A mammoth $25 million settlement is being offered to more than a thousand women who say their lives were “ruined” by a clinic that offered “boob jobs for the cost of a cup of coffee a day”.
The NSW Supreme Court signed off on the settlement against the Cosmetic Institute this week, led by 12 women who acted as the lead plaintiffs in the class action which was launched in 2017.
The 12 women will receive a total $2.81 million between them with $10 million of the settlement payout going towards legal and administrative costs.
The rest of the money – approximately $12.19 million – will go to more than 1000 others who have signed up to the lawsuit.
The popular chain offered breast augmentations for as little as $5990.
In 2015, one woman who attended their Bondi clinic went into cardiac arrest after being given a high dose of local anaesthetic.
Another now suffers seizures, while a third woman had to undergo emergency surgery.
The Cosmetic Institute is currently under liquidation.
In approving the settlement, Justice Richard Weinstein thanked the women for coming forward and acknowledged the “lasting harm” they had suffered as a result of the proceedings.
“Without their participation, this representative proceeding, which will benefit so many women, would not have been possible,” he said.
“In this case the expert reports refer to the plaintiffs’ breast augmentation surgery in detail and they have had their private anatomy examined multiple times and photographed.
“It is reasonable to expect that the discomfort and embarrassment caused by this intrusion into their privacy was magnified because of the intimate nature of the claims.”
One size fits all
While approving the deal, Justice 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 employed regardless of a patient’s anatomy, including the patient’s breasts being tuberous or ptotic, and the associated requirement for different or additional surgical approaches and techniques,” he said about the TCI’s clinics in Parramatta and Bondi Junction in Sydney and on the Gold Coast.
In 2015, one of the clinic’s patients Sarah Jaremenko told Channel 7 that one of her implants now sits in her armpit.
“I’ve now got torn ligaments, torn muscles, implant displacement, I need a complete reconstruction and it’s just a mess,” she told 7News.
Another woman Narelle Bayon said she had neurological damage as a result of her $6000 boob job.
“It’s pushing on nerves on my arm and that’s creating pain every day, I’ve got pins and needles,” she said.