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There have been four near-fatal deaths from poorly prepared Botox injections in a US cosmetic surgery clinic. When you go for your next Botox, and while you're still able to raise your eyebrows, you should just check that the doctor isn't using a homemade injection. A story from the US is sobering. Botox is a toxin from the germ Clostridium botulinum. Before cosmetic treatment was invented, botulism - paralysis brought on by the toxin - was mostly from poorly prepared food. There's an infamous story of a fishing trip on a Scottish loch where the boat floated to shore with everyone dead. It was supposedly the duck pate in their lunch. Infants can get botulism from honey. Anyway a US clinic got hold of pure botulinum toxin and made up their own preparation but got the dilution wrong. A de-registered doctor injected three people plus himself with over 2000 times the lethal dose. They were saved by anti toxin and weeks of mechanical ventilation. The doctor was given three years in the slammer. It's a rare case but there are regulatory loopholes in Australia allowing freelance preparation of medications. So you need to watch out when a clinic offers you their own concoction no matter what it's for.
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