Family handout Two people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter following the death of a woman believed to have undergone a non-surgical Brazilian butt lift (BBL).
Alice Webb, 33, died after being taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday after falling unwell.
Gloucestershire Police said it had been called by the ambulance service at 11:35 BST on Monday and an investigation, led by the major crime team, was ongoing.
The two arrested people have been released on police bail.
Save Face, a national register of accredited practitioners who offer non-surgical cosmetic treatments, said this was the “first case of a death caused by a non-surgical BBL in the UK”.
The treatment is designed to make buttocks bigger, more rounded or lifted and sees fat or dermal filler injected into the buttocks to change size or shape.
While non-surgical BBLs are not illegal in the UK, last year Wolverhampton City Council barred a company from carrying out the procedure after identifying risks associated with their processes, including blood clots, sepsis, and the potential for the death of body tissues.
Five local authorities in Essex and Glasgow followed suit and have banned certain companies from carrying out liquid BBLs in their area.
‘Crisis waiting to happen’
Save Face’s director Ashton Collins said the organisation had supported 500 women who had suffered complications from the procedure.
Ms Collins said: “Liquid BBL procedures are a crisis waiting to happen. They are advertised on social media as ‘risk-free’, ‘cheaper’ alternatives to the surgical counterpart and that could not be further from the truth.”
Save Face has criticised non-healthcare injectors carrying out liquid BBLs, saying they were often unable to identify and manage the complications of their clients and often misdiagnosed abscesses, and tissue necrosis as bruising.