The well-dressed women were led into the terrace house one by one throughout the day.
asserted
women → dress → day
All had received a text the previous evening instructing them to park a few doors from a £400,000 family home in Manchester, five minutes from a trendy canal-side development, and wait for someone to collect them and take them to the door.
asserted
someone → receive → door
Each of the visitors spent about an hour in the property before emerging wearing sunglasses – which failed to hide the pronounced and jagged stitching on their faces.
asserted
which → spend → faces
Inside, they are believed to have paid £850 in cash for a woman called Luyen Vu, who has no known medical training, to chop off part of their eyelids.
asserted
who → believe → eyelids
The procedure, called a blepharoplasty, is the latest must-have beauty treatment for a large number of women.
asserted
procedure → call → women
Reputable clinics and hospitals carry out the surgery to alter hooded or drooping eyelids and eyebags, with costs starting at more than £2,000.
asserted
costs → carry → 2,000
It involves cutting off excess skin, muscle or fat from around the eyelid in the hope that the procedure will leave the patients with a more youthful appearance.
But the trend has also fuelled a thriving market in cheap backstreet cosmetic surgeries, involving what campaigners warn is a ‘revolving door of butchery’.
asserted
campaigners → involve → butchery
And thanks to an extraordinary loophole, unregulated operators can perform procedures quite legally so long as they don’t falsely claim to be a registered doctor or medic.
uncertain
they → perform → procedures
Luyen Vu operated from these Manchester premises, performing blepharoplasty procedures on women despite having no known medical training
Vu, pictured on a Channel 5 documentary, seems to operate in a loophole where unregulated operators can perform procedures so long as they don’t falsely claim to be a registered doctor
A woman in sunglasses emerges from house with ragged stitches next to her eye brows
Twenty years ago there were very few of these rogue clinicians.
uncertain
woman → operate → clinicians
But a Daily Mail investigation has found that, thanks to lax legislation and a growing obsession with cosmetic enhancement, cowboy surgeons are now operating in residential roads and high streets across Britain.
asserted
surgeons → find → Britain
Safety campaigners describe a wild west of thousands of people offering any number of different procedures online with ghost businesses and fake store fronts – practitioners who are botching patients beyond recognition.
asserted
who → describe → recognition
One expert warned that for every legitimate practitioner there are four unregulated operators carrying out surgery that risks the safety and even lives of their ‘patients’.
asserted
that → warn → patients
And when things go wrong it is usually left to the NHS to try to rectify the problems – leaving taxpayers footing the hefty bill for the scandal.
asserted
it → go → scandal
Our investigation comes after experts warned MPs that hundreds of women have required ‘extensive’ corrective surgery or ongoing care following complications from unregulated cosmetic procedures which they described as ‘like something out of a horror film’.
asserted
they → come → film
Using the nicknames Miss Cindy and the Bleph Lady, she advertises ‘professional cosmetic surgery’ in a ‘clinical setting under sterile conditions’ and promises ‘full aftercare’ including antibiotics.
asserted
she → use → antibiotics
Her ‘surgical price list’ offers a range of procedures, including ‘upper facelift’ for £1,400 and ‘lower facelift for £1,800, as well as different types of ‘blephs’ for £850.
asserted
list → offer → 850
All of these are a fraction of the cost normally charged in the UK.
asserted
All → charge → UK
Vu is not on any UK medical register and has no known formal training.
asserted
Vu → have → training
She operates in domestic homes, only takes cash and, according to victims who spoke to the Daily Mail, leaves many patients ‘mutilated’.
uncertain
who → operate → patients
She was first exposed by Channel 5 News last summer when she was secretly filmed offering upper and lower eyelid procedures without asking for the medical history of her client or offering a pre-procedure consultation.
asserted
she → expose → consultation
She appeared to be operating from a non-sterile, dingy flat above a Liverpool restaurant.
asserted
She → appear → restaurant
When shown the findings, the then health secretary Wes Streeting pledged to ‘make sure that we don’t have loopholes that enable this kind of unsafe and unregulated practice’.
asserted
that → show → practice
But over a year later the Daily Mail has discovered Vu is still operating – but now in Manchester.
asserted
Vu → discover → Manchester
Multiple victims have told us they were operated on by Vu since late last year.
asserted
they → tell → year
One of them is a woman who now runs the Reddit online forum page Support4LuyenVuVictim.
asserted
who → run → page
‘The trauma after seeing myself [post-surgery] has completely ruined me,’ she said, using the alias Alex for fear of retribution after speaking out.
asserted
she → see → retribution
‘Both my GP and a maxillofacial surgeon [who specialises in facial injuries] said that I have been assaulted.
asserted
I → specialise → injuries
She explained that the scarring of the skin above her eye has left her completely disfigured: ‘My eyes are so tight, I can’t lift my brows as they are stitched so low and the skin that’s there is ruched.
asserted
that → explain → brows
I can’t even afford to have anything corrected.’
asserted
anything → afford → ?
Another victim, using the alias Mary, went under Vu’s knife in November 2025, paying £1,000 for a full facelift.
asserted
victim → use → facelift
She was left with significant scarring and an uneven face.
asserted
She → leave → scarring
‘I think she took more from one side than the other,’ she said.
asserted
she → think → other
‘She did the left side first and then she did the right side.
asserted
she → do → side
It seems like she spent a lot less time on the right side, which is saggy still.
asserted
which → seem → side
The procedure took an hour – a typical facelift should take at least two hours – and Mary was aware of several patients before and after her.
asserted
Mary → take → her
She had one follow-up appointment to remove some of her stitches but a year later still has some stitches in her face.
asserted
She → have → face
She has been to her doctor and to hospital twice to try to get them removed.
asserted
them → try → hospital
‘I’m still swollen, sore and itchy.
asserted
I → ’m → ?
I’ve got scars front and back on one ear,’ she said.
asserted
she → get → ear
She has tried to get compensation from Vu, but says it’s now impossible to contact her.
asserted
it → try → her
…and 64 more, not listed.
The Aporia
