Worker accused of botching procedure

In an alleged bizarre back-room deal between a customer and a Costa Mesa nail salon employee, prosecutors are charging the employee with practicing medicine without a license for allegedly using a laser to try to flatten her customer’s plastic surgery scar and then sprinkling antibiotics on it after it became infected.

Tuyet Luong, 36, of Anaheim, faces up to six years in prison if convicted of practicing medicine without a license and causing great bodily injury after she used a laser on one of her clients.

Prosecutors said that on Jan. 24 a woman went to MC Beauty Center in Costa Mesa for a manicure. While there, the woman complained to Luong about a tummy tuck scar, officials said. Luong told the woman she could flatten the scar with a laser-type device in the back of the salon for $500, according to prosecutors.

Luong covered the scar with a topical ointment to numb it, then blasted the area with a 120-volt laser, burning the area. After several minutes, and several re-applications of the ointment, the woman began to complain that it hurt and she could smell her skin burning, prosecutors said.

Three days later, authorities said the woman went to the doctor complaining of a fever and a headache. It turns out the woman had suffered several deep cuts through layers of skin and second-degree burns, which became infected, investigators said.

The woman was given oral antibiotics for the infection. After her doctor’s visit, the woman called Luong to tell her about the burns, according to prosecutors. Luong asked the woman to come back to the salon to see the scars, and when she did, officials said Luong crushed several of the antibiotics and sprinkled them onto the burn.

The case was initially taken up by the Bureau of Barbering and Cosmetology, who referred it to the state Department of Consumer Affairs for investigation. Consumer affairs handed the case over to prosecutors this month.

Prosecutors are seeking $35,000 bail.