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A former TV presenter and registered nurse reprimanded for giving illegal Botox injections believes she was the victim of a vendetta by a former business partner.
Katie Marie Harbrow was last week found guilty of professional misconduct by the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal, which ruled that on seven occasions she gave the prescription-only, anti-wrinkle beauty treatment to clients without a doctor's prescription or presence.
Harbrow injected the Botox between November 2003 and May 2004 at a clinic she ran with two business partners.
The 34-year-old, who presented a lifestyle show on the CTV station in Christchurch, told the Herald on Sunday she believed that she had a doctor's authority, known as a standing order, to deliver Botox unsupervised.
She said she stopped the practice as soon as concerns were raised and said it was common for nurses to gave Botox without a doctor in the building. She was trained to give Botox and none of her clients had made complaints.
One of Harbrow's former business partners alerted the Nursing Council to Harbrow's administration of the Botox.
The partner left the clinic after Harbrow and the other partner said they would no longer work with her. Relations rapidly deteriorated and Harbrow believed she was singled out because of the personal vendetta.
"I honestly, hand on my heart, on my children's lives, fully believed what I was doing. There was no wrong in it. I still believe I did no wrong."
Harbrow, who is married with two children under six, runs a different beauty therapy firm, but does not practise as a nurse. Her registration lapsed in 2006.
The tribunal accepted Harbrow was an experienced and competent nurse but was also "somewhat confident and exuberant".
"No matter how well she may have administered the Botox, she should not have done it," it ruled.
The tribunal is yet to decide how Harbrow will be disciplined.
