Man ‘broke off engagement over fiancee’s botched cosmetic surgery’

A view of Dubai where an Arab woman took a polyclinic and a surgeon to court demanding $111,000 in compensation over a botched surgery that disfigured her nose before her fiancé broke up their engagement. (Shutterstock)

• Wife-to-be sued polyclinic and surgeon for $111,000 over disfigured nose
• Medical experts’ committee holds clinic liable for woman’s permanent disability

DUBAI: A man broke off his engagement with his wife-to-be after botched cosmetic surgery to her nose left her with disfigured facial features.
The Arab woman, who also quit her job and lost interest in marriage, took the Dubai-based polyclinic and the surgeon to Civil Court demanding $111,000 in compensation against her physical, emotional, moral and financial damages.
In 2020, the complainant visited the polyclinic in Umm Suqeim area seeking minor plastic surgery where the surgeon treated her with a Botox injection and a small filler to reduce the size of her nose.
A day later she revisited the clinic complaining of a swollen nose and headache. The surgeon told her to treat the problem with ice. As her pain increased and the swelling worsened, she returned to the polyclinic where the same doctor gave her two injections, pain-killers, and an ointment to treat the wrinkling and black lesions in her face.
Several weeks later, the surgeon called the woman into the clinic to meet with another surgeon, who cleaned the injection spot, which had turned into a scab, and treated it with ointment and a bandage.
Court records obtained by Arab News said the fiancee felt ill while heading back home in a taxi and suffered severe bleeding before the driver took her to the nearest government hospital.
In 2021, after a medical report confirmed that she had been subject to malpractice, the woman filed a complaint against the polyclinic and the surgeon before the Dubai Public Prosecution.
Prosecutors commissioned a committee of health experts from the Dubai Healthcare Authority to examine the case. The committee decided that the surgeon committed a medical malpractice and was accountable for causing a 10 percent permanent disability to the complainant’s nose that, according to documents, became disfigured.
According to the committee’s findings, the surgeon was unfamiliar with certain technicalities that any doctor with the same specialty would be expected to understand.
The health experts committee also deemed the polyclinic liable since it permitted the “incompetent surgeon” to treat the Arab woman and cause her a permanent disfigurement.
In her civil lawsuit before the court, the plaintiff said her fiance ended their engagement after her face was disfigured, and she later suffered a mental and emotional breakdown, quit her job and lost hope that she would ever marry.
In December, the primary court ruled against the defendants and ordered them to pay $14,000 in compensation.
The claimant appealed the primary verdict before the Appellate Court that upheld the previous judgment in April.
Court sources told Arab News that the appellate ruling remains subject to appeal before the Cassation Court.