More than skin deep
Venezuelan plastic surgeon Dr. Daniel Slobodianik uses a pen to mark out future incisions on a patient. The operation he is planning is not to make her more beautiful, but to reverse a damaging cosmetic procedure she had in the past – the injection of liquid silicone into her buttocks.
Injections of the substance can cause severe physical damage and they became illegal in Venezuela in 2011. Nevertheless, they have been used by many in the country looking to enhance their natural assets.
Maria Carolina Parejo chats with friends a day before surgery to remove liquid silicone from her buttocks.
Patients wait to be seen in plastic surgeon Daniel Slobodianik's office.
The doctor talks to one of his patients about surgery to remove liquid silicone.
Blanca Castellano shows Slobodianik the deformation caused by liquid silicone injections in her lips.
A girl plays with silicone breast implants as her mother waits to be examined.
Slobodianik consults with three patients, all of whom had liquid silicone injections.
He sits to examine one of them.
The doctor looks at X-rays of 30-year-old Evelin De Aguilar before surgery to remove the liquid silicone from her body.
Slobodianik plans incisions on De Aguilar before beginning the procedure.
A nurse wheels Maria Carolina Parejo into an operating room.
Slobodianik performs surgery on Parejo.
A surgeon holds out a ball of silicone removed from a patient.
Surgeons extract damaged tissue and liquid silicone from De Aguilar.
A nurse cleans Parejo after surgery.
Doctors put a body corset on her after the operation.
De Aguilar lies in bed, recovering a day after her procedure.
She rests after returning home.
De Aguilar walks her dogs while recovering from the surgery.
