By Freya Coombes

THIS MODEL spent £3k on a botched nose job causing her nose to collapse and leaving her unable to work.

Model, student and influencer Henna Havila from Kouvola, Finland injured her nose as a ten-year-old child At the time Henna was unable to breathe through her left nostril so underwent a procedure to straighten her septum. The surgery corrected her breathing, however Henna was left with a bump in her nasal ridge, a cosmetic defect.

In 2020, Henna made the decision to fix the bump in her nose as she had been contacted by modelling agencies and photographers. Wanting to fix what was holding her back, Henna decided to undergo cosmetic surgery.

The surgery cost €3,490 (£3,032.53), with additional blood tests and covid tests increasing this total to €3,790 (3,293.21).

Henna decided to visit a clinic in Estonia as it was cheaper with more experience, to remove the bump on her nasal ridge on 17th of September 2020. The procedure was supposedly simple, using a closed technique, as the bump only needed to be filed away.

After the surgery, Henna’s nose was wonky.

Henna went to the consultation where the CEO of the company tried to persuade Henna to undergo full rhinoplasty, however, Henna protested she only wanted the bump filing. After the surgery, the surgeon said everything looked good.

Henna noticed that a large plastic mask was covering her whole nose and forehead, a larger amount of bandages than was to be expected. Henna returned to Finland on the 18th of September 2020, only a day later.

Henna’s suspicions were raised when she was told to use the mask for 15 days, a longer time than the normal seven to ten days needed for a simple procedure. Henna told the surgeon she was unable to return to have the mask removed due to recent Covid-19 borders in place between Estonia and Finland. She received no instructions how to remove the mask.

She eventually managed to remove the mask by soaking it in oil. The mask had pressed her nose so much that it looked extremely thin, however the bump seemed to be gone.

After a few days, her nose started to swell and became infected. Henna visited her doctors and was given some antibiotics to clear up the infection. She then contacted the clinic who blamed her as she didn’t return to have the mask removed. They mentioned they would have given her hormone injections to prevent this despite no one ever mentioning injections.

Henna requested her epicrisis, a critical summary of a medical history, which said her bump was removed under anaesthesia. The clinic began ignoring her, forcing Henna to go to the doctors in Finland and spend €400 on aftercare.

Two months later, Henna’s nose began to collapse and look crooked. There was also severe pain, as well as pressure as she could feel it twisting to the right. Henna was unable to get her model back despite contacting the European Consumer Protection who also contacted the clinic on her behalf.

The clinic threatened to sue Henna for lying if she exposed them, despite the fact that she was contacted by several people who had also undergone botched surgeries at the clinic.

Henna’s botched surgery severely affected her modelling job as she was no longer cast for jobs. Henna has had to save money and pursue an influencing career to make up for her lack of modelling jobs.

Two months after the surgery Henna couldn’t breathe through her left nostril as that side of her nose collapsed. A doctor guessed that because she had bled heavily during the surgery, the surgeon may have stopped, her nose looking half done. Henna underwent a €3000 revision surgery that straightened her nose, fixing the damage dome.

Henna has shared her story on Instagram and strongly encourages those who don’t need cosmetic surgery not to have it.

“I hurt my nose when I was a child and I have always had problems with it since then,” said Henna.

“My septum was straightened at a public hospital in Finland because i couldn’t breathe through my left nostril, but they didn’t do anything to the bump I had on my nasal ridge, since they said it was only a cosmetic defect.

Henna was a model before her operation.

“You could see bone through my thin skin and it was something that was bothering me and I was pretty badly bullied about my nose when I was teenager so that also affected on my decision. I was called “nose” and they were saying I should go have a nose job. They also said they had never seen a nose so big.

“I noticed increased follower growth and activity through my social media in 2020 that’s when I decided that I wanted to fix that bump since I had been contacted from couple model agencies and photographers who would have wanted to work with me.

“I was thinking that fixing what was “holding me back” would open new doors for me.

“My family and friends said I don’t need to do anything to my nose but for me it wasn’t about what others were thinking, it was more how I was feeling about myself.”

Henna talks of her experience and the operation.

“I went to this first clinic to remove a bump from my nasal ridge. It was supposed to be a simple procedure with closed technique, because I didn’t want to change the structure of my nose at all, just file that bump away,” she said.

“I had my consultation at the clinic just before the surgery and that was the first time I heard this surgeon’s name or met him.

“During the consultation this CEO of the clinic was there all the time and instead of me talking with the surgeon she tried to make me do full rhinoplasty and I felt like I needed to defend my decision to only remove the bump.

“After the surgery this surgeon came to see me and he said everything went well and it’s looking good but I had this big plastic mask that was covering my whole nose and forehead so half of my face was wrapped, which was odd because usually when removing a bump they use a smaller plastic bandage that’s only covering the nose.

“I was told to use that plastic mask for 15 days and it seemed such a long time and I did read on internet that usually people wear those for seven to ten days so I asked can I take it off earlier and they said one day earlier.

“At this point I had told them that I couldn’t come to Estonia to take that mask off that was glued to my face, because the covid borders were closed.

“I didn’t get any instructions of how to remove the mask and they didn’t even tell me to be careful or anything.

“I managed to take it off carefully by soaking it with oil. This mask had pressed my nose so much that my nose looked super thin and it seemed that the bump was gone so I was okay with it.

“After couple days I noticed that my nose started to swollen and feel hot and it quickly got worse and that’s when I went to see a doctor in Finland.

“My right nostril had been infected which was weird since I had antibiotics right after the surgery and now I needed to take those again.

“After that infection had been cured I noticed that the right side of my nose was still very puffy and I was worried about it and then I contacted to this clinic and I told what happened and I also send a photo of my nose.

“They weren’t even sorry or anything, they just blamed me about it and they said that because I didn’t go to Estonia to take the mask off I have ruined this result, because they would have given me ”hormone injections” there that would have prevented this to happen.

“This was the first time I heard about these injections and I asked what they are and why am I now hearing about them for the first time.

“I also asked my epicrisis in the same message and two days later they send me epicrisis without any answers on my questions and that epicrisis didn’t even tell what they did to me. It only said they removed a bump under anaesthesia.

This is Henna after the surgery.

“They stopped answering on my emails when I tried to contact them so I needed to go see doctors in Finland and I spent about 400 euros to the aftercare. About two to two and a half months after the surgery my nose started to collapse to the right and it looked so crooked that I cried every time I looked in the mirror.

“I had pain in it, I could literally feel it twisting to the right and this pressure I had on my nose all the time was so bad that I had headaches everyday. I was using tapes on my nose during the day and night because it felt like it was helping a little bit with the pain. I was also taking painkillers every day.

“I tried to get my money back because it was so bad that I would have wanted to get it fixed quickly but this clinic refused to give me my money back and even European consumer protection recommended them to give me my money back, but they didn’t.

“Then I told them there was nothing more left than for me to expose what they are doing to people so no one else would have to go through the same that I did and then they threatened to sue me for lying if I do that and when I did that I got contacted by several people that this clinic had done the same they did to me.”

Henna talks of the impact the surgery had on her career.

“I couldn’t go to castings with my crooked nose, I couldn’t collaborate with these photographers that had contacted me, because everything that I had posted on my social media after the surgery went wrong I had needed to edit my nose to be straight so I couldn’t show up anywhere looking like that,” said Henna.

“I needed to let go of an opportunity to get on a list of a model agency in Los Angeles.

“I also declined an offer to take a part in a beauty pageant in Italy, because of my nose. For one and a half years until I was able to save money to go and fix my nose I was hiding at home and I felt like my life is going wasted because I wasn’t able to work on my goals and I was devastated when I needed to turn down so many great opportunities that could have helped me with my career.”

Henna talks of the revision surgery.

“The surgeon who fixed my nose said that my nose wasn’t easy to fix and it looked like it was only half done and he thinks that because I bleed a lot this first surgeon didn’t finish that surgery properly and they didn’t for example secure my nose tip and they also had taken too much away from the left side of my nose which is why it collapsed to the right because there was nothing to hold it straight there,” she said.

“I’m pleased with this result but I can say that this terrible experience left me with a nose complex. I keep looking at it and taking photos every day to see if there are any changes in it but there haven’t been.

“Even if it is fixed now, I still don’t feel like I would be 100% myself yet. It’s a weird feeling that I could now enjoy doing my make-up again and dressing up but I get anxious every time I need to do that and it was something that I loved doing before this first clinic destroyed mynose.”

Henna shares some advice for those considering cosmetic surgery.

“If it’s not necessary don’t do it. If I would have known that a small procedure can go this wrong I would not have done it,” said Henna.

“I want to encourage people to stand up for yourselves and to know their rights and don’t let anyone do you wrong.

“I wish that these victims of this first clinic before me would have spoken about what happened to them so then maybe this would not have happened to me and any others after them but I get that when a big clinic like this is threatening it can be scary and I guess it’s better later than never and maybe I am just crazy and brave enough to take the issue forward and to spread awareness about the danger of surgeries and these type of clinics.”

ENDS