Restylane at Elase Spa in Lake Mary Caused Permanent Scarring

On May 18th, 2015 I went into Elase Med Spa in Lake Mary to have my Restylane injections. This is a common procedure for me, with no prior reactions or allergies. I had my nasal folds and lips injected by Jessica, who was very sweet, slightly aggressive, but confident. By the end of the night, my nose began to turn blue, but I went to sleep as usual.

When I woke up in the morning, my entire nose and above the lip area were black and blue. Extremely alarmed, I got in touch with the office and was told to take Aspirin and that they will contact the nurse. By noon, they had me come into the office, but to my surprise only to do a warm compress and give me a few words of encouragement. I own a spa, and I am a busy esthetician, so as you can imagine my appearance is everything. I had to apply very heavy camouflage makeup not to scare the clients, but by nighttime, it was beyond scary. I texted a few pictures to the nurse, and was told to come into the office immediately. My child in tow, at 10pm, I went to the office to have Hyaluronidase injected in order to dissolve the filler. I suffered vascular occlusion.

What is Vascular Occlusion? This is caused when the dermal filler is either injected into an artery or around an artery to the point that the blood flow is reduced or completely stopped.

The treatment should’ve been started first thing that morning, but wasn’t, because they failed to have Hyaluronidase in the office, due to it’s cost. Any office that performs injections MUST have it on hand. Jessica kept apologizing to me, said that this has never happened before and that the medical director, Dr. Gonzales was not getting back in touch with her, so she has been in contact with her previous employer, and Google! She was so stressed, I was having to comfort her.

The procedure of dissolving Restylane is extremely painful. In addition to injections, I had to apply nitropaste in order to increase blood circulation, which also causes unbearable burning sensation.

This continued for days. She couldn’t tell where there was still product, the doctor never called and the tissue above my lip began to go through necrosis. I was missing work, I could no longer cover the affected area with makeup and my overall morale was low.

By Saturday I was still in pain and it was Memorial Day weekend. I came into the office for more injections, but everyone was on vacation! They asked another injector, who had already left to open her own practice, to come in as a favor. I knew her, she injected me before, and I trusted her, but imagine my surprise when she just couldn’t find the Hyaluronidase in the office. She also tried to reach the doctor with no success, so I left.

That day Dr. Gonzalez called me from a blocked number and left me a vague voicemail about my injury, but no instructions on how to get back in touch. Keep it mind, it has been almost a week.

My face took forever to heal, and I am left with a permanent scar. It affected my business, my personal life and my social life. I had the procedure done before an out of town wedding that I was attending, and I was embarrassed the entire time I was there.

Do yourself a favor, research the place you are going to. I should’ve known not to trust them. Dr. Gonzales performed liposuction on me two years before, leaving me uneven and very lumpy, I went into his main office a number of times, trying to resolve the issue, but even then he never bothered to see me. I didn’t think a routine injection could go so wrong, but it did.

Since then, I have had numerous injections, and even a correction to his liposuction, all of which have turned out great. They made a huge mistake and they never even acknowledged it, but I have a permanent scar to remind me of their negligence, every day.