A Turkish plastic surgery case that went viral on social media has been revealed to be fake, with the “after” photos showing someone else’s body.
Images showing before and after surgery purportedly performed on an American tourist in Turkey have been widely circulated as they appear to depict a dramatic transformation.
This was hailed as a testament to the skills of Turkey’s plastic surgeons, who have been in high demand in recent years amid a rise in medical tourism in the country.
However, some have questioned the authenticity of the images, with some wondering whether they depict the same person.
This has certainly proven to be true.
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Turkish television station Ekol TV tracked down the man in the “after” image and revealed that his name is Engin Demir, not Michael, and that he is a Turkish national.
“I’m not the person in this news story. I didn’t have a face transplant,” he told the station, adding that he had another operation four years ago.
His photo was posted alongside an image of another man on the Instagram account of Esthemed Istanbul, which has more than 600,000 followers and regularly posts before and after photos of patients after treatments.
Demir said he plans to take legal action against the images.
“My phone doesn’t stop ringing. I keep getting messages. I’m tired of answering the phones,” he said.
“Enough already. Boring.”
Turkey is ranked among the top 10 medical tourism destinations globally, according to Patients Without Borders (PBB), an organization that tracks medical tourism, with 600 registered clinics in Istanbul alone.
Local media reports that more than 100,000 people, mostly from Arab countries, have traveled to the country just to undergo hair transplant surgery.
Advertisements for low-cost operations in Turkey are frequently posted across social media, particularly on image-sharing sites such as Instagram.
