Criminal charges have been filed against a spa owner in Greensboro, North Carolina in a case that is likely to also produce civil lawsuits. Lauretta Cheek is charged with causing kidney failure in people who received injections of Silskin, a cosmetic drug that is supposed to be given only under a doctor’s proscription. Her spa, Altmed of the Triad, has been shutdown. The case may shed light on the shadowy world of so-called “medspas.”
Cheek faces felony charges, including fraud for allegedly using a Chapel Hill doctor’s name to get hold of prescription drugs. Medspas are becoming more common and more controversial since they seek to “treat” conditions in a qausi-medical fashion.
Cheek faces also a charge of practicing medicine without a license. In torts, if sued, she will be held to the standard of a professional doctor in determining whether she was negligent — not a medspa owner.
One twist, brought to my attention by Lex Alexander, is that Silskin may not have been available for use, click here.
These things do need to be regulated, even among physicians. Any doctor can open this type of lucrative practice and certainly many spas have gotten on the moneywagon.
It is a strange contradiction to risk one’s actual health for the “goal” of LOOKING healthy ie, young. That is not a good trade off. Bowing down to the one ideal of male and female beauty in a particular culture isn’t an example of using your own heart and mind. It’s possible to expand your own vision of what beauty is, and it’s a lot safer as well!
Mr. Turley: The maker of SilSkin says that the women could not have received SilSkin injections because SilSkin is not on the market. I wrote about this in February: http://www.news-record.com/node/14370.
Thanks.