By Minyvonne Burke and Diana Dasrath -
NBC News
Supermodel Linda Evangelista filed a lawsuit alleging that a fat freezing procedure left her permanently disfigured and ruined her professional career.
“Today I have taken a big step to repair an evil that I have suffered and that I have kept for more than five years.
For my followers who have wondered why I have not been working while my colleagues' careers have prospered, the reason is that I was brutally disfigured by Zeltiq's CoolSculpting procedure, which did the opposite of what it promised, "she wrote this Wednesday in a post on the social network Instagram.
The lawsuit claims that between August 2015 and February 2016, Evangelista underwent seven treatments with Zeltiq's CoolSculpting.
The company, which is listed as a defendant in the lawsuit, announced the procedure as an "alternative to liposuction surgery without operation, without anesthesia and without downtime," the indictment states.
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The CoolSculpting process stretches the skin between two paddles and cools it below freezing for at least 30 minutes
, with the promise that treated areas will be more contoured.
Evangelista underwent the procedure "in hopes of shaping small areas of her body," but after the last round she noticed that the treated areas increased in size, the lawsuit claims.
After a few months, "hard, lumpy and painful masses appeared under the skin in those areas,"
according to the indictment.
Model Linda Evangelista at a CHANEL Fine Jewelry dinner on October 9, 2012 in New York.EVAN AGOSTINI |
INVISION |
AP
The model underwent two surgeries to try to correct the damage, but neither was successful, says the lawsuit that states that as a result,
Evangelista has not worked as a model since 2016 and suffers severe pain, emotional distress and anguish.
The supermodel is seeking $ 50 million in damages.
Zeltiq did not respond to NBC News' request for comment Thursday.
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In her Instagram post,
Evangelista wrote that the disfigurement caused by the procedures pushed her "into a deep cycle of depression, deep sadness and the lowest depths of self-loathing."
“In the process, I have become a prisoner,” she lamented, “with this lawsuit, I am moving forward to rid myself of my shame and go public with my story.
I would like to go out the door with my head held high, even if I no longer see myself as I used to ”.
