Rajee Narinesingh gained widespread attention after being dubbed “Cement Face,” following a black market plastic surgery disaster in the mid-2000s. The surgery, performed by the infamous “toxic tush doctor” Oneal Ron Morris, involved injecting Narinesingh with a harmful mixture of cement, superglue, and tire sealant. This caused severe deformities in her face and body. Fortunately, Narinesingh later appeared on the TV show Botched, where professional surgeons helped repair the damage.
Here’s a closer look at Rajee’s life, her journey to recovery, and what she looks like today.
Rajee Narinesingh’s Early Life
Born in New York on April 7, 1967, Narinesingh knew from a young age that she was different from other boys. Raised in Philadelphia, she felt more like a woman inside and struggled with her identity. As she grew older, she decided to undergo several plastic surgeries, but the high costs led her to seek cheaper, unregulated options.
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The Black Market Surgery
In 2005, Narinesingh met Oneal Ron Morris, who falsely claimed to be a plastic surgeon. Desperate to align her physical appearance with her gender identity, Narinesingh agreed to receive injections from Morris. The substances used, including cement and superglue, left her face and other body parts severely deformed.
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Narinesingh paid just $100 per session and received around ten injections between 2007 and 2010. Initially excited, she soon faced the nightmare of hardened lumps forming under her skin, leaving her horrified and housebound.
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Recovery and Transformation
Too embarrassed to seek help from the police, Narinesingh felt like a “monster.” But in 2012, she found hope with Dr. John Martin of Coral Gables Cosmetic Reconstructive Surgery, who treated her with softening injections and laser therapy. Her transformation from victim to victorious continued when she appeared on Botched in 2016. Over seven weeks, she underwent four surgeries to remove the toxic fillers, regaining her confidence and self-esteem. She even began dating again, humorously recalling a man calling her a “sexy dragon.”
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Life Today
Narinesingh has since become a prominent public figure, advocating for transgender rights and educating others about the dangers of black market procedures. She’s appeared on over 30 television shows globally and has written three books about her experiences. Now living in Florida, she works with the LGBTQ community and spreads awareness about HIV prevention.
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Narinesingh has embraced her journey, calling the hardships she endured a “blessing” because they allowed her to amplify her advocacy work. She’s active on Instagram, sharing her life and inspiring others.
Oneal Ron Morris’ Fate
Morris was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2017 after one of her patients died. In 2021, Morris reached out to Narinesingh, seeking forgiveness. Despite the past, Narinesingh accepted Morris’ apology, reflecting her belief in learning from mistakes and growing stronger from adversity.
A Brave Survivor
Rajee Narinesingh’s story is one of incredible resilience and transformation. From the devastating effects of illegal surgery to reclaiming her life, she continues to inspire others with her activism and courage.
Share this inspiring story to spread awareness and celebrate Rajee’s strength.
10 Curiosities You Probably Didn’t Learn in Biology Class
The world is a big, wonderful place full of facts we never thought possible. For instance, if a pregnant mouse has a sudden medical issue, the fetus will send stem cells to heal the mother, increasing its chances of survival as well. Fetal stem cells have been found in human mothers as well, dubbed by science as microchimerism.
Bright Side dug up some more marvelous facts about nature and its creations, upholding our yearly resolutions to spread knowledge and joy.
1. The heart slows when your face touches water.
As mammals, we can’t breathe underwater, so as part of the mammalian dive reflex, our heart rate goes down in the water — more so if we go underwater. Even splashing the face with water makes the heart slow down, making it a great way to calm down.
2. Fungus can break down plastic in weeks.
It is said that in the future, there may be more plastic in the ocean than fish. This is why the plastic-eating fungus is great news, and there are around 50 new species of such fungi discovered already. One of the fungi discovered can digest plastic within 2 months, so there’s hope for us yet.
3. Newborn babies can support their own weight.
Newborn babies are strong — strong enough to be able to grasp things in their tiny fists and even support their weight as shown by an experiment done in the nineteenth century. Louis Robinson witnessed babies able to hang from a walking stick, from 10 seconds to 2 minutes and 35 seconds.
4. Koala fingerprints have been mistaken for human ones.
We’ve been told that our fingerprints are unique, and they are. But the fact remains that even though we share a common ancestor with the koala that was alive 100 million years ago, koala fingerprints look very similar to human fingerprints, as do chimpanzee fingerprints for that matter.
5. Snails can sleep for 3 years.
If you thought bears had it good with hibernation, meet the snail. Snails can sleep rather than hibernate for 3 years at a time without needing food. Of course, this is with some snail species, not all of them. Meanwhile, bears usually hibernate for just 4-8 months.
6. Sloths need 2 weeks to digest food.
Sloths don’t only move in slow motion — even their insides move slowly, ostensibly to preserve energy, which is why a sloth’s digestive system takes 2 weeks to process the food it ate. Plus, most of what it eats is indigestible, giving it very little energy from each slowly chewed mouthful.
On the other end of the spectrum lies the shrew, whose digestion takes mere minutes and is done so fast, not much of it is fully digested. This is the reason why shrews eat their own feces. They can die of starvation in a matter of hours if they don’t eat.
7. Your brain ignores seeing your nose.
We can see our nose all the time, it’s just that the brain tends to ignore it because it’s a constant visual stimulus. It’s the same with people who wear glasses. After a while, they simply stop noticing them.
8. Your forearm is the same length as your foot.
If you don’t have the time to try on a shoe, measure it from your elbow crease to your wrist. If it fits or is just a little smaller, it would fit your foot because the length of your forearm is the same as your foot. And this is just one of many human body ratios that are a marvel in themselves, including the fact that your femur bone is one-quarter your height.
9. You can “see” your white blood cells.
If you look up at a cloudless, bright blue sky and see some wiggly things at the periphery of your vision, you’ve just experienced the blue field entoptic phenomenon. The wiggly things are white blood cells moving in the fine blood vessels moving in front of the retina, at the back of the eye.
10. Human beings have striped skin, but only cats can see it.
Human beings have stripes and patterns on the skin too, and they are called Lines of Blaschko, name eponymously by the scientist who discovered them, Dr. Alfred Blaschko. These are closer to tiger stripes, forming more of a V-pattern fanning out from the center to the extremities. These lines are visible under UV light, a spectrum that cats can see too, which is why cats can see you as a striped being as well.
Which of these facts turned out to be a revelation for you? Share your extreme nature facts with us and blow us away.
Preview photo credit Shutterstock.com, Shutterstock.com
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