Chinese woman disabled after getting breast implants with cattle DNA
What's the story
A Chinese woman spent about ₹2.8cr on breast implants that left her severely disabled. The implants, she would later discover, contained DNA of cattle and moose.
The procedure was first introduced to her by the owner of a local beauty salon in 2017 as an innovative breast augmentation technique.
A Beijing clinic had developed the method and claimed to extract and cultivate the patient's collagen before reinjecting it into the breasts to create a "self-derived, self-used" result with no rejection.
Marketing claims
The procedure was marketed as simple and safe
The woman, identified as Lingling, went to the Beijing Creating Medical Cosmetic Clinic with the salon owner in September 2017.
The clinic's head surgeon Bai Jin assured Lingling the procedure was simple and safe.
However, she started feeling pain and a foreign object sensation in her breasts after the surgery.
Lingling underwent nine surgeries, including implant insertions and repairs over six years, costing about ₹2.39 crore.
Medical complications
Lingling discovered leakage and deformation in her breast implants
By 2023, Lingling realized her breast implants had started leaking and had deformed. In 2024, she decided to have them removed and tested at a Shanghai clinic.
Doctors found foreign injected material during the procedure that had damaged her body. Other patients who had undergone similar procedures at the Beijing clinic also found DNA from camels, bats, and gorillas in their implants.
A medical institution categorized Lingling's breast deformity as a severe disability causing lasting physical and psychological distress.
Legal hurdles
Lingling's quest for justice has been complicated by the closure
Lingling attempted to claim compensation for her suffering but was unable to find either the clinic or the beauty salon.
The Beijing Creating Medical Cosmetic Clinic that conducted her surgery had its business license canceled and was the subject of 398 medical malpractice disputes.
Its chief surgeon, Bai Jin, was also not registered with medical authorities.
Lingling reported the case to the Beijing Municipal Health Commission in March 2025.