Cartoon Network from the 90s is considered the era of best cartoon shows. One iconic character was Popeye whose strength, huge biceps and spinach obsession made him popular among kids. One such kid was Kirill Tereshin who wanted to look exactly like the ‘Sailor Man’ with gigantic biceps so, he took his obsession to a whole new level by injecting petroleum jelly into his arms.
However, the Russian MMA fighter’s condition worsened as the swelling went bad hindering his day-to-day life and according to doctors, he could potentially lose his arm- or even his life.
Tereshin’s enormous biceps turned him into a local celebrity and a social media sensation when he underwent surgery in 2019 injecting almost three litres of petroleum jelly but soon his condition deteriorated forcing him to undergo another surgery to fully remove the dangerous implants.
As per the New York Post, he lost his first fight after the surgery in just three minutes to an opponent 20 years elder to him. His problems caused by the implants began shortly after.
Talking about his 24-inch biceps, he says that he is only 24 but his immune system is not coping up with the inflammation and now he needs surgery to get rid of this nightmare.’ He called his decision to bulk up his arms as ‘his own stupidity’ with no consequences.
As the swelling got worse, his guns had gotten 60 cm in circumference and weighed an extra three pounds each. Tereshin was persuaded by Alana Mamaeva, a campaigner against cosmetic surgery abuses, to have the implants removed as it could take his life.
Russian surgeon Dmitry Melkinov performed the implants removal surgery after a wait of more than a year due to the pandemic.
Talking to Sportbible, Melkinov explained that petroleum jelly saturates the muscles, under skin tissues and the skin itself, all of which had to be removed keeping the veins, nerves and other functions of the limbs. Noting that petroleum jelly is made for external application and not for injection, he adds it saturated the muscle tissue and blocked the blood flow.
Melnikov regrets his decision now and blames himself for the stupidity. Talking to the Post he shared how worried he is about the surgery on his biceps. Left with hardened slabs of the jelly and dead muscle in his triceps, the fighter will have to undergo more surgeries to remove the rest of the left hardened jelly.