, I, I went and got these shots done. Is this necrosis? Like, because necrosis is the only thing I ever, you know, have heard of before. And I'm like, Hey, is this necrosis? Like, what's going on? And they're like, no, it's not necrosis. It's an allergic reaction.
You're gonna have to see a dermatologist. They sent me home, they like looked at me for three seconds and sent me home an ER at a hospital. So I schedule an appointment [00:11:00] for a dermatologist, and the dermatologist,~ um,~ looks at me and he was like, I have no idea if this is an allergic reaction or if this is an infection.
There's no way to tell right now. He does several punch biopsies on me and then sends those out to pathology. Unfortunately, with mycobacterium, rarely do doctors know to test for it. Um, and it's such a specific and difficult thing to test for a lot of the times in the beginning you even get,~ uh,~ false negatives and so.
~Uh, ~we were waiting for results. Nothing comes back positive, of course. And he is like, okay,~ um,~ I don't know whether I should give you doxycycline or if I should give you steroids. He chose steroids ~and that's where things got really bad. So things were already~ were already
Dr. Kate Dee: had in the end that was the opposite, that of something that was gonna help. ~'cause that's gonna help the Mycobacterium grow crazy. ~
Bea Amma: ~Yes, and that's exactly what happened.~ So things, things were,~ um,~ extremely painful. I was having, you know, my fevers daily. ~Um, ~at this point a coworker had taken me into her home to live with her, and,~ um,~ that's at the same time that I was prescribed the steroids. So I'm taking the [00:12:00] steroids, which are suppressing every other symptom that I'm having, the fevers, the pain, and I'm starting to feel like, oh my God, this is working.
This is like, I'm gonna be fine in two weeks. You know, like, not a big deal. And then on the backside, the steroids are actually putting the bacteria on steroids and the bacteria is growing rampant. And these flesh wounds on my skin are actually just getting extremely bad, like by the day. Um, it seemed like every day there was a new wound.
~Um, ~and at this point I had to have help getting out of bed. I couldn't put clothing on by myself, I couldn't shower by myself. I had to have assistants going to the toilet. ~Um, ~I really couldn't do anything, uh, by myself. And, and then in the interim of this time period, my dermatologist was like, well, I need you to go to UCLA hospital and they're gonna be able to do more advanced testing.
So we go to UCLA hospital, we do more advanced testing. The derm team there is smart enough to test for mycobacterium. And [00:13:00] um, we were lucky enough to get a pathology result within like two weeks, which for mycobacterium is still super early to get a positive because it can really take some time to find a positive.
The second we found out. ~Um, ~that it was mycobacterium. I, I couldn't wait any longer. ~Um, ~the same day that I received the phone call, uh, was a Friday was the same day that I ended up going to the hospital because I thought I was gonna die that night. ~Um, ~I had no idea what Mycobacterium was, and I remember getting that phone call and a doctor calling me like, oh, you have Mycobacterium.
I'm like, oh, microbacteria, that doesn't sound serious at all. And so I'm like, oh, okay. I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be good, you know, in like a month or whatever. It's, it's not something serious. And,~ um,~ then that night I, I felt,~ um,~ basically I, I think I was going into like a septic shock. ~Um, ~it was, it was so much that my one, it was like I was tapering down from the steroids because they told me, they were like, come off the steroids now. So the tapering off the [00:14:00] steroids was really painful. ~Um, uh, ~as you know, it's, it's not an easy thing to do, especially whenever you have an infection like that. And then all the real symptoms and feelings are hitting me. ~Um, ~and so my fever is like a 1 0 4. Um, I feel like my heart is racing and I was just laying there,~ um,~ at night, like, and praying to God like, please, like I have no idea what to do.
And I just hear this voice saying, it's time to go to the hospital. And I felt like if I didn't go to the hospital that night, I was gonna die. And so I woke up my coworker, the one that was, uh, taking care of me, and I said, I have to go to the hospital now. And I was admitted and that was,~ um,~ late May. And I didn't get outta the hospital.
Uh, I was in hospital care until September. First. ~Um, ~and so in the hospital is where they were able to,~ um,~ give me morphine, painkillers, uh, they were able to reduce my fever. ~Um, ~they gave me oxygen because it was really difficult breathing that first day. ~Um, ~and then I was just kind of like disabled and [00:15:00] asleep for most of my time in the hospital.
I slept like 20 hours a day. The nurses would come in and I was kind of like a ragdoll. They would plug up my medicine, they would, you know, clean my wounds for me. And I was just kind of like, you know, I was in excruciating pain, but I was also like in a state to where I, I can barely remember these things.
~You know what I'm saying? It was just ex It~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~and, um, micro~ mycobacterium can be very difficult to treat. So did they have to treat you with multiple antibiotics to get rid of it?
Bea Amma: ~yeah. ~Yeah. So, um, there was a lot of complications in the hospital. ~Um, ~one was the doctors trying to. I guess get through to a young girl like the severity of the situation. ~Um, ~and that I was gonna be on antibiotics for at least, you know, six to nine months. So they thought, unfortunately, I think there was so much mycobacterium that was injected into my body.
Uh, no one knew what was gonna end up happening. And I had a very young and inexperienced infectious disease doctor on my case originally, and she put me [00:16:00] only on three antibiotics. So while I was in the hospital, I was actually getting worse because the antibiotics weren't doing anything. They were IV antibiotics, obviously, through the port.
Um, so she put me only on three and then they consulted with.
Dr. Kate Dee: be a lot, but for, for your multi-drug resistant mycobacterium, it wasn't enough.
Bea Amma: Yes, exactly. ~Um, ~so when I actually,~ um,~ had a, the director of infectious disease step in on my case because I was not improving,~ um,~ I went up to eight antibiotics. ~Um, ~and so yeah, I was on eight different antibiotics, including Amikacin, which was incredibly difficult, tigecycline, worst medication in the world.
I mean, being on Tyga, tigecycline and Amikacin, you have the extreme vomiting constantly, which you already get from the other medications, but tigecycline is just another level of hell. And then Amikacin was so painful on my ears. I think I just have, you know, a susceptibility to the side effects of hearing loss for Amikacin.
And I was losing my [00:17:00] hearing at such a fast rate that we had an audiologist on my team. Who would measure my hearing every single week and every single week we would just see it drop. Um, I have permanent tinnitus for the rest of my life. I've lost 30% hearing in my right ear. ~Um, ~and I remember it just felt like my ears were bleeding sometimes, like I would hate, I would hate how noisy the hospital was.
I would, I would just like, can you please turn the beeping on the machines off? Can you just talk at a lower voice? I mean, they would come, they would come in the room sometimes and just be so loud. And I would just, I remember holding my ears because I was in so much pain from the Amikacin, and they had to, they had to pull me off the Amikacin a lot sooner than they would've liked to.
~Um, ~but Amikacin is the medicine that really got us the most headway in them. Beating the
Dr. Kate Dee: Yeah. So, so you got out of the hospital finally in September. and I know that it's been a long slog ever since then, and, and you [00:18:00] not completely. Even now, years later, not completely eradicated all the mic mycobacterium from your body. ~Um, ~for, for,~ um,~ people listening, it's a, we don't see mycobacterium infections all that often.
~Um, ~tuberculosis is also a mycobacterium a different one, and then there's a few other kinds. We just don't see all that often in the United States. and they can,~ um, ~wall themselves off basically in your body. So you can have sort of this smoldering walled off area of it where sometimes you just can't, the antibiotics can't get in there and so you have to like surgically excise that little nodule sometimes to get rid of it.
But if you've been injected over a hundred sites in your body, that's obviously gonna be challenging. Right. Especially if they kind of spread, it sounds like they spread a bit. Each one kind of spread into multiple nodules, so Yeah. Total nightmare. I'm really, I just, it's, I'm so sorry that this happened to you.
~Um, can you,~ can you [00:19:00] describe, you know, the, what you have residual, like the scarring or what it looks like?
Bea Amma: people now kind of say that my scars look like,~ uh,~ leopard or like cheetah marks,~ um,~ all throughout my body,~ um,~ or like a dalmatian. ~Um, ~but I have some interesting channels. Like I have like a nine centimeter long scar here for a channel that was created. ~Um, ~and then I have surgery. I have different looking scars from surgeries, of course, from like removing a lot of the tissue.
~Um, it's not a pretty sight. Um, my, ~my skin is alarming to any person that looks at it. ~Um, ~and it, it sucks. I mean, the hardest thing for me was looking at my. My own flesh, you know, eat itself alive essentially. And then kind of looking at that every day and wondering like, how am I ever gonna come back from this and what is it gonna look like?
I had no idea. And it took a total of nine months for my wounds to even heal in the first place, but really 11 months total [00:20:00] because of a surgery that I had at the nine month mark. And so I was dealing with open wound holes until 11 months in, and then of course, the six hours of daily IV antibiotic infusions for two and a half years.
~Um, ~and, and even, you know, so whenever I, I came off of antibiotics,~ um,~ in late 2022 to go on oral only antibiotics in,~ uh,~ January of 2023. What ended up happening was a very short remission, six months or less. And,~ uh,~ the mycobacterium had started res spawning.
Dr. Kate Dee: Ugh, I'd really like to,~ um,~ explore exactly who this person was and how this happened, because I think that that's really critical to understand for everybody at home to avoid people like this. ~Okay?~ Because this particular person is still out there. ~Um, ~and, and I,~ uh,~ I don't honestly know how that's possible.
So let me just from the medical [00:21:00] side, let me just break this down to like, talk about just exactly what went wrong. 'cause there were so many things here. ~I, um, for everyone listening, I actually met Bea well, we haven't met in person, but, um, but over the, over the phone we connected because, um, back in, um, January, a reporter reported on your case, and I didn't actually see that report, but she was interviewed but on NPR and I heard this report on NPR, um, and it described this and it was just sort of a general warning about med spas.~
~And I'm like, wait a minute. Well, you, you know, I was so infuriated by what happened. And I was like, well, why is there no, you know, discussion of, of how incredibly bizarre this was? Like I knew from just listening to that. Episode of NPR, that little article that the person who touched you didn't know anything about medicine because what they did was insane.~
And even if it had been real Kybella, it was insane. Um, but the fact that it spread, you know, it was,~ um,~ I'm, you know, it was clearly contaminated with Mycobacterium. The fact that they, you know, took illegally imported, you know, fake product that was tainted with bacteria and they put that all over your body.
That's, you know, even, even more insane. But, so, um, the place that you went, um, you, you said the name of the building that was at the time, what was that?
Bea Amma: ~and so they had rented out a studio of Salon Republics~
~in Burbank. ~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~But it wasn't a Salon Republic place, or was it? So it was at the time~
Bea Amma: ~It was, it~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Salon Republic. And since then, so this woman, her name is Maria Hernandez. And she now has a med spa called Trophy Body in, um, in LA or um, bell. Is that a town near la?~
Bea Amma: ~So here's the thing. Uh, Maria Hernandez, um, and co-owner, uh, Mary Golan, um, are are the, the owners of the spa, which. Um, you know, legally,~ I'm not even supposed to name them because I'm still in the middle of a lawsuit. ~Um, ~but at this point it's gonna have to happen because the lawsuit's not going anywhere.
And we'll explain that later on in the episode. so essentially what happened is,~ um,~ um, while I was in the hospital, California of department Public Health and safety has a,~ um,~ doctor that works within the hospital. Um, he is like one of the head,~ um,~ his name is Zachary [00:22:00] Rubin. And so he's kind of like a liaison as a doctor and as part of the Committee of California Department of Health and Safety, he opens up an investigation on my behalf.
While I was in the hospital, again, I had nobody to advocate for me. I hardly knew anybody in Los Angeles. I never had a single doctor saying, oh, did you call the police or were these people medical professionals? There was, there was never any kind of discussion on that part, and I thought things were being taken care of by California Department of Public Health and Safety.
Then,~ um,~ in around,~ uh,~ September. ~Um, ~of that year, California Department of Public Health and Safety calls me to tell me that they're starting in on the investigation. And so there's two parts of the investigation. They have to come to my studio and test the water in my studio and they call, called the Landlord ahead of time.
Obviously I wasn't living there anymore. I moved in with family, but they called the landlord ahead of time to go test the water in the studio that I was living in. And then of course they called,~ uh, ~trophy body, the, the Salon Republic's, um, [00:23:00] studio for them to go and schedule an appointment when no other consumers were there.
And of course, do testing and investigation in that in their office. Well, what ended up happening is when the California Department of Public Health and Safety Investigators arrived there, there was nothing they had completely gotten rid of,~ um,~ everything,~ uh,~ all materials, vials, anything that would prove that they're running basically, ~um, an~ an invasive clinic.
And,~ um,~ so after that, they ended up,~ uh,~ moving into another building. They had several locations at that point in time, and I believe now they only have, uh, one or two locations. But,~ um,~ I know that they have tried rebranding,~ um,~ and, and operating under other names and other people. So it's really difficult,~ um,~ to kind of keep track of them because they've been hopping around so much and because they've moved around, But, ~uh, ~Maria ~Hernandez,~ the one who is really,~ uh,~ trying to continue doing what she's doing. I mean, she does hyaluronic lip filler. ~Um, I ha~ [00:24:00] she's still offering the, the fat dissolving shots. ~Um, ~she does the lipo cavitation. ~Um, ~you know, and, and on Google it says that they're permanently closed because the California Department of Public Health and Safety, you know, they send this, it doesn't even enforce them to close, but they send this like, kind of like cease to practice or like, you need to stop, ~um, you know, doing any,~
They continued on. No one's keeping track of them to make sure that they're not offering these services. ~Um, ~and so again, they keep getting away with it because they keep hopping around. And so, ~um. ~Yeah, that's basically what happened. ~Uh, ~even though it says that they are closed,~ um,~ permanently closed on Google, they're still active and acquiring clients through social media and through word of mouth.
~Um, ~and there's been absolutely no consequences for, ~um, ~the, the business owners. ~Um, ~and it, it's really interesting 'cause even in the, the lawsuit now they're trying to say that it's my fault because I had a preexisting,~ um,~ autoimmune condition, which I didn't. ~Um, ~they're trying to basically pull any, any excuse as to why this was,~ uh,~ my [00:25:00] body's reaction.
~Um, ~which doesn't even make sense because they, I was injected with lethal amounts of mycobacterium.
Dr. Kate Dee: So the things that are very clear medically from this point of, for this story is that first of all, this person knew nothing about medicine, doesn't know anything about nursing, is completely unlicensed and is practicing medicine illegally without a license that is a felony in all states. So even if she didn't cause you any harm, it's still a felony.
And then to inject you the way she did. So what she did makes no medical sense. So first of all, Kybella is a. Bile acid that has been FDA approved to treat one thing only, and that is fat under the chin, submental fat. And there were studies that were done. You know, I was,~ um,~ all excited about Kybella when it first came out.
We got trained on how to do it. I did it for a couple years in the submental area, and it really doesn't work very well. So, first of all, it's [00:26:00] very painful when it goes in. ~Um, ~it causes a lot of swelling. The swelling lasts for about two weeks, and then it has, eh, middling results as far as dissolving fat.
Sometimes it works better than others. But the big thing about under the chin is that even if you successfully treat the, the fat, the skin tends to hang right where it hung before. So even if you've got no fat left there, it kind of looks the same. ~So, excuse me, I dropped that.~ I dropped Kybella years ago, and most doctors have, ~um, and.~
The idea of using it all over the body. It's very, very dangerous. Why? Because it dissolves fat. ~Well, ~besides the fat that we kind of don't like, none of us really do. But the,~ um,~ every nerve in your body is coated with myelin, which is fat. It's a fat coating. It's like the coating of any wire. If you have go into the back of your stereo and you've got electrical wires, if anybody has stereos anymore, that'll date me.
Um, but it insulates your nerves and Kybella can completely dissolve your myelin. And [00:27:00] so, ~um, ~it will really, not only is that extremely painful, but it may not go back so you can get permanent numbness or paralysis of a nerve. So, so doctors will not be just throwing that around willy-nilly and certainly won't be injecting that all over anybody's body.
And the reason I asked about burning is, is because Kybella burns. So like the idea that she. Injected you a hundred times with actual Kybella. Like I have a hard time believing that's what it was. That would would've really been painful. Um, and you wouldn't have been able to sleep through that.
So that's why I don't, I don't really think it could have been. Meanwhile, there's no way you would have a mycobacterium infection,~ um,~ all over your body unless it was in that vial that was injected. There's not a way that's medically ridiculous. That's a ridiculous scenario. So in order for that mycobacterium to be seeded all over your body, it had to have been [00:28:00] in the syringe, in the stuff they were injecting.
So the two things I take away from your story is one probably wasn't Kybella, two mu had to have been contaminated with mycobacterium. There's no way the water in your unit of your apartment, because maybe one site could have been, you know, if it was the water and you took a shower. Maybe one site could have been seeded, but not all of them.
That makes no sense whatsoever. So this person did this to you knowing that they were injecting something that they illegally purchased. They also knew they were illegally practicing medicine and they car caused you almost die and you spent over three months in the hospital. That is assault, which I think is also a felony.
Not that I'm a lawyer. Okay. So as far as I know, ~that's,~ that's two felonies plus the illegal purchase of any kind of medication from abroad. Even if it were real kiela and they purchase that from Europe, that's illegal too, but [00:29:00] clearly it wasn't. So, ~um, ~I, I just, I have, I really have a hard time,~ um,~ believing that this person has not like, been thrown in jail over what happened to you.
Bea Amma: I mean, you would think too, like with the amount of media coverage as I've gotten and the, the people that I've been in touch with and legislators and people that are, are, I guess, you know, Playmakers and, and. In helping me. No one has had success. The California Department of Public Health and Safety has put complaints, um, with the medical board,~ um,~ the board of cosmetology.
Um, they've notified people. I mean, I've been on I countless news networks at this point, and it's like, how come there hasn't been an arrest? ~Um, ~obviously like I was in the hospital and I had no idea to fill out a police report. I wasn't told to do that. I was my, my lawyers also. Thought in the beginning that this was gonna be some like big money case because we didn't know that they were practicing,~ um,~ medicine [00:30:00] illegally until, um, after so much discovery had been done that we find out that they're completely,~ um,~ fraudulent and uninsured.
And so the second we find out that there, um, uninsured, my lawyers lose all interest because there's no money in it for them. And at that point it was, you know, never once were, my lawyers like, okay,~ um,~ you're gonna have to,~ uh,~ file criminal charges or,~ um,~ like of course I asked about it and they're like, okay, well you'll have to contact the attorney general, which obviously has already been done by multiple people and I have never received a response.
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Yeah, and I, I,~ I wanna. ~Um,~ echo one point that you just made, that I've made on, on some previous podcast episodes, and that is when the, the person who does this to you is not only illegal but has no insurance because, you know, if you're not a doctor, you don't have malpractice insurance. And this is actually true of RNs as well.
So if there's an RN practicing without a me, uh, without a medical director that is also practicing medicine without a license and they don't have malpractice insurance either, [00:31:00] but the bottom line is if the person has no insurance, then you have no recourse. And then if something does really happen to you, there is no insurance to cover that.
And, and if the lawyers think, oh, there's no payoff, they won't take the case. ~Um, so.~
Bea Amma: And that's exactly what I've been going through. And there's two things that I wanna touch on there. So, ~um, ~you know, you can walk into any Salon Suites, salon Republics, any commercial, uh.~ ~~uh. ~Building where they have different offices or suites where a hairstylist, a tattoo artist, whoever can rent out these spots.
Right? And the amount of,~ um,~ RNs,~ um,~ or nurse practitioners that are practicing aesthetics,~ um,~ or even just ~um. ~Estheticians that are practicing aesthetics out of,~ uh,~ those rooms that they essentially just lease out,~ um,~ is pretty shocking knowing that there would have to be a medical director attached to their practice for them to even have malpractice insurance.
And so now looking back, knowing what I know, it's like, okay, uh, I'm seeing a lot of stories about the [00:32:00] vascular occlusions in the face and, and a lot of these people, um, practicing and,~ uh,~ pieces of tissue dying because they're now injecting filler in the nose and, ~you know, um,~ counterfeit products. like an influencer just had to have her lips completely removed because of counterfeit, uh, Juvederm that was injected into her lips.
And it's just really devastating. So, I mean, it's just kind of scary and it's a thing to watch, watch out for. ~Um, ~what I, what I don't wanna do, and like me spreading awareness is like screw over the good med spas. The people like you who have a good business, who are doctors and who are, you know, ~um, ~operating safely.
It just kind of sucks because it kind of puts this bad taste in everyone's mouth who finds out about these things. Like, how do I know what's real and not, and how do I know if this nurse actually does have malpractice insurance? You know, I just had a girl who worked at a med spa,~ um,~ submitted anonymous story a couple weeks ago stating that she begged,~ um,~ the medical director and the, [00:33:00] um, investor of the med spa that she worked at for proof of, of the malpractice insurance because of how many inappropriate things she saw go on in the spa, and she never got it.
After months of working there, they would never actually show her proof that they had malpractice insurance.
Dr. Kate Dee: Crazy to do this and not have it. I mean, that's, tremendous amount of liability to not have insurance. I, I think,~ um,~ everything you just said is really why I started writing the book and why I started this podcast is how do you know what's real and what's not? I, I don't think that by talking about it, you're gonna scare people away from the legitimate places.
If anything, you know, as long as you understand,~ um,~ what to ask and what to look for, then you can find the really great places. There are a lot of really great places. ~It's just, I would say that I, I, I said this to, um, my lawyer who is on the podcast last week. Um, you know,~ I think that well over half of the growth of the industry over the last 10 years has been people doing it illegally.
~And he's like, oh yeah, totally agree. So, um, and, ~and so what questions do you need to ask? So, you know, [00:34:00] obviously the first one is, you know, what is your credential, what's your license? ~Um, ~who's the medical director? ~Uh, ~every place has to have a medical director. So there has to be a doctor in charge. ~Um, ~and in some states that can be a nurse practitioner.
California is not one of those states. So in California you actually have to have a doctor,~ um,~ in charge, even if it's a nurse practitioner or pa seeing you. ~Um.~
Bea Amma: and that's where I wanna highlight this piece and how many stories I have heard of where the medical director puts, you know, their credentials on a med spa that a nurse or an investor operates. Happens
Dr. Kate Dee: all the
time. They rent somebody's medical license and why that doctor would do that. I don't really understand that. It's like quote unquote easy money, but it's not if something goes wrong. And, and I would, so that's why I encourage everyone, if you're going to a new place, not only ask who's your medical director, but ask to have a [00:35:00] consultation with the medical director.
Bea Amma: Or if they're on site. And again, it's alarming because it's like anyone can put a white coat on and look official. I mean, the people that did this to me had a white coat on too. And you know, you think that,~ uh,~ even in the anonymous story submission that the girl,~ um,~ sent me, it's like the doctor would wear scrubs and appear to be a medical professional and~ and was nothing other than an~
Dr. Kate Dee: Well, you can easily look up doctors. So there,~ um,~ and not only you can you look up, you know, from their,~ um,~ NPI, ~um,~ there's a national, I think it's provider index or physician index,~ um,~ but the A BMS, so the American Board of Medical Specialties,~ uh,~ has a lookup tool for every doctor. So you can see,~ um,~ what their board specialize, uh, what their board specialization is, and, you know, when they became board certified and if they've kept it up.
Um, and you can look up every single doctor and there the nursing boards have,~ uh,~ the same thing,~ uh,~ and those links are in, in the book. so I would a hundred percent look these people up and I would [00:36:00] ask to have a consultation with the director in charge. Now, directors are not always. There all day, every day.
~Um, ~and I, you know, I am the medical director in my own practice, and right now I'm in my office about five minutes away from my practice. And I, but I don't have any RNs. I have two PAs and a nurse practitioner who work with me. ~But, um,~ but I'm always available and we also have backup people. You know, my partner at the other location, she's always my backup.
And of course, in Washington State we have nurse practitioner independent practice. And, and so we have two nurse practitioners as backups as well. ~Um, ~so we always have an expert available,~ um,~ to be, you know, the medical director, God forbid anything, you know, goes wrong. ~Yeah. Um,~ but I think the, the key thing is ask to see the medical director and if that person is literally never there.
Then they're never there and they're not actually supervising anything. [00:37:00] And I would not go to that
place.~ Um, ~and if you ever, if you go to a place and,~ um,~ you can see a doctor or a nurse practitioner or a PA that is legal almost everywhere, pretty much, right? And they can do the initial assessment and diagnose you and make a treatment plan.
And then that treatment plan can be carried out by a nurse,~ uh,~ by a registered nurse. And some things can be done by estheticians as well, depends on the state. ~Um, ~but you can't just go see an RN or an esthetician and get a medical procedure done that's not legal anywhere in any state.
Bea Amma: ~Yeah. And that's, ~that's the thing that's really frustrating because I see so many girls on Instagram going to esthetician school and, and now they say, oh, I'm taking a, a certification course on injections and I'm gonna be able to start injecting lips soon under the supervision of a, you know, whatever, who lets them basically do it at the spa.
And it's just like, oh my gosh, we have to put a stop to this. Like, you know, it sucks. I get it that the barrier of entry to become a nurse is so, so [00:38:00] high. But it's like, first off, the, the woman,~ um,~ who,~ uh,~ did my procedures, in, in botched, uh, she works at a obviously, um, a med spa. ~Um, ~everything is totally legitimate, but she had to work in the ICU for like three years.
And, and for many people it's like, okay, well if you don't have experience in the hospital and if you don't have like true knowledge of anatomy and everything that goes on in the face, you should not be injecting. It is not as simple as putting hyaluronic acid in lips. There is so much that goes on and into the face that, I'm sorry, but if you are not a nurse and did not, you know, go through the rite of passage to have that kind of rank, then you don't deserve to be
practicing
Dr. Kate Dee: and I a hundred percent agree with you. And, and the thing is that when you don't know something, you don't know that you don't know it. And that is what's happening across the country with, you know, in certain states it's more than others where. Unethical people are running like weekend courses and they will literally train anyone and [00:39:00] they convince these people who they, by the way, they're, those people are being ripped off too.
'cause they're paying over many
thousands of dollars.
They think they're investing and learning a skill that they're, they're gonna be able to go out and do. And that place who train them, convinces them that they now have a skill, which by the way, it takes years to learn how to do these things. Not a weekend.
but you know, and they have this expectation that, oh, they can go out and practice and they have no idea what they don't know. They don't know the science and physiology, they don't know what they're doing is completely illegal. And, and they end up, you know, purchasing illegal products, setting up illegal systems,~ um,~ and really harming people.
Um, and, and I know that,~ uh,~ you've, you've had all these reports. I, I know that we've talked about the lady who is. Killed in a med spa in Texas last summer. ~Um, ~then other people who've had, you know, they've been basically disfigured by filler,~ um,~ had vascular occlusions. ~Um, ~so it's, it's just,~ uh,~ very frightening.
So for now, until VIA and I [00:40:00] change the world and make this better place and safer for everyone, safer, definitely if you're going to any new place, ask all those questions and, and it's okay to pursue it. And there are some great treatments and I'm, we're, neither of us is saying that the treatments are bad, but they have to be done by qualified people who really know what they're doing and know how to practice medicine.
Bea Amma: And you know, looking back,~ um,~ I was just a 23-year-old girl. I had no idea about the world of cosmetology, aesthetics, anything. I mean, thank god I wasn't trying to schedule, you know, liposuction or breast implants or something more serious because I wouldn't have known what to look for in that situation either.
Which is a whole different topic because then we get into the, the issues of,~ um,~ cosmetic surgeons, which is not a thing that actually exists and how there's no recourse for,~ um,~ PE doctors practicing,~ uh,~ plastic surgery,~ um,~ under the title of cosmetic
Dr. Kate Dee: actually
I have scheduled for next week in [00:41:00] a initial session with a, a facial plastic surgeon,~ um,~ to talk exactly about that. So we will be covering that in a future episode.
Bea Amma: That's amazing and it's gonna help out a lot of people because, you know, as someone who has been on botched, I have personally been able to see and be around people that have been botched so badly by cosmetic surgeons. ~Um, ~and there's no board of, of, of cosmetic surgeons. Like those surgeons aren't, I mean, there's dentists out there doing lipo.
It's ridiculous.
Dr. Kate Dee: crazy world.
Bea Amma: you would think, and it's like when people hear this, they're like, no way. And it's like, yeah, it literally happens. And, and a lot of the time people don't believe me at first, whenever I start spreading this information and I say these things and I'm like, look, I know how crazy it sounds.
It's just like the most frustrating thing is truly the, the people in power and the governing powers are not. Shedding light on this. I mean, I think that [00:42:00] stories like mine are, like Jennifer's the woman who died in Texas from the, ~um,~ IV drip clinic. And I mean, I know, I know like right now off, off the top of my head, over five people who have died from IV drip clinics.
And,~ um,~ none of them had a medical director on site. And, um, at least three of them were not actually, um, medical professionals injecting into the vein. They were just people who were trained over the weekend, how to inject a, a needle into a vein. And it's just so sad. ~Um, ~and, you know, we don't, we hear about these things on the news and you know, it comes in one day and kind of loses its hype a couple days later, same things happened to me on all the news channels that I had been on.
Oh my God, that sucks. And people forget about it a couple days later. But we don't ever end up hearing about, okay, ~well ~what happened? What's happening to Michael Gallagher and the woman who was practicing medicine under his
Dr. Kate Dee: Well, we're following up with that on this podcast and ~my, uh, lawyer who is on, uh, last week. By the time this airs, it'll be probably two weeks ago. Um, he's in Texas and he, uh, keeps getting updates on that case. Uh, we both believe that there are gonna be both criminal charges and also, a probably a long wrongful death lawsuit.~
~Um, related to that case. And I don't know what's happening with Michael Galla ~at the moment. Michael Gallagher got his license back. He's practicing [00:43:00] anesthesia, but he can't monitor, he can't,~ uh,~ supervise others. And as an anesthesiologist, that makes it very, very difficult to practice because most anesthesiologists have to be in a hospital where they're supervising.
~Uh, ~nurse anesthetists usually like up to five at a time. So for him to actually be employable as an anesthesiologist, he actually might not be so much.
Bea Amma: See that's super valuable information. 'cause like even for me as a consumer who's like interested in these things, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a lawyer, I'm just an influencer, you know, with a platform that, uh, is trying to spread information. But I mean, like, that's such a valuable piece because a lot of us, like we don't know about like what happens.
Um, there was a, a another death and a IV drip place where,~ um,~ everything was, is, was fraudulent. And again, in a situation like that, it's like, what's the recourse? I have no idea if the girl who did that and who, who murdered that man is actually going to prison. ~It's really hard to ~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~really~
~love to get the details of that from you and then I can kind of follow up and see what's going on on the medical side. Um, I do, um, we're kind of getting off topic now and we're kind of getting a little long on time, so I was kind of hoping we could, um, wrap up, but we can continue. Um, with anything that you wanna include on your, show, so, um, but~
Bea Amma: ~I'll ask some~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Okay.~
~But let's, um, okay. Yeah, let's do that. You wanna ask me a few questions? Yeah.~
Bea Amma: ~Yeah. Um, okay. So, uh, before we wrap up everything, I honestly wanna share information about your book that's coming out called Med Spa Mayhem.~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~that'd be great. Thank you.~
Bea Amma: ~Yeah. So tell me, like, obviously I know why you're inspired to write the book and I, I can't imagine the amount of work and research that had to go into that. Um, do we have an official release date and where can people find the book?~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Oh, yes. Well, the official publication date is June 11th, so coming up very soon, you can pre-order it now, basically anywhere. But, uh, Amazon's probably the easiest place. Um, so if you go to Amazon and look for Med Spa Mayhem, uh, it'll be there. Um, I am for anybody in the Pacific Northwest. I am having a, uh, release party on the ninth, uh, in West Seattle.~
~So you can go to my website, it's just, uh, dr kate d.com or med spa mayhem.com. That'll get you there too. Um, and I'll have information on that. Um, and yeah, and then of course, this podcast, uh, med Spa Mayhem, and that's pretty much everywhere where podcasts, um, where are listened to and what,~
Bea Amma: ~And what can, what can our viewers expect to learn in the book?~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~well, you know, if you're, if you're really interested in, in Bea's story here, um, then probably the rest of this book will be really interesting to you as well. Um, I, I tell my story really just to know. Why I know anything about this stuff, uh, because I was in breast cancer for 16 years before I pivoted into aesthetics.~
~And I just talk about how I got there and, um, why aesthetics is so crazy. Honestly, kind of explain the background of that and then tell just, uh, just a lot of crazy stories from my own experience. Um, it's just so nutty. Like you're, you're after a long, long line of crazy, awful, ridiculous stories and, and I just had to write about it.~
~I, I just, I, you know, I, I just couldn't believe that um, this stuff is just going on and nothing happens. Nothing seems to change and although there are a lot of laws governing the practice of medicine and governing medical spas, there really has just been a lack of enforcement. Um, so it's not that there aren't laws, there are quite a lot of 'em actually.~
~And I think the problem is that not only is it different in every state, so it can be very confusing, especially if you move from one state to another. Um, but there's just no enforcement until someone's dead. And, and even for you, you know, you didn't die. And so nobody's in jail.~
Bea Amma: ~People didn't, because I didn't die. People didn't take it serious. Sometimes I'm like, dang it. Like, ~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~So, um, so yeah, I'm, I'm pretty passionate about this and um, so I just did it. A lot of people have asked me like, well, what made you write the book? And I'm like, I just, I can't believe people don't know.~ And I think one of the things, I had a patient [00:44:00] recently who's a lawyer, and she came in for toxin and, and she said, you know, she'd had it before.
I was like, oh, where'd you go? And she said, oh, well there's this girl down the street from my office, and I'm like. A girl, like was it a nurse? I mean, and honestly, this is a very, very smart attorney who had no idea who injected her skin with, you know, she didn't know what she had or who did it or what the license was.
So if, if very, very smart, well educated attorneys don't know what questions to ask, how's everybody else gonna know?
Bea Amma: it's true. It's so true. ~Uh, ~un unfortunately, I mean. A lot of smart people are gonna be the victims of,~ uh,~ people who are fraudulently and illegally practicing because we assume that we are being protected and we assume that these things are enforced. And because they're not, ~um, ~people get away with it.
And like you said, probably over half of the growth in the industry,~ uh,~ in the last 10 years has [00:45:00] been, you know, people practicing illegally. ~Um, and so that kind of leads me to my next couple of questions. Um, on, on the legal side.~ I mean, do you think that maybe one day we could achieve some kind of federal regulation even on, on the cosmetics industry?
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Well, ~that's a, it's a really interesting question, right? ~Um, ~I think that our country overall is moving more in the direction of states' rights and individual states governing things. And we've seen that in other spheres of medicine. ~Um, ~however, do I think that there's gonna be a lot more regulation at the state level?
I definitely think so. Even in Texas, which is kind of the wild west of medical aesthetics because of the death of Jennifer Cleveland, I think there's quite a bit of interest,~ um,~ among some politicians, uh, there. And so I actually think that there will be more regulation at the state level and that it may very well become safer.
~Um, ~that is my hope and that's really why I'm talking about this stuff. That, and maybe there'll be a Netflix documentary and we'll be able to change [00:46:00] the world 'cause everybody will know, but
Bea Amma: yeah. ~And, okay, so here's a, a huge question. ~Let's say, for example, there's this, there's this woman who's going, uh, she has a huge following on Instagram. She,~ um,~ injects people's lips with a hyler on pen. I showed you her page and,~ um,~ you know, let's
Dr. Kate Dee: That is not legal. Okay.
Bea Amma: but again, what do you do? Do you call the police?
Do you file a complaint? I mean, like when people come across these illegal practices, what is the right steps for us to take and do we even know the
Dr. Kate Dee: Yeah. Well, so I asked that question of, uh, my lawyer a couple weeks ago. ~Um, ~so different states are different, but here are the places to send the complaint or fill out the complaint form. So first of all, the medical board, every state has a medical board and that governs doctors' licenses and PA licenses because doctors and PAs practice medicine.
They also, in many states, care about people practicing medicine illegally. So if you report an illegal person to the medical board, the [00:47:00] medical board can send a cease and desist to them. The next is the nursing board. Nursing boards is the same thing, but for RNs and nurse practitioners and any other. A person called a nurse in that state, and they also will send cease and desist or, you know, correction letters to any nurse who's practicing outside the scope or doing something illegal.
and then the, the next place is, you know, a the police, you know, if you have, if you're assaulted in file, a police report,
Bea Amma: when you say assaulted, what would that include?
Dr. Kate Dee: Well, you know, basically,~ um, uh, ~I don't have the definition of assault, but basically when someone does something to you,~ uh,~ with the intent to, you know, harm or maim, you know, If you are committing a felony in doing so. So you know, this woman who touched you was committing a felony, just treating you at all.
Even if you had been happy with the results, what she was doing was a felony. ~Um, ~and then she knew that she was [00:48:00] injecting, you know, stuff that wasn't legal,~ um, ~and then caused harm. You almost died. ~Um, so, uh, you know, if you,~ you know, if you, if you do something to someone without informed consent, so even as a physician, if I were to do any kind of medical procedure on you without proper informed consent, that is also assault.
So if you came to me for something and I did it to you, even though, like, and, and, and didn't go through all the risks and benefits and alternatives, right? That is what informed consent is all about. That's mandatory. ~Um, ~so I, I cannot do anything to you unless you sign a consent form that says, I understand what I'm going through, and yes, I'm willing to do that.
Otherwise it's assault. ~So, um, so you can,~ you can call the police if something like that happens to you. ~Um, ~and then also,~ um,~ you can file a complaint with the Attorney General. And so, ~uh, ~you know, the Attorney General, a lot of times they, they have certain focus, you know, that's a political, [00:49:00] uh, position and a lot of them will have a different focus of what they're passionate about.
But,~ um,~ consumer affairs is the,~ um,~ purview of the Attorney general. So consumer fraud, fraudulent activity, all of that. So this would be,~ um,~ under their purview and I would, you know, file a complaint there. ~Um. ~And, and certainly the medical board is, you know, for if, if somebody actually has a license also.
Bea Amma: And I wonder like, because I mean, I never got any follow up nor from the California Department of Public Health and Safety about the complaints that were made on my behalf. ~Um, ~whenever I was in the hospital, I never received any follow up. ~Um, ~I just, it's like, you know, in my, in, in my specific case, I'm still kind of.
Confused on what next steps and what direction to take. And I, I know that's something that I'm gonna have to figure out on my own. But,~ um,~ I would say, you know, if there's, if there's anyone who's listening [00:50:00] that is going through something similar or, you know, if they were,~ um,~ if they believe that they went to, um, a, a med spa illegally, I mean, I would say my biggest regret in this situation is not filing a police report.
~Um, ~and I would highly look into that. Like, it, it doesn't hurt. Right? You know, if, if you're, if something is stolen, you know, whether it's. Something minor in your bag and your wallet wasn't in it regardless, just file a police report, have that police report there because you know, when this first happened to me, I thought it was gonna be a minor breakout for two weeks and I was gonna be fine.
I never thought that something like this could happen out of it. And I just think that the safest thing that you can probably do is just have that for your records. And maybe that's me projecting based off of my own experience, but I, I really wish I would've
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Well, ~ look, you were in the hospital for months. The last thing, I think the last thing you're thinking about when you're finally getting outta the hospital is [00:51:00] going back and filing a police report. At that time, especially, you're 23 years old, you had really had no way to know what the right thing was
Bea Amma: Yeah.
Dr. Kate Dee: to do.
Bea Amma: Yeah, I mean, it's amazing how much I have learned and how much so many people have learned about the, the corruption of the industry through, you know, stories like mine. ~Um, ~and so I just have to say thank you for doing what you're doing and for spreading your awareness and,~ um,~ your knowledge and for writing your book, and also for taking the time to,~ uh,~ care about my story.
I mean, you know, you got, the viewers don't know this, but you've spent a lot of time on the phone with me helping properly guide me in the right direction. And,~ um,~ it's just really important that not only we share what people need to be doing prior to their appointments, but if something does go left, that they also understand the best steps to take so that they don't en end up in a spot like I'm in.
Dr. Kate Dee: Yeah. Yeah, it's just been [00:52:00] quite an incredible story.
Bea Amma: So next steps,~ um,~ you know, just for people who are probably curious on if and when I'll ever get justice, I mean, most likely not, obviously there's, there's nothing to collect on in the case. The statute has already ran out. Also, if I were to try to still pursue them criminally,~ um,~ and I have a, a court date with them,~ um,~ at the end of May, uh, to see if they'll settle.
~Um, ~which again, I have a medical lien of a million dollars, um, just for my first year of medical treatments. ~Um, ~and so which, which that means that,~ um,~ even if they did have malpractice insurance, and even if I did have a judge grant me,~ um,~ a judgment of $4 million, the medical lien takes first dibs on any money won.
And so out of that $4 million, the $1 million medical lien would go to, you know, Cigna health insurance. Then after that. The lawyers would take their 30% and then after that I would be left with whatever is left over. And that's how lawsuits work in [00:53:00] those cases. Um, unfortunately though, because they were uninsured and they have no assets in their name, um, there's nothing to come after.
Uh, there's a clause even in, in California that exists called a Liz Pendants, where you can put it on a person's house. ~Um, ~unfortunately the loophole there is that they can sell the home before the Liz Pendants goes through. ~Um, ~and they don't even own a house. So, which is already, uh, you know, it's pretty difficult to own a house in, in California.
And the people who did this are just. They're noddies pretending as if they're nurses and, and medical professionals. So, um, I'm gonna be essentially, uh, left with,~ um,~ my thousands and thousands of dollars of out of pocket medical debt that I have to pay and continue paying because I'm still not cured. I probably have a year or two left of fighting this.
And then,~ um, um, ~on top of that, the consequences of living with. Screwed up skin for the rest of my life. I mean, I will always [00:54:00] have a body full of scars and it's really difficult. It's difficult being young. It's difficult for how it's changed my health. It's difficult for how it's changed my quality of life.
I was a really successful young girl before this happened to me. And,~ um,~ you know, I'm thankful that I haven't given up completely on my dreams. But,~ um,~ you know, there's, there's a lot of days where it's like just difficult living in my body and accepting the fact that all of this happened just for one stupid mistake, one stupid appointment that I had scheduled.
And if I could take it back. Of course I would, you know, no one wants to go through something like that, and I just wish I would've been more careful. So I, I would share that message because if there's any young girls that are listening or mothers of young girls who are thinking about going and doing something, you know, I would highly recommend like, look into things really deeply.
~Um, ~and just make sure that something like this doesn't happen to you [00:55:00] if you can control that at all.
Dr. Kate Dee: Yeah, that's really, really good advice. I mean, take a pause and don't go with, don't go forward without doing a whole lot of research first.
Bea Amma: Yeah. Yeah. And I, I know it can get exciting because you're sitting in that chair and, and they're like, oh, ~well ~we have a deal today, $50 off disport. And you're like, oh my gosh, $8 a unit or whatever. And, and you get excited and you think, oh, I should die right in. Those are sales tactic tactics. I was upsold too.
~I was only supposed to get it in my ~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Yeah. I mean, that's~
~like,~
~one shot you're done. by way, B12 is not crazy at all. B12, um, can, can really help people. Um,~
Bea Amma: ~Oh, I loved B12 when I had it done correctly the first time. I thought it was great. ~
~anyways, um, that,~ those, that's my closing statement. ~Um, ~I just wanted to include that in information out there ~and, and, um,~
Dr. Kate Dee: ~Well, ~thank you so much, Bea. It's really been a pleasure talking with you today. And we should come back here and update people as, as things happen.
Bea Amma: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Kate. I really appreciate everything that you're doing and,~ um,~ thanks for hopping on and, and also making this happen for my YouTube. They're gonna really appreciate this. Yeah, thank you.
