Today mother and daughter reveal the hell they found themselves trapped in in Turkey after a botched operation left hundreds of Britons seriously injured.
Shocking new figures show that 324 people who visited the NHS for cosmetic surgery ended up needing corrective surgery.
Sadly, many others died.
Many Brits are attracted by budget packages that include accommodation, transport and tours.
Jackie Wicks, 60, and her daughter Tracy Visagie, 36, both required extensive treatment on the NHS after the incident in Izmir in April.
Devastated Jackie needed emergency surgery after being tackled in the stomach.
She said: “I’m in a very dark place and wish I hadn’t had the surgery. I’m not sleeping, I’m not eating, I’m having nightmares and I’m very depressed.”
The NHS is struggling to cope with the impact of returning British nationals needing treatment.
Jackie needed emergency surgery and six rounds of antibiotics after her tummy tuck failed.
Alastair Brown, member of the British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, said: “The NHS needs to streamline what it can offer to patients undergoing cosmetic surgery overseas.
“It is only in cases of severe infection, skin necrosis, sepsis, or severe infection that we can actually perform life-saving surgery.
“Sometimes, no matter how skilled you are, you just can’t put things back together.
“There are such luxurious surgery packages available overseas, so why are they so cheap?
“There isn’t enough pre-op counselling like in the UK and another big concern is aftercare. If a patient goes home too early and something goes wrong, where is the aftercare?”
Jackie and Tracy, from Ramsgate, Kent, booked the package through a third-party agency and were encouraged by the positive reviews for the surgeon.
Jackie was quoted £10,000 for abdominal surgery in the UK, but it was only £4,000 in Turkey.
Tracy, worried about her sagging skin after losing five stone, was told she would have to undergo a £13,000 tummy tuck and breast implants.
But for just £5,000 I was told I could get both treatments plus a range of liposuction procedures.
Tracy said: “I did a lot of research on the surgeon. The photos on his Instagram page were amazing and finally made my dream body look achievable.”
The pair claim they first met the surgeon just hours before the operation, but after regaining consciousness, they both realised something was wrong, and Jackie claims she asked to take a video of the surgeon looking happy within hours of the operation.
She said: “I had no idea what was under the bandage, but now I understand why some of the reviews are so good. It’s because people put the bandage on before there’s a problem.”
Tracy now “hates” her body after being rushed to the emergency room after undergoing tummy tuck, breast implants and liposuction surgery
Trouble for the couple began three days later, when they returned to their hotel. “We were in a lot of pain and my wound was getting darker and darker,” Jackie said.
She claimed doctors reassured them that they would be OK.
Jackie added: “The doctor didn’t even look at the wound itself, or Tracy’s scars, and told her not to remove the tape for 14 days. He also said no showers for four weeks. That’s ridiculous coming from a British surgeon. There was no post-op care whatsoever.”
Nine days later, the women returned to the UK in pain. Jackie continued. “On the 14th day, I removed the tape from my stomach. Two days later, the black area had grown larger and was oozing. The nurse took one look and immediately sent me to the emergency room. It was necrotic and infected. I was doing it.”
Jackie had to undergo emergency surgery to remove dead tissue, and two weeks later she collapsed at home and was rushed back to theatre.
She was given six rounds of antibiotics to rid her body of the infection and is still being cared for by NHS nurses.
Doctors told her she should never have had an abdominoplasty, given that she had had gallbladder surgery years before.
She claims she had no idea this would be a concern and that doctors did not question her before the operation. Text messages between Jackie and the doctor show that despite the doctor signing a medical certificate, she was told the women should not have left Turkey.
His email read: “It’s not my fault. Normally I have to manage the patient for a month, but you end up being discharged from the hospital after surgery, and the treatment is incomplete.”
Tracy also ended up in A&E after dead tissue from her nipples formed a hole in her breast. She also has scars on both of her breasts, a disfigured navel, and a large bulge in the skin under her pubic bone. She claims her surgeon decided not to perform some liposuction surgeries without explanation.
Tracy said: “My body is a mess. My mum and I are shocked. I never liked my body before but I hate it now.”
“I also feel so guilty that my mother had a horrible surgery by the surgeon I found. I’ve been taking care of her and helping her wash every day. Her condition is awful. I think the bad reviews will be removed or covered up.”
Tracy and Jackie consulted a lawyer about their experience. When we contacted them yesterday about the matter, the agency offered to give the women a full refund. In his response, the doctor claimed that the women were discharged from the hospital “three to four days” after the surgery.
He added, “In plastic surgery, 15-20% of patients may require correction. [they] You will need to wait 6 months after surgery.
“They told me [an] “I’m not an agent, so I’m not allowed to communicate with patients.”
According to the women’s documents, they had been in Turkey for nine days.
The country is also a hotspot for risky Brazilian breast augmentation surgery, which has a mortality rate of one in 3,000 and is one of the most dangerous cosmetic procedures.
Since 2018, at least three British women have died after traveling to undergo surgery with different surgeons. Leah Cambridge, 29, a mother of three from Leeds, died in 2018 after suffering an artery blockage during surgery in Izmir.
Brides-to-be Melissa Kerr, 31, from Gorleston, Norfolk, died on an operating table in Istanbul in November 2019 after a blockage in an artery in her lungs. And mother-of-three Abimbola Ajoke Bamboose, 38, from Dartford, Kent, died two weeks after undergoing a butt lift and liposuction in Izmir in August 2020. Ta.
In Turkey in 2021 alone, 75 women and seven men have been treated on the NHS for complications arising from cosmetic surgery, including Diara Akua Younis Brown, 28, from Wolverhampton, who was unable to return home.
She died in October last year, two days after being discharged from an Istanbul clinic following liposuction surgery.
