23-Year-Old Bride-To-Be Dies At The Hands Of Unlicensed Beautician In Cheras

According to Sin Chew Daily, the deceased, Coco Siew Zhi Shing, was planning on getting married next year to her long-time boyfriend in South Africa and came home to Malaysia for liposuction surgery of her arms in preparation of the wedding.

Siew's brother told the Chinese daily that she found the beauty salon on the Internet and paid RM2,500 for the surgical procedure.

He said that she went accompanied by a friend to the beauty salon in Cheras for her appointment at 2.30pm on Saturday, 17 October.

Siew received an anaesthetic injection upon arriving at the clinic. However, according to the friend who went with her, the surgeon became visibly flustered within half an hour of the operation.

Sensing something amiss, Siew's friend immediately called an ambulance and rushed Siew to the hospital. Unfortunately, she was unable to be resuscitated and was pronounced dead at 5pm.

He said the 23-year-old beauty practitioner also visited the hospital on Saturday night after hearing about her client's death when his family apprehended her.

"Under our repeated questioning, the person in charge of the beauty salon revealed that her salon did not have an aesthetic clinic licence. The place was operating under an ordinary beauty salon licence, and the aesthetic doctor, as she claimed she was, who performed the operation on my sister did not have a professional aesthetic medical licence either," he said.

He also told China Press that after the incident, he did a simple check of the beauty salon online and found that the business was registered as a beauty product wholesaler by the Companies Commission of Malaysia (SSM) and was obviously doing all her beauty and cosmetic procedures illegally.

"I hope my sister's experience will serve as a warning to other young women so that a tragedy like this won't happen again."

It was reported by the Chinese dailies that Siew started her modelling career at the age of 16 when she won the Asia New Star Model Contest in Petaling Jaya as a Form 4 student in 2013.

A close friend of Siew's, a Facebook user named Ke Xin, has also since taken to social media to write a dedication in her memory which went viral overnight, being shared over 24,000 times.

"We got to know each other at 13 years old in school and you were already then so tall and beautiful, and was always the talk of the school," her friend wrote, adding that Siew was not just a pretty face but also had a kind heart and would always stand up for her when she was bullied in school or lent her clothes to dress up for an occasion.

"When I heard that you found your true love and was planning to get married next year, I was so happy and excited for you. I told myself that I had to work hard to save the money to attend your wedding in South Africa. I was really looking forward to that," she said.

"But now, I can't accept this news. How could you leave me like this?"

"For the girls who love chasing perfection, I hope you will be more cautious and responsible in choosing a clinic. I'm so sorry this happened to her. I hope the one who did wrong takes responsibility for this," she added.

However, according to China Press, the beautician has since deleted all her social media pages and has yet to apologise or admit a mistake.

Siew's brother said that he saw the salon's Facebook and Instagram accounts before they were deleted and noted that dozens of women have been there before for surgery.

The beauty salon started in 2012 in Kuantan, Pahang before moving to Selangor in 2018.

From the chat record between his sister and the beauty salon, he said the salon was popular and she had trouble booking an appointment because there was always limited slots available.

A screenshot of the business' website as sighted by SAYS also shows that the beautician was offering many other surgical procedures, priced between RM1,500 to RM6,800, that can legally only be conducted by a licensed medical practitioner.