A mum claims her lips were left looking like a baboon's 'bum' after suffering a severe allergic reaction to fillers. Lauren Evens had her filler topped up last week on April 20, it was only one hour later when her lips began to swell so 'huge' that she went to the A&E at the Countess of Chester that evening.
The 29-year-old was given antihistamines but the swelling became so severe that she was unable to talk and her "airways started to close", so she was rushed into resuscitation and given adrenaline. Now, Lauren is hoping to raise awareness after the horrific experience that such allergies can develop at any time.
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Footage captured by the mum-of-two shows her lips became so red and swollen that she compared them to the primate's infamous red backside. The video has now amassed more than 23,000 likes, comments and views on TikTok.
Lauren, of Chester, Cheshire, said: "My lips looked like a baboon's bum. They went around six times bigger than their normal size. It was very painful.
"I went into anaphylactic shock. My neck started to swell which meant my airways started to close. They basically rushed me into resus and injected me with adrenaline and that worked.
"My lips were really sore and I felt a bit sick. At first, I was fine in A&E. I couldn't close my mouth and was struggling to talk quite a bit but then the nurses rushed me through to resus and I couldn't really talk at all."
The beauty lover said that she used to have her lips refilled around every six months - this time she topped them up with just under one ml.
Lauren said: "I had the lip cream on and she [beautician] did them and they were fine but about an hour later they started to swell up and they went huge.
"I went to A&E and there was a huge wait. I was waiting for about six hours and they started to go down because I had some antihistamine. I fell asleep and they woke me up to give me some more antihistamine and they said that they were getting bigger and bigger. It was scary.
"They didn't really say a lot to me and just rushed me straight through to resus [resuscitation] and when you think of resus and watch TV programmes, that's where you get rushed to when it's life-threatening and I was like 'but I was walking, I'm fine. How am I like this and being rushed into this place?'"
Lauren said that within four hours of having the procedure her lips had become 'huge' and she arrived at the hospital at around 10:30pm, and didn't leave until the following afternoon. She said she was sent home with antihistamines and that although the swelling took three days to subside, her lips are still painful five days later [APR 25].
Lauren said: "I've had a lot of lip filler and treatments before and had it previously around four weeks ago and didn't have a reaction. It's unexplained as to why this happened. Apparently, at any age and at any point you can develop an allergy to something.
"I won't be getting lip filler again anytime soon. I want to have the allergy test to see exactly what I'm allergic to, the thought that it could happen again is very scary. I don't know if it was the filler or the numbing cream. I get lip fillers for a confidence boost, I wouldn't tell people not to get them done if they want to get them done but I'd say be careful and it's more the fact that an allergy can come on at any time."
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