One woman learned the hard way that the quest for beauty can come at a high cost.

Apryl Brown, 47, lost her arms, legs, and the flesh around her buttocks after injecting fillers into her posterior in an effort to get rid of her flat butt.

In 2004, Brown was a successful hairstylist and happy mother of two. But despite living the good life, the 47-year-old still had an itch to fix the one “flaw” she was teased about as a child – her butt. So when a client walked in one day offering her a silicon injection for cheap, she jumped at the idea.

Brown received her first four injections a week later. Unfortunately, after her second appointment, Brown was already regretting her decision. “A voice just came to me like, 'What are you doing? Are you serious? You are going to allow somebody to inject something into your body and you have no idea what it is.’”

After her moment of self-doubt, Brown stopped doing the treatments and never went back. Sadly, the consequences of her actions were felt a few years down the road.

“[My buttocks] started to get hard, and then they started to get discoloured,” she explained to The Daily Mail. “By 2006, it was starting to itch and by 2007, the pain started. One thing about pain is that you can't turn it off. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I couldn't even concentrate.”

Turns out Brown was injected with an industrial grade silicone most commonly used in bathroom sealant. As a result, in 2010, the cosmetologist was rushed to the hospital with a staph infection. The silicone injections were causing her limbs to turn black and curl. The mother of two even had visible signs of necrosis, which is when there is not enough blood flowing through the body tissue.

Despite her severe condition, doctors were able to miraculously save Brown’s life by amputating her hands, legs, and flesh around her hips and buttocks in 27 surgeries.