Seoul, South Korea – When Alex seeed into the price contrastence between rhinoplasty, normally understandn as a “nose job”, in the United States and South Korea, she thought that flying to the Asian country for the sproposery was a no-brainer.
“$30,000 or $6,000, the choice was evident,” Alex, who asked not to be referred to by her authentic name, telderly Al Jazeera, describing her decision to undergo the procedure in the country “understandn to be number one in plastic sproposery”.
But less than a year tardyr, the amemployer set up herself grappling with disjoine complications.
The imarranget from her sproposery had enduremament protruding thcimpolite her skin, necessitating aascfinishncy removal back in the US.
“Had I understandn what I understand now, I would have never done it,” she said, visibly troubleed as she portrayd her ongoing struggle with complications, including a crooked nose and apparent hole that insistd accurateive sproposery.
“I don’t leank I’ll ever go back to Korea to do sproposery becaemploy of this.”
South Korea has the highest rate of plastic sproposery procedures per capita in the world, according to Expert Market Research, with a taget worth $1.7bn in 2023.
The sector is foreseeed to grow to be worth $5.19bn by 2032, driven by the global well-understandnity of Korean pop culture, or “hpartneru”, which has populoccurd Korean beauty standards and fuelled interest in Korean cosmetic procedures worldexpansive.
In the capital Seoul, the rich didisjoine of Gangnam is awash with clinics and hospitals one-of-a-kindising in cosmetic procedures and sproposery, proposeing everyleang from double eyelid sproposery to facial contouring, liposuction and breast augmentation.
While they also cater to local customers, international forendureings are a highly lucrative part of their business.
Last year, South Korea enticeed 605,768 non-livent foreign forendureings for medical services, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, with the highest numbers coming from Japan, China, the United States and Thailand.
Plastic sproposery accounted for 16.8 percent of procedures – more than 114,000 sproposeries – making it the second most sought-after medical one-of-a-kindity after dermatology.
But betidyh the glossy tageting and viral social media videos luring medical tourists from around the world, foreign forendureings face a multitude of barriers to access, misdirectation and dishonest trains, putting their health at hazard, an spendigation by Al Jazeera has set up.
One of the hugegest disputes for medical tourists is the language barrier.
In key tagets enjoy China and the US, prospective forendureings normally turn to a variety of online platcreates for advice, including uncover chat groups, Reddit pages, and even niche forums ostensibly pledgeted to topics enjoy summarizeer handbags.
These murky digital spaces are filled with anonymous employrs converseing procedures while exchanging clinic and doctor proposeations, procedure tips, so-called bdeficiencyenumerates and translator reach outs.
The plenty of unverified increateation and deficiency of accountability produce it challenging for employrs to discern authentic experiences from potentipartner unfair accounts or cobvious publicizements.
They are also a hunting ground for illegitimate brokers who can produce substantial cotransferrlookions for spropose referring clients.
While ask foring to foreign forendureings is legitimate, it insists a rulement licence. Eligible companies must have a sign uped Korean office includeress, support specified capital and carry insurance.
Hospitals face more stringent insistments to be able to legpartner get foreign forendureings, including having at least one one-of-a-kindist per medical department and higher levels of medical maltrain insurance.
When posing as a potential forendureing on a number of platcreates, Al Jazeera was approached wilean minutes by anonymous facilitators who acunderstandledgeted they did not have the insistd certification.
In 2020, the dangers of the industry were thrust into the spotweightless when Bonnie Evita Law, a heiress to a Hong Kong create empire, died during a liposuction procedure at a Seoul clinic.
Law was increateedly presentd to the hospital thcimpolite an illegitimate broker.
The operating sproposeon, tardyr uncovered to be an orthopaedic one-of-a-kindist rather than a plastic sproposeon, was accused with professional tendlessness resulting in death. The outcome of the case was not accessiblely uncovered.
While only certified one-of-a-kindists can officipartner call their trains “plastic sproposery clinics”, any licensed medical doctor in South Korea can legpartner carry out cosmetic sproposeries as Korean medical law does not redisjoine doctors to only toiling in their one-of-a-kindised field.
In a more recent case, a Chinese woman died in January lowly after receiving liposuction sproposery at a clinic in Gangnam.
The problem of Chinese cosmetic sproposery forendureings descfinishing victim to unscrupulous and unshielded trains has become so prevalent that the Chinese embassy in Seoul in January publishd a see alerting its citizens to “be wary of advertising and hazards” and “attfinishbrimmingy pick intermediary agencies”.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare, thcimpolite the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), runs a centre for increateing illegitimate ask foring of foreign forendureings.
The number of increates has ascfinishn convey inantly – from 11 cases in 2021 to 16 in 2022, to 59 last year.
An official at KHIDI, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that “cases regulated as mistrusted violations are subject to pursue-up meadeclareives such as fines and penalties”.
“Those validateed as illegitimate ask are administratively disposed of by local rulements in accordance with the law,” the official said.
However, when pressed for particulars on how many cases were actupartner spendigated or processed, the official did not supply figures, only stating that the number would “inevitably be drop” than the number of cases increateed.
Kang Ki-yoon, a lawproducer with South Korea’s ruling People Power Party, last year liftd trouble about the deficiency of clarity around the handling of cases, proposeing that despite the increase in increates, there materializeed to be little pursue-up action.
“It’s a national shame for foreigners seeking our country’s world-class medical technology to descfinish victim to unmoral trains by some medical institutions,” Kang said, calling for more rigorous regulatement of such cases.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a friend of Law, the destopd Hong Kong heiress, conveyed trouble about the hazards associated with overseas sproposeries.
“With social media glamourising Korea’s beauty industry, people treat getting sproposery in Korea as casupartner as getting beauty treatment. They should be conscious of the dangers and the difficulties of seeking recourse if complications occur,” the friend telderly Al Jazeera.
Another trouble is the prevalence of misdirecting and potentipartner illegitimate scrutinizes.
While Korean medical advertising law prohibits the employ of swayrs for testimonial tageting, the train is expansivespread, especipartner involving foreign forendureings, which complicates executement.
Al Jazeera scrutinizeed a restricted that insistd a foreign swayr to produce multiple promotional videos and social media satisfyed about a plastic sproposery clinic in trade for free sproposery, with the clinic dictating particular likeable language to be employd in posts.
The clinic insistd that that swayr produce the satisfyed before understanding the final results of the sproposery, stiputardyd that it would scrutinize all satisfyed before its free, and joind self-promisediality terms that effectively stoped disclodeclareive of the aided nature of the sproposery.
The swayr deinhabitred the insistd satisfyed but conveyed reluctance to employ particular likeable language insisted by the hospital as she was not satisfyd with the results of the sproposery.
The hospital claimed that she had not satisfyed her concurment and insisted that she pay for the sproposery and other associated costs, including airfare.
However, according to correplyence from her lawyer, these menaces abruptly stopd when the hospital was reminded about the illegitimateity of such trains under medical advertising laws.
‘Conveyor belt’
The case is not isotardyd.
Al Jazeera spoke to three forendureings who claimed they were proposeed discounts in trade for likeable scrutinizes.
Claiming injures for a “medical accident” where “injure occurs to a person’s life, body, or property due to the medical train of a healthattfinish supplyr” is possible thcimpolite dispute mediation, but both sides insist to concur to arbitration.
Alternatively, a legal case can be filed, but the process can be lengthy and costly.
Many big clinics boast on their websites that they are “accident-free”.
Such claims are difficult to validate, as forendureings who split pessimistic experiences accessiblely can face legitimate consequences under South Korea’s defamation laws, which can penalise even statements that are real.
Alex, the American who travelled to South Korea for a rhinoplasty, said she set up herself rushed into sproposery wilean an hour, despite reservations and the absence of an in-hoemploy translator.
Post-sproposery, she increateed disjoine complications, including disfigurement due to the imarranget protruding thcimpolite her skin, necessitating aascfinishncy removal sproposery in the US.
“I felt aprohibitdoned, enjoy I was on a conveyor belt,” she said.
“Once they had done the sproposery, they didn’t want to deal with me any more. They kept saying I was still healing when I knovel someleang was solemnly wrong.”
Frustrated by inample afterattfinish and unable to shielded a refund, Alex wrote a scrutinize with ptoastyos on the Gangnam Unni app, a well-understandn plastic sproposery scrutinize platcreate tageted as Unni outside South Korea.
Eager to elude pessimistic accessibleity, the hospital proposeed a brimming refund, but only after she concurd to delete the scrutinize and sign a self-promisediality concurment.
The write down, which was scrutinizeed by Al Jazeera, prohibits her from converseing the satisfyeds of the concurment and her experience on any platcreate, with fall shorture to adhere resulting in financial penalties.
On Gangnam Unni, employrs can only sort scrutinizes by “recent” or “proposeed”, with no selection to filter from lowest to highest rating, making it difficult to find pessimistic scrutinizes.
Al Jazeera achieveed out to Healing Paper, the company behind the app, for comment on their handling of pessimistic scrutinizes and the train of forendureings being presdeclareived to erase critical feedback, but getd no response.
While hazards exist, many forendureings have likeable experiences with plastic sproposery in South Korea, and efforts are being made to better shieldedty and transparency in the industry.
One such initiative is the Gangnam Medical Tourism Centre, run by the Gangnam didisjoine office in Seoul.
As a accessible entity, the centre does not get cotransferrlookions or produce referrals, but instead, aims to help foreigners steer the system and join with professional, licensed medical translators.
The centre supports a enumerate of vetted medical institutions, providing an includeitional layer of security for foreign forendureings seeking reliable attfinish.
As part of its vetting, the centre verifies that hospitals are sign uped to treat foreign forendureings, have one-of-a-kindists in each department, support proper maltrain insurance, and have ample facilities and staff to regulate aascfinishncies.
The centre also directs on-site examineions of partner institutions and supplys training for medical clarifyers.
An official at the centre emphasised the convey inance of cautious ponderation when seeking medical procedures aexpansive. “We propose forendureings to prioritise their health and shieldedty above all else.”
“While cost is a factor, it shouldn’t be the primary ponderation when choosing a medical supplyr or procedure,” the official telderly Al Jazeera, seeking anonymity.
Jeet Dhindsa, who runs a licensed medical tourism facilitation company that has also helped forendureings who fell prey to illegitimate brokers and dishonest trains, stressed the convey inance of due diligence. “It’s convey inant to validate the credentials of both the medical facilities and any intermediaries joind in the process,” Dhindsa telderly Al Jazeera.
“It’s always best to reach out people who are see-thcoarse about who they are.”
Reflecting on her experience, Alex said: “Make declareive you have someone who can aid for you if leangs don’t go as intentional.”
