College warns of 'grave risk' from B.C. woman accused of performing illegal cosmetic injections

WARNING: Some people may find the photos in this story disturbing.

The body that regulates doctors in B.C. is asking the courts to step in and shut down a woman accused of performing illegal cosmetic procedures that "may be extremely dangerous."

Svetlana Rotter of Coquitlam also allegedly threatened to call the police on a customer who complained on Facebook about her lip job, according to a petition filed in B.C. Supreme Court last week by the College of Physicians and Surgeons.

The college alleges it has informed Rotter on multiple occasions that she is breaking the law by calling herself a doctor and performing procedures like Botox and filler injections, but their letters have had no effect.

"Ms. Rotter's conduct puts the public at grave risk," says the petition, filed April 14.

The college is asking for a permanent injunction preventing Rotter from practising medicine illegally, along with special costs for "reprehensible" conduct.

Rotter has yet to file a response. She did not respond to a request for comment made through the Instagram account where the college alleges she advertises her services.

According to the college's petition, Rotter advertises services including thread lifts, in which a suture is implanted under the skin and pulled tight, lifting up wrinkled or sagging skin. If done improperly, the sutures can become infected or poke out of the skin, and there are risks of scarring, hair loss and nerve damage, the college says.

She also allegedly offers a treatment often advertised as "liquid rhinoplasty," in which dermal fillers are injected into the nose to change its shape. The procedure can lead to skin death or even blindness, and B.C. naturopaths have been banned from doing it because of the potential for serious side effects.

The photos posted to Rotter's alleged Instagram account also include numerous images of lip injections and other procedures involving the injection of dermal fillers.

In B.C., none of these procedures can be performed by anyone apart from a qualified medical professional — in most cases, a doctor, dentist, naturopath or nurse working under the supervision of a physician.

"Many of the procedures depicted on Ms. Rotter's Instagram profile may be extremely dangerous if performed by a non-registrant," the petition says.

Allegations of threats against client

The petition lays out the experience of one woman, referred to by the initials GN, who says she paid for lip injections from Rotter on multiple occasions, paying her a total of $1,100.

"Ms. Rotter's practices with GN reveal her lack of training and expertise, and aspects of Ms. Rotter's conduct raise serious concerns about cleanliness and infection control," the college says.

The woman told the college she didn't see Rotter wash her hands before the injections, and that Rotter took before and after photos using her phone without changing her surgical gloves.

GN's final visit on Dec. 8, 2020, was an attempt to fix an asymmetrical lip job from a previous appointment.

Afterward, "GN still thought her lips looked uneven. GN became teary-eyed, to which Ms. Rotter responded that if she was going to cry, she had to leave," the petition says.

The college alleges Rotter messaged the next day demanding $250. A second email from the same address, purporting to be from an assistant, "threatened to post GN's name, photograph and phone number to Instagram, and to contact GN's employer, unless she paid Ms. Rotter the $250," the petition says.

GN posted in a private Facebook group about her experience with Rotter, according to the petition, and "later received an email from Ms. Rotter's email address that threatened to contact a lawyer and the police if GN did not remove the Facebook post."

None of the allegations in the college's petition have been proven in court.