Hanoi - Vietnamese police have charged two people with conducting illegal plastic surgeries after the death of a woman who was having her nose and eyes reshaped, a policeman said Monday.
"We arrested Huynh Trung Hien and charged him and his girlfriend Hang Thien Kim on Sunday on charges of violating medical regulations," said Hoang Cong Quang from the police department of Dalat, 250 kilometres north of Ho Chi Minh City.
The couple, both 23, confessed to the police that they had conducted nose and eyelid surgeries on about 10 people until the death of Tran Thi Rot, 52, in November last year.
Rot died from anaesthesia shock a few hours after her eyelid surgery, according to the policeman, who said neither Hien nor Kim had attended medical school.
"People here knew that they conducted surgeries illegally but accepted it because it was convenient and cheap. Otherwise, they have to travel to Ho Chi Minh City for a plastic surgery as no beauty
salon in Dalat has the service."
If convicted with violating medical regulations, the fake doctors will face a prison term of up to 15 years. They were not charged with murder because the death of Rot was ruled an accident, Quang said.
Cosmetic surgery among both men and women has been gaining popularity in Vietnam, with nose jobs and eye surgery to appear more "Western" among the most popular procedures.
Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City last year closed down several private beauty salons and clinics offering plastic surgery after two women died within a month after complications from breast enlargement procedures.
