Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyPEORIA, AZ -- You can still see the scars from Mary's plastic surgery. No doctor is to blame, just Mary herself.
“One word that sums it up is 'nightmare',” said Mary, “Insane, I can't believe what I did.”
Mary did not want to use her real name.
In search of fuller lips and smoother skin, without the high cost, she turned to the Internet.
“By the following day, it was just completely inflamed - my whole face. It just looked like horrible blisters,” said Mary.
What she thought was medical grade silicone was actually personal lubricant.
Doctor Richard Fisher is a Cosmetic Surgeon in Peoria. He said even using proper silicone on your own can be dangerous, hazardous and permanent.
“The cheapest way can often be the most expensive and the most disastrous,” he said.
The ABC15 Investigators found many items online that you would normally only find at a doctor's office including defibrillators, respirators, and epi-pens.
Anyone with a credit card can buy IV bags -- some college kids filled them with alcohol.
Many of these items would require a prescription and a medical degree.
We even found one item that our doctor called bio-hazardous waste.
It was used silicone breast implants. They were up for auction and, there was a bidding war. And we won.
The woman who sold them told ABC15 that she had them removed to get saline implants instead.
“As far as implanting them again,” said Dr. Fisher, “I don't know of any doctor in the country who would even consider that.”
There are also at-home kits on the Internet. We saw a website for nose thinning devices and professional grade acid peels.
But, Dr. Fisher warned, “Think twice about doing anything invasive.”
Mary is constantly reminded of that every time she looks in the mirror.
“I should have been just happy with the way I looked.”
Is any of this against the law?
Anytime you get something through a prescription, it is illegal to give it to someone else. In fact, it's in the fine print on many prescription bottles.
And if insurance pays for it, then giving it to someone else could be insurance fraud.
