Arrest in Greensboro Spa Probe Could Happen Monday

[okarol]

Arrest in Greensboro Spa Probe Could Happen Monday

Last Edited: Monday, 17 Mar 2008, 11:42 AM EDT

GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) -- A Greensboro spa owner could be served arrest warrants as early as Monday after patients allegedly suffered kidney failure from treatments.

Police say three patients were given injections at Cheek's Altmed Spa owned by Laura Cheek on Dec. 22 of last year.  Officials say all three patients suffered kidney failure as a result of injections given by the spa.

Investigators with the health department say there is no evidence and a medical doctor on staff was present at the time of injections.

A detective says if Cheek is convicted, she could face jail time. 

http://www.myfoxwghp.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=6052622&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[twirl]

why would a spa give you shots

[paris]

Would you believe, not one word on the news here.  We aren't that far from Greensboro, you would think something like this would make the news here.  Crazy.  And scary. 

[okarol]

Wow, the injections were given for buttocks-enhancement injections. Here's more info:

Wrong material ID’d in cosmetic injections
By Lex Alexander
Staff Writer
Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008 3:00 am

GREENSBORO — Three women who developed kidney failure after receiving cosmetic injections in December at a Greensboro spa could not have been injected with SilSkin, its developer says.

That's because SilSkin isn't being manufactured and you can't buy it, Anna-Sophia Leone, a spokeswoman for the product's developer, said Friday.

Moreover, Leone said, all material left over from a 2003-04 clinical trial is under quarantine and in secure storage.

The Guilford County Department of Public Health first reported that the women who developed kidney failure after undergoing buttocks-enhancement injections at the Altmed of the Triad spa had been given SilSkin.

After the women fell ill, the health department banned all injections at the facility.

As of this week, the conditions of the women, who are from Illinois, Maryland and Washington, are as follows:

• One patient was hospitalized for 10 days but did not require dialysis.

• A second patient began dialysis after her diagnosis and was in the hospital 13 days. A month after admission, she was still on dialysis and a kidney transplant was being considered, but she is now reported to have normal kidney function and is no longer on dialysis.

• A third patient began dialysis and was hospitalized for 14 days. Her dialysis was discontinued a week after her discharge from the hospital.

Merle Green, the county's public-health director, said Friday that spa operator Laura Cheek had identified the injected substance as SilSkin. Efforts to reach Cheek at Altmed were unsuccessful.

The health department has said the injections were not given by or under the supervision of a physician and therefore amounted to practicing medicine without a license, a criminal misdemeanor.

It has provided information to Guilford County District Attorney Doug Henderson, who is weighing whether to file charges.

Henderson said Friday that whether or not the injected material was SilSkin would not affect any decision on charges.

SilSkin was developed by Therapeutic Silicone Technologies, the clinical-research division of the nonprofit Orentreich Foundation for the Advancement of Science. The group conducts biomedical research.

Green said her department still needs to determine what the women were injected with to try to ensure that no one else is harmed.

"Our aim all along has been to identify exactly what the (material) was that was the problem, track down the origin and see if it was possibly contaminated back at the factory or whatever," Green said.

Contact Lex Alexander at 373-7088 or lex.alexander@news-record.com

http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080217/NRSTAFF/359913345