A beauty therapist has been found to have breached a patient's rights by failing to follow proper procedures in treating a patient for patchy skin tone.
Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Theo Baker. Photo: SUPPLIED
The patient was burnt so badly that she developed a skin infection and now has permanent scars.
Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Theo Baker said the woman paid about $200 for intense pulsed light (IPL) rejuvenation treatment to improve her skin tone.
However, her face was left burned and swollen and she developed an infection. Three days later, she saw an accident and emergency doctor, as the therapist could not fit her in.
Ms Baker said the unnamed therapist breached patient rights by failing to obtain relevant details and do a patch test before proceeding and by failing to provide adequate care afterwards.
"It's a bad outcome - and had a patch test been performed and she'd allowed seven days for her to see if there are any adverse outcomes, she may have been able to avoid this, because it only would have been on a small part of her skin."
The beauty therapist has been ordered to undertake further training and apologise to the woman.
