Woman's Lips Doubled In Size, 'Were Going To Pop' After Filler Treatment

A Greater Manchester, England, nurse claimed her lips swelled and cracked after a lip filler treatment done at her living room.

Billie Roocroft, 23, decided to get a £120 ($153) treatment, which was administered by a beautician in her living room. However, about 30 minutes after the beautician left her home, her lips started to swell. She said her lips doubled in size and looked like they “were going to pop.”

“My lips swelled that big within half an hour of the beautician leaving, they looked like they were going to pop. My top lip was a lot bigger while my bottom lip was touching my chin – I looked like The Elephant Man. My lips were stinging and felt really sore from the stretching, I felt like crying as my neck, jaw and throat were hurting too,” she said, Metro reported.

She soon contacted the beautician who told her it might be the side-effect of the numbing cream and that the reaction was not caused by the fillers. The beautician then advised her to go to a hospital.

“My mum looked after my little girl who was two at the time while I went to hospital, as I was putting her in the car she was a bit scared and just stared at me. I went to A&E with my hands over my face. When the receptionist asked what was wrong I couldn’t talk so just showed her,” Roocroft said. “I was really upset when I was checked out by the doctor as he told me he couldn’t promise that it would go down, I thought I was going to be stuck like that forever."

Roocroft was given a steroid injection and a course of painkillers and the next morning she noticed her lips weren’t large. However, she had some swelling and cracked lips.

“When I was in hospital I started to see them going down and when they went down fully they went back really thin, it was like I’d never had them done. After all that, the filler didn’t even stay. I got up to go to work the next day and noticed my lips had gone down but my cheeks still looked like a hamster. All the skin was peeling as lips aren’t meant to be that big. I ended up getting what looked and felt like cold sores and blisters – they were tingling and itching,” she said.

She said she decided to get the fillers after seeing an offer on Facebook.

“I saw someone had shared an offer shared on Facebook post, she came to my house did it in the living room while I was lying down on the sofa. She wore gloves, I signed a consent form and she put the numbing cream on. She did the top lip first and my eyes were streaming. After they were done I put Vaseline on my lips and was told that if there was any swelling I could use hot and cold flannels. The next day the skin was peeling from my lips as they aren’t meant to be that big,” she said.

She also warned people about the side-effects of fillers and said, “I wouldn’t advise people not to have them done, I’m not against it, I just don’t think they look good massive. Don’t go to just anyone. Make sure they are qualified and registered nurses, they know exactly where to inject.”