This woman decided to have plastic surgery because she wanted to wear a bikini after the birth of her fourth child. She decided on a Pounds 2,400 minor liposuction operation at the private 17-bed Broughton Park Hospital.

What transpired after: the 40 year-old, mother of four spent six weeks in a coma after a plastic surgeon perforated her colon and small intestine nine times during what should have been a straightforward operation. She is scarred for life and has had more than 20 further operations to try to correct the damage. At one stage, doctors put her chance of survival at only 30 percent.

Canada lifted its ban on silicone breast implants last month. A few weeks later, the United States has followed suit.

CNN tells us more:

The FDA is allowing silicone breast implants to be sold again, 14 years after they were removed from the market by the same agency over questions of safety.

The approved silicone implants are made by two companies, Inamed Aesthetics, now a part of Allergan, and Mentor.

The FDA says these implants are approved "for breast reconstruction in women of all ages and breast augmentation in women ages 22 and older."

It seems like every week, doctors come up with all new uses for Botox.

Recently, researchers from the Mayo Clinic discovered that there will be minimal scarring if a facial wound can be treated early with botulinum toxin. WCBS-TV tells us more:

One New York City plastic surgeon said he's been using Botox that way for years.

"The basic mechanism of Botox is that it gets muscles to relax," surgeon Michael A.C. Kane said. "So if you can relax the muscles around the cut there's less tension on the cut so it heals better."

It’s not really written down in corporate policies that their personnel should possess good looks to be able to further their careers. However, it is a fact that looking good at work sure has its benefits, and that you do get noticed when you make heads turn every time you enter the office.

This is why three out of four Koreans have considered going under a cosmetic surgeon’s knife, according to a report by The Korea Times.

The survey author Career, an online job search portal, said that over three out of four Korean workers or 78.6 percent, say they have considered getting cosmetic surgery, believing that good looks will give them an edge in the nation’s tight job market.

When will people ever learn?

In today’s world of near instantaneous information at your fingertips, it’s probably safe to assume people already know that plastic surgery is no child’s play, that getting some done is a major decision that needs proper preparation and study, that it could alter the course of their lives.

But this Vietnamese woman probably never knew that. And now will never know so, since the plastic surgery decision she has made did not only alter the course of her life. Plastic surgery ended it, at the hands of two quacks. Thanh Nien News has more about this tragedy:

A significant number of Hollywood actors and actresses have already gone under the knife of the many plastic surgeons in the area. But not Academy Award nominee Diane Lane, who says she is absolutely terrified of plastic surgery.

According to Contactmusic, the star of such movies as Unfaithful and Under the Tuscan Sun has no intention whatsoever of getting plastic surgery. She has, however, hasn’t totally slammed the door on any cosmetic work in the future.

The 41-year-old says, "It scares the s**t out of me. And I don't relish the thought of people staring at me, trying to figure out what I've had done."

In a field where nearly 90% of procedures are done on women, it’s quite interesting to note that men dominate almost every aspect of the plastic surgery profession. But with more and more women requesting cosmetic procedures of the more intimate sort, it’s only natural for them to have these operations done by women, for whatever reason. But there are just too few female cosmetic surgeons to accommodate every single request.

But British women, however, need not fret about their choices of surgeons to do ‘cosmetic gynaecology” jobs on them, for an all-female plastic surgery group is now offering its services for women who want women for their vulvar and vaginal nips and tucks.

A bachelor named Hussein prepares for a nose job surgery. No prodding, the university student freely follows his mother, a brother, an aunt and a cousin who have all had various cosmetic enhancements.

Today, in the capital city of Tehran alone there are more or less three thousand plastic surgeons operating. This is rather peculiar for a country, which is populated with women who adhere to strict Islamic dress regulations and meant the only thing peeking out was their faces.

And so, when cosmetic surgery was introduced in the country after the revolution in 1979, Iranian women wanted their noses done -- talk about making the best of what shows, their faces. Since then, Iran has become one of the world's leading centers for cosmetic surgery.

International supermodel and actress Elle MacPherson, dubbed "The Body," expressed her opinions regarding cosmetic procedures and injectible treatments -- accordingly, her views "have softened in recent years."

Quoting from a statement released by the World Entertainment News Network:

"What I'm saying now is that you don't necessarily have to go and have surgery, that women can make a choice. Having fun in life is so important. I realize my capacity to have fun and embrace life has increased as I become older. These are the things that give me energy."

Women who have cut it clean from breast cancer through radiation therapy and lumpectomy are feeling unhappy with the results. This is according to a recent study presented at the conference of American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

Lumpectomy, as defined in the Cancer Glossary of Terms (Legacyhealth.org):

A surgery to remove the breast tumor and a small amount of surrounding normal tissue; the procedure is usually followed by radiation therapy.

The ASPS study disclosed that though lumpectomy is a procedure known to correct breast cancer and guarantees no additional reconstructive surgery, it fails to do so in many cases.