PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - A beauty salon employee impersonated a doctor and talked a woman into "mesotherapy injections" for cellulite that gave her scars, "major swelling" and severe pain, the woman claims in Multnomah County Court.
Monica Merlino says GRF Oregon Medspa Holdings, in Tigard's Washington Square Mall, told her she needed eight "mesotherapy" sessions, and that the injections were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Tigard is a distant southern suburb of Portland.
The phony doctor assured her that injecting plant extracts and vitamins into the middle layer of her skin was safe, and when she complained of the scars, swelling and pain, the spa recommended more treatments, Merlino says.
She says spa employees promised that a doctor would make the injections, but "the person who performed the injections was not a doctor as she had been led to believe." Merlino says she asked to talk to a doctor about her complaint, "but was told that the doctor was no longer with the company."
Merlino demands $43,000 in damages for fraud and negligence. She is represented by John Wilkinson of Newberg, Ore.
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