in bad blood

Fountain of Youth

one of four hong kong women hospitalized for septic shock after a cosmetic treatment typically administered to terminal cancer patients has died, prompting hong kong's health department to reexamine the currently lax laws that make it difficult for women to tell the difference between legit medical procedures and risky/improbable rip-offs.

a forty-six year old woman died one week after receiving dc-cik therapy from hong kong's dr beauty centre. she and three other dr patients were taken to hospitals after suffering headaches and diarrhea that turned out to be symptoms of septic shock, an often deadly blood infection. needless to say, that was not what they paid for.

True Blood?

what is dc-cik therapy, you ask? according to the hong kong health department, it's a risky procedure involving the 'concentration and processing of blood taken from the person and subsequent infusion of the mixture back into the patient' that is usually administered to patients with metastatic cancer who have few other options left. 

according to china daily:

components of blood

based upon a claim that 'growth factors' can be released from blood platelets through laboratory procedures, clients had their blood extracted, treated and reinjected into the skin to reduce wrinkles and ostensibly to encourage revitalization. the plasma was also said to be available for home use, in the form of 'essence oil'.

a stem cell treatment was also offered promising benefits beyond 'better-looking skin'. the founder of dr group, stephen chow heung-wing, said in a video interview that stem cells, cultivated from the same person's fat tissues, could increase overall vitality if infused through intravenous injection.

guess vitality didn't increase after all.

fash'on... BAM!