A mom from Indiana won a free custom facelift from a renowned plastic surgeon from a social media ad.

The catch? Her surgery was going to be performed in front of 500 medical students. 

And while the procedure was ultimately successful, the woman had a scary complication during the surgery as the hundreds of aspiring doctors watched on.

In 2024, Leslie, 52, saw a post shared by Nayak Plastic Surgery, an account for plastic surgeon Dr. Mike Nayak, who is based in St. Louis, Missouri, asking for a model to participate in a masterclass.

The ad explained that the model would get a facelift completely free, but it had to be done in front of hundreds of studying med students.

‘I had been following Dr. Nayak on Instagram for about three years before this,’ she recently told People. ‘His work is phenomenal.’ 

Leslie said that part of the ad appealed to her because she also works in the medical field in a ‘busy operating room.’

‘Working in the OR myself and seeing medical students trickle through, I loved the idea that I could help in some way,’ she explained. 

Leslie, 52, won a free custom facelift from plastic surgeon Dr. Nayak. The catch? It was going to be performed in front of 500 medical students (stock image)

Leslie, 52, won a free custom facelift from plastic surgeon Dr. Nayak. The catch? It was going to be performed in front of 500 medical students (stock image)

While it was successful, Leslie had a scary complication during the surgery as the hundreds of aspiring doctors watched on. She's seen before (top) and after (bottom) the procedure

While it was successful, Leslie had a scary complication during the surgery as the hundreds of aspiring doctors watched on. She’s seen before (top) and after (bottom) the procedure

When she came across the post, it was at a time when the 52-year-old felt her appearance was changing.

‘You always start with the little things, right? The creams, then the Botox and the micro-needling,’ she admitted. 

‘I just looked tired. I noticed sagging and drooping. I thought, maybe one day I could do a facelift.’

She submitted pictures of her face and went through two rounds of interviews before she got the call that she had won the procedure and would be the live model for Dr. Nayak’s TeoNayak Congress.

Students from all over the world came to Turkey to watch Dr. Nayak and fellow plastic surgeon Dr. Teoman Doğan perform Leslie’s surgery at the three-day seminar. 

Leslie and her daughter flew to Turkey in September 2024 and stayed for nine days.

During her procedure, Dr. Nayak wore a camera and had cameras in the operating room so he could broadcast the six-hour surgery to students watching live. 

He and his team also narrated what they were doing and answered questions from students in real-time.

During her surgery, Dr. Nayak wore a camera and had cameras in the operating room so he could broadcast the six-hour surgery to students watching live

During her surgery, Dr. Nayak wore a camera and had cameras in the operating room so he could broadcast the six-hour surgery to students watching live

Leslie received a ‘preservation deep plane extended facelift, a deep neck lift, a brow lift, a lower blepharoplasty, a fat transfer, age-appropriate lip filler, and a lower eyelid TCA peel,’ Dr. Nayak explained in an Instagram post about her procedure.

‘I did a brow lift for her because [her expression] looked sad,’ he added to People.

‘I removed the fat bags from behind her eyelids. We used fat from her belly to build the dark circles out, to build the tear trough hollows out,’ he explained about the darkness around her eyes. 

‘Then I usually laser the overlying skin of the lower lids to treat wrinkles, but they didn’t have a laser that I liked, so I did it with a trichloroacetic acid peel instead.’

Despite her now refreshed look, Leslie’s procedure came with a few scary complications.

In a post about Leslie’s three-month post-op, Dr. Nayak explained that she started bleeding profusely during the surgery… as the hundreds of students watched on.

‘While the surgery went extremely well, it was very challenging. For reasons ‎unknown, Leslie was very prone to bleeding both during the entire procedure as well as for the first few days afterward,’ he explained.

‘For those unfamiliar, operating in a bleeding surgical field is like trying to stay safe while driving through dense fog or heavy rain. 

‘Thankfully, at this point in my career, I no longer find things like that quite as stressful as I once did – even with over 500 people watching.

Dr. Nayak explained that her surgery had a lot of bleeding, but he was able to get it under control (stock image)

Dr. Nayak explained that her surgery had a lot of bleeding, but he was able to get it under control (stock image)

‘This is in large part because I had two members of my accomplished surgical team – Megan and Joanie – with me to anticipate and support my every move.’

He added: ‘We were able to get exactly the outcome we hoped for, and used hemostatic net sutures to minimize the risk of major re-bleeding postoperatively.’

A few months post-op, Leslie said the feedback from people in her life was overwhelmingly positive.

‘Everybody just says I look refreshed,’ she shared.

‘”You don’t look tired, you look refreshed,” but I still look like me. That’s what I wanted to make sure of — I would still look like me. I wasn’t really trying to look younger.’

A full recovery takes months and it could take six months to a year for the swelling to settle.

‘For some people, if you have plastic surgery, people think that you’re vain and you’re just all about looks,’ Leslie said.

‘That’s not the case. Sometimes when we look at ourselves, we’re like, “Do I really look that tired?” Because I still feel really young inside. 

‘Not that 52 is old, old, but I just felt like I was aging on the outside quicker than I was on the inside.’

Leslie’s surgery was free, but on Dr. Nayak’s website, deep plane extended facelifts, which include a deep necklift, start at $150,000, while deep necklifts are $70,000, and brow lifts are $30,000 to $40,000.



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