A woman in China was shocked to discover that she had been secretly filmed during breast augmentation surgery after she recognised herself in a video that was being shared widely online.

The woman, surnamed Gao, underwent a breast enlargement procedure at a cosmetic surgery hospital in Henan province, central China, in January.

Five months later, she was shocked to discover a video of herself, alongside several other women, circulating on Douyin, China’s TikTok.

The footage showed Gao post-surgery, heavily bandaged and still under anaesthetic. She was identifiable in the video which has attracted 28,000 likes and 39,000 shares.

Gao says her privacy has been severely violated and has repeatedly contacted the hospital to demand that the person who did the filming be identified and the video be deleted.

She has also asked the hospital to make a public apology and pay her compensation.

The hospital has refused to apologise saying that the video was taken and posted by an “external” party.

All surveillance footage is destroyed after three months, so tracing who took the video is impossible, the hospital said, adding that it could only commit to coordinating with the social media platform to remove the video if it reappears online.

However, Gao insisted that the hospital should be able to identify the person who did the filming.

She argued that the operating theatre is a highly private setting, and the video clearly showed the presence of doctors and nurses, making it highly unlikely that an outsider would have been able to enter and film.

The hospital then revised its position, claiming that the individual who recorded the video had since left the hospital and that they had deleted their contact information.

This response caused an outcry online.

“If the person who did the filming has left the job, any organisation could use this excuse to avoid responsibility, attributing it to individual employee actions,” said one person.

“Whenever something goes wrong, they say it was a temporary worker or someone who has left. They always shirk responsibility,” another person added.

Gao has decided to sue the hospital.

Posting videos online showing patients’ faces without their consent constitutes an infringement of privacy rights and image rights, Ma Bin, a lawyer from Tianxin Law Firm in Henan, central China, told the Shanghai Morning Post.

He added that even if the video was produced by an external individual, the hospital remains responsible.

 - SCMP