New documentary to air on deadly, illegal cosmetic clinic in Vaughan

Toronto.citynews.ca
Jan. 25, 2024
Pat Taney

On a cold April morning in 2017, 23-year-old Chanel Stebens entered a Vaughan home to receive a cosmetic butt injection from Anna Yakubovsky-Rositsan, a registered nurse who investigators say was operating an illegal underground cosmetic clinic.

Hours after she arrived, Stebens left on a stretcher. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead. It was later determined she had been injected with liquid silicone and mineral oil, substances that her autopsy revealed lead to her death.

That was the beginning of a wild journey for both the nurse arrested for the crime and other women who had gone to her for the same procedure.
Those women are still battling major health impacts.

“My biggest regret is going to Anna,” Brittany Rowe tells CityNews.

Rowe is one of several victims who survived after being injected with the same substances put in Steben’s body and her life has not been the same since.

“I still have those substances in my body and I’ve been trying ever since to get it all out.” Rowe, a mother of three, lives in severe pain daily which she said is all due to the silicone in her body.

“I’ve had x-rays done, and it’s scattered all over my bum and back.”

In a new documentary, set to air on Citytv, we take a look at the crime and the victims left to deal with the aftermath. It follows Rowe’s frustrating journey to get the medical treatment she needs to remove the substances still migrating throughout her body.

The hour-long program also shares insight from someone who was on the front lines the morning Stebens collapsed inside that Vaughan home.

Breaking his silence, for the first time you’ll hear from the ex-husband of the nurse who got the frantic call that morning from his former spouse. “She said Chanel collapsed and I immediately rushed to the home.”

We’ll tell you what he found when he entered the home and explain why it took years for the nurse to face justice.

“Make Me Look Pretty” will air on Sunday January 28 at 10 p.m. E.T. on Citytv.