Andressa Urach: ‘I Hope My Words Serve As A Warning To Other Women’

After facing near-death consequences following elective plastic surgery, Brazilian model Andressa Urach is speaking out about the dangers of going under the knife and what drove her to seek to change her already beautiful body.

While having a procedure to “enhance her thighs,” something went incredibly wrong. The 27-year-old beauty Urach – once a major advocate of plastic surgery in Brazil – had to be placed on life support after going into septic shock during the procedure. Brazil’s Plastic Surgery Society claimed that Urach was given a dose of silicone gel 200 times the amount that the government permits, and that doctors allegedly used a hydrogel not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Septic shock occurs when a massive amount of bacteria enters the bloodstream and the body is unable to fight the infection, thus usually leading to multiple organ failure. Urach went into respiratory failure as a result, which is why she had to be placed on a ventilator.

The reality star minces no words when she speaks about her motivations for the procedure.

“I regret putting poison in my body, mostly because of having too much vanity. I do blame society, which unfortunately holds a standard of beauty in which you have to be perfect.”

Prior to her near death experience, Urach had been a staunch proponent of enhancement procedures, including botox, anabolic steroid use, silicone implants, and a nose job.

The former runner-up in Brazil’s “Miss Bum Bum” contest told Rede TV that while her life was spared, she is still having to deal with consequences. During the interview, her legs could be seen bleeding through her skirt. She says she hopes one good thing comes from her horrifying ordeal.

“I hope my words serve as a warning to other women.”

Brazil’s standards of beauty are a bit more strict than many societies, according to women who model there. Experts and activists worry that Brazil’s culture of beauty has numbed women to the dangers and encouraged them to experiment with riskier, untested materials and methods, and even unlicensed practitioners. Sara Winter, a women’s rights activist, sent wishes for Andressa’s speedy recovery.

“They are selling us these plastic surgeries, these synthetic injections like it was any other product.”

In fact, the silicone injections, vaginal lip reductions, and botox are so popular and plentiful in Brazil that it’s been described like “a trip to the mall.” Unfortunately, many of the people who supply these services are not physicians and are completely unlicensed, no more than street vendors.

Though Urach has not disclosed where she had the plastic surgery done that nearly killed her, there are plentiful businesses that could have carried out the procedure in Brazil.