A beauty queen left with a horrifically mutilated face after botched plastic surgery has been awarded nearly GBP 50,0000 compensation by judges in Russia.
Yulia Tarasevich, 44 – runner-up in the Mrs Russia-International contest – told the court she had turned to surgery to hide the signs of ageing.
She paid GBP 3,000 for a facelift, a cosmetic correction of the eyelids and a mini-liposuction at a private clinic in the city of Krasnodar in southern Russia.
But after the ops – carried out by surgeons Khaled Omar and 45-year-old Andrei Komarov – Yulia was unable to close her eyes or even smile.
Evidence photos of the model taken after the ops show her with bulging eyes and massively hollowed-out cheeks.
The mum-of-two told the court: “I came to them with a beautiful healthy face.”
Both surgeons denied any wrongdoing and say Yulia’s reaction to the surgery was caused by a “genetic condition”.
The Leninsky District Court of Krasnodar heard how she spent GBP 20,000 of her own money unsuccessfully trying to correct the surgery.
Judges ruled that the procedures had caused “irreparable harm” to Yulia’s health, according to local media.
Yulia – from Sochi – had originally asked the court to award her RUB 35 million (GBP 343,000) and plans to appeal the awarded sum of RUB 5 million (GBP 49,000).
She said after the ruling: “I don’t know why two people operated on me, but in my case it was the exact opposite of the saying ‘one head is good, but two is better’.
“Neither of the clinics even apologised to me for the fact that their doctors disfigured me.
“Neither of them offered me to do anything at their own expense that could really help me.
“I have already spent a lot of money on rehabilitation, but neither of them cares at all about this, or, indeed, about me, about my pain and suffering.
“Now these people who dare to call themselves doctors, who took the oath ‘Do no harm’, live in peace, sleep, drink, eat and travel to conferences, sharing their invaluable experience. And everything in their life is good.”
Surgeon Komarov still faces up to six years in prison on criminal charges of having violated surgical procedures during the operation, an accusation that he denies.
