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.
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.
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!