I lost my arms and feet after bum boost injections.

Apryl Michelle Brown had black-market silicone injections which turned out to be BATHROOM SEALANT.
It left her in agony and led to her losing her hands and feet, as well as her buttocks....... continue reading and see more photos....

                                 Triumph ... with relatives after finishing the triathlon

The 46-year-old former hairdresser blames “vanity” and wants to warn others of the terrible dangers of such illegal treatments.
Apryl said: “I’ve paid a terrible price for vanity and I’ll pay for the rest of my life. But I blame no one but myself.
“I want to share my story to warn others about these so-called ‘quick fix’ surgeries.
“I didn’t realise the dangers. I thought it was a harmless injection that would give me the perfect bottom. But the reality was the silicone used wasn’t suitable for humans. It was, in fact, bathroom sealant only suitable for DIY.

“My body had a massive allergic reaction to it which left me at the brink of death.
“I was in so much agony that, by that point, dying would have been a release. The only way doctors could save my life was to amputate my buttocks, my hands and feet.”
Teased as a child about her “pancake” bum, Apryl vowed to buy a shapelier one when she was older.
She said: “I didn’t know if I wanted mine to look like Janet Jackson’s or J-Lo’s.
“I didn’t even know how you could do it. I just wanted a new, bigger bottom.”
The moment that changed her life came in 2004, when two women walked into her successful beauty salon to get their hair done.
One of them ran “pumping parties” — where unqualified practitioners inject illegal silicone into “patients” at their home.
Apryl, from Los Angeles, said: “One of the women told me how she had given bottom injections to the friend who was with her.
“I remember thinking it was a miracle she’d walked into my life. Her friend showed me the work she’d had done and it looked great.

"In a split second I made the decision that I was going to go to this woman and let her inject silicone into my behind.”

That decision nearly killed her. Apryl paid the woman, who had no medical background, around £650 for two lots of injections. Doctors later discovered the substance used was industrial-grade silicone.

Apryl admitted: “I didn’t do any research. A combination of naivety, misplaced trust and insecurity led me to take this disastrous decision.

“I trusted her because she seemed so professional, and I had no reason to think anything awful was going to happen.

“She carried out the procedure in her daughter’s bedroom. She assessed my bottom and said, ‘You’ll need three or four sessions to get the result you want’.

“The first procedure took an hour. I remember asking, ‘Is it meant to be so painful?’ and she said, ‘Yes’. It felt like it was squeezing through my nerves.”

Within weeks Apryl returned for her second treatment.

She said: “After going through it again I had an epiphany. As I left her house I thought, ‘What am I doing? I have no idea what she’s putting in my body’.

“I never returned. But though I didn’t know it then, my life had already changed forever.”

Over the next two years the area where she’d been injected became hard and the skin blackened.

Apryl, mum to daughters Danye, 22 and Courtney, 21, said: “Within a few months of the second injection my buttocks began to harden. I knew something wasn’t right. But shame stopped me seeking medical help. As time went on it got worse as the skin blackened. I developed hard lumps. Then the searing pain started. I had to tell my doctor what I did. I was so ashamed.”

Apryl spent the next four years in constant pain. Two surgeons told her it was too dangerous to remove the silicone.

She said: “I was in so much agony I became a regular at hospital asking for medication to ease what was like a combination of a migraine, childbirth and toothache localised in one area.