A mammoth $25 million Australian [$16 million USD] settlement is being offered to more than a thousand women who say their lives were “ruined” by a clinic that offered “breast jobs for a cup of coffee a day”.
The Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia signed off on the settlement against the Cosmetics Institute this week, led by 12 women who acted as lead plaintiffs in the class action that began in 2017.
The 12 women will receive a total of $2.81 million [$1.84 million] USD between them with 10 million dollars [$6.6 million] legal and administrative costs.
The rest of the money – about $ 12.19 million [$8.03 million] – will go to more than 1,000 others who have signed up to the lawsuit.
The popular chain offered breast augmentations for just $5990 [$3,950 USD].
In 2015, a woman who attended the Bondi clinic went into cardiac arrest after being given a high dose of local anaesthetic.
Another is now suffering seizures, while a third woman had to undergo emergency surgery.
The Cosmetic Institute is currently in liquidation.
In approving the settlement, Judge Richard Weinstein thanked the women for coming forward and acknowledged the “permanent harm” they had suffered as a result of the proceedings.
“Without their participation, this representative process, which will benefit so many women, would not be possible,” she said.
“In this case the expert reports detail the plaintiffs’ breast augmentation surgery and have their private anatomy examined and photographed numerous times.
“It is reasonable to expect that the inconvenience and embarrassment caused by this invasion of their privacy was magnified by the intimate nature of the claims.”
One size fits all
While approving the settlement, Judge Weinstein also noted the women’s claims that the clinic operated under a “one size fits all” approach when it came to breast augmentation.
“[This system] was allegedly used regardless of the patient’s anatomy, including the patient’s lumpy or drooping breast and the associated requirement for different or additional surgical approaches and techniques,” he said of TCI’s Parramatta and Bondi Junction clinics in Sydney and Gold Coast. .
In 2015, one of the clinic’s patients Sarah Jaremenko told Channel 7 that one of her implants is now sitting in her armpit.
“Now I have torn ligaments, torn muscles, implant displacement, I need a full reconstruction and it’s just a mess,” he told 7News.
Another woman Narelle Bayon said she had neurological damage as a result of her $6,000 breast job.
“It’s pressing on the nerves in my arm and it’s causing pain every day, I’ve got pins and needles,” she said.
