Louise, 21, from London, appeared on Channel 4’s Sun, Sea and Surgery Cameras followed her as she travelled to Turkey seeking low-price liposuction Shortly before surgery, Dr Serkan Balta ‘pressured’ her into having further opShe had fat injections into hips, despite saying she wasn’t sure if she wanted toViewers were horrified by the surgeon’s behaviour on the programme One wrote: ‘This girl is so young, and you’re pressurising her into a BBL?’
Viewers of Sun, Sea, and Surgery were left horrified last night after a 21-year-old British woman was ‘pressured’ by Turkish surgeons into having fat injection in her hips and given just hours to decide.
Louise, 21, from Oxfordshire, appeared in the Channel 4 programme last night as she travelled to the Comfort Zone clinic in Turkey for liposuction in her thighs, stomach, lower back, hips and arms.
But during her one-and-only consultation with Dr Serkan Balta shortly before her surgery, he asked if she wanted a Brazilian Butt Lift, before ‘recommending’ she have a fat injected into her hips to achieve the body shape she wanted.
The Brazilian Butt Lift, also known as BBL, hit headlines last year after mother-of-three Leah Cambridge, 29, from Leeds, died while having the surgery at another clinic in Turkey last year.
Despite admitting she ‘hadn’t had the chance to take anything in’, Louise decided to have the fat injections, saying: ‘The body shape I ‘m wanting, if they’re saying that’s the way to do it, then I’ll do it.’
Many viewers were horrified by the programme, accusing the surgeons of being ‘money-grabbing’ and ‘pressurising’.
Viewers of Sun, Sea and Surgery were shocked last night after watching Louise, 21, from Oxfordshire, be ‘pressured’ into having a Brazilian Butt Lift (also known as BBL) shortly before she was meant to be having liposuction Dr Balta told the 21-year-old that an injection of fat into her hips would help her achieve the body shape she dreamed of
One said: ‘Sun, Sea and Surgery is honestly so disappointing. This girl is so young, and you’re pressurising her into a Brazilian Butt Lift? An hour before her surgery.’
Another wrote: ‘He was pushing a 21-year-old too much to have Brazilian Butt Lift with a fat transfer. She should have had somebody there to say NO.’
Louise travelled to Comfort Zone Clinic in Turkey, an all-inclusive cosmetic surgery provider, where 70 per cent of the clients are British women.
The clinic pairs clients with regulated plastic surgeons, and provides full-board aftercare at their villas.
Many of those watching were left horrified by the programme, with some suggesting the doctors were ‘pressurising’
The clinic’s boss Engin explained his motivation for starting the business, saying: ‘Plastic surgery is very expensive in Britain. Social media and plastic surgery go hand-in-hand.
‘Obviously some of the results do go wrong. I think we have to be realistic about what we’re offering here. when a person makes a decision to come abroad, they’re getting a major discounted rate, but there are some setbacks.’
He went on: ‘If they have a major thing that needs corrected, then they have to come back to Turkey. They will only have to pay for flights, and everything is free here.’
Initially, Louise said she wanted to have liposuction in six areas, thighs, stomach, lower back, hips and arms.
Louise initially said she wanted to have liposuction in six different areas of her body after her mother convinced her not to have a Brazilian Butt Lift
Having taken out a loan for the surgery, she said she planned to spend £2,750 on transforming her body.
She said: ‘I’ve got a muffin top. I’m not saying I’m fat. There’s just more there than I want.’
Kristine, Louise’s mother, said: ‘I’ve always been big, but I never worry about what other people think of me and what I look like.’
Meanwhile Louise revealed she had long-suffered with depression and anxiety, having been diagnosed as a young teenager.
Louise admitted she had long suffered from depression and anxiety, and regularly self harmed as a teenager
She said: ‘I used to self harm. I grew up with cuts all over my breasts and thighs and ribs.
‘It wasn’t so much about the shape of my body, it was what was on my body that I couldn’t show it.
‘And since I’ve got older, and I’m healed, I’ve pushed the worry on to the shape of my body. It’s like there’s something always holding me back from being confident with myself.’
Louise admitted she felt pressurised by social media, and regularly edited her photos to make her body look perfect.
Her mother Kristine told her she didn’t need surgery, and said she had convinced her against having the dangerous Brazilian Butt Lift operation
She said: ‘On social media, I am who I want to be. Whereas in reality, I’m not.’
During a frank conversation with her mother ahead of the surgery, Kristine said: ‘I don’t think you need surgery at all.’
But Louise argued: ‘It’s not a need, it’s a want. I’m in a situation where I am changing myself. It’s just like a tug of war in my mind.’
Her mother said she had already told her daughter there was ‘no way’ she was having a Brazilian butt lift.
However when Louise had her one and only consultation with Dr Balta, he recommended she have fat injected into her hips to achieve the shape she wanted
Louise said: ‘You managed to convince me not to go that deep into it because of how risky BBLs are.’
The 21-year-old planned to stay at the Turkish clinic for four days, with her consultation with a doctor and surgery on the same day.
WHAT IS A BRAZILIAN BUTT LIFT?
A Brazilian Butt Lift uses fat transferred from other areas of the body, such as the love handles, hips or stomach, to provide patients with a fuller derriere.
Clinics report the procedure, which costs between £6,500 and £10,000, has seen more than a 50 per cent increase compared to five years ago.
The procedure’s nickname was coined in 1996 after Dr Leonard Grossman was filmed performing fat transfer surgery on a patient from Brazil.
The surgery takes anywhere from one to two hours to perform. The amount of downtime ranges from one to three weeks, plastic surgeons claim.
HOW IT WORKS:
1. Liposuction to remove fat from abdomen/hips/thighs
2. Fat is ‘processed’
3. Fat is injected into buttocks
BBL STYLES:
Upside-down heart, or ‘A-shape’: Much smaller waist and larger buttocks towards the bottom
Round: emphasis on increasing the size of the butt, not pulling in the waist or thighs
HOW TO PREPARE:
Don’t smoke (increases infection risk and blood clot risk)
Don’t gain weight (when you lose it again, your butt will change)
RISK OF DEATH:
Higher than most operations – 20 in 100,000 compared with 1 in 100,000.
There are two major risk factors that can make a BBL fatal:
Blood clots travel to lungs
Accidental injection of fat to blood vessel
RECOVERY:
1. Don’t work for 10 days
2. Don’t sit for 6 weeks
3. Sleep on stomach
4. Final shape will take months or a year to form
But during their consultation, Dr Balta appeared to think the fat injections could be the best option for Louise.
He told her: ‘Are you looking for BBL or not? When we remove your fat, we have two choices. Throw it away to waste, or second, use it, in your breasts, in your buttocks.’
Touching her bottom, he said: ‘You have some projection, but you have some lack of tissue in your outer hips here.’
He went on: ‘I know your concerns is mostly about the fat and the embolism right?
‘In these type of surgeries, we put fat over the muscle. Making a big bum, giving extreme fat inside the muscle is risky, yes. But if you just give less amounts over the muscle, it’s not too risky as you thought.’
He added: ‘We can just recommend it to you, but it’s going to be your choice.’
And an overwhelmed Louise admitted she had been left not knowing what to do.
Dr Balta said: ‘Okay, we have time, we will talk over it. But if you still don’t want to do this, we will not perform anyway.’
He went on to tell the camera: ‘When you only have one consultation, you cannot understand if the patient is ready psychologically.
‘If they have so much concerns in their eyes, it’s better to delay surgery or just reject them. It’s going to be their choice, but I just show them direction.’
An overwhelmed Louise said: ‘I haven’t had a chance to take anything in.
‘I haven’t had a chance to consider the fat transfer thing.
‘The body shape I’m wanting, if they’re saying that’s the way to do it, then I’ll do it.’
As she was prepared her for surgery, she said: ‘I just wish I wasn’t rushed on the decision. They’ve just bought in a BBL pillow.
‘This is not what I came here to do. I don’t know what to do.’
But having made up her mind, she spoke to her mother over the phone from home.
She told her: ‘They’re putting fat into my hips. They said that the bum is the riskiest area, and they said they’re not going to put any in my bum.’
Admitting she was incredibly worried about the procedure, Louise said: ‘It’s a last- minute add-on type thing. But any adjustments are literally last-minute.’
And after her surgery, she admitted she felt ‘sore’, saying she never expected the operation to be so painful.
As Louise was prepared for surgery, she admitted she still was unsure about whether to have the further operation But having made up her mind, she told her mother that she would be going ahead to have fat injected into her hips
She said: ‘Me being in bed, barely being able to walk wasn’t something I anticipated.’
Engin said: ‘It’s not all about the money, we have to make sure patients are happy with the results.
‘We’re just running a business, we’re not forcing anyone to come for surgery.’
Louise returned home to her mother four days after surgery. and seven weeks after her operation, said she was happy with the results.
The British mother-of-three who died having £6,500 BBL at Turkish clinic
Leah Cambridge, 29, from Leeds, suffered three heart attacks after having a Brazilian Butt Lift
Leah Cambridge, 29, from Leeds, saved up thousands of pounds to have the procedure done in Izmir, Turkey, in August 2018 after feeling ‘paranoid about her body’.
But the beautician died while undergoing the controversial operation, where fat is removed from certain areas of the body – including the stomach and back – and then transferred into the buttocks to achieve an hourglass figure.
She is believed to have suffered three heart attacks after the operation which involved injecting fat into muscles in her bottom.
Her inquest at Wakefield Coroner’s Court in October 2019 heard how she booked the surgery against the wishes of her partner, Scott Franks, through a company named Elite Aftercare, which offers clients a package that includes a stay in a villa.
Recording a conclusion that Miss Cambridge died having the Brazilian butt lift (BBL) after not being fully appraised of the risks involved, coroner Kevin McLoughlin said: ‘Against this backdrop, those involved in facilitating or conducting BBL procedures must decide whether it’s safe to continue to do so.
He added: ‘At the very least, anyone thinking of submitting themselves to the hazards associated with the BBL should seek out independent medical advice.’
She said: ‘I don’t count it as a BBL, nothing was put, it was all put on my hips. I just like liposuction and a bit of fat transfer.’
She explained: ‘Before my surgery, if I had taken a photo and put it on Instagram, I would have photoshopped my body to look this way.’
But Louise also said she wouldn’t recommend surgeries to other people who have confidence issues, saying: ‘If you’ve got that mentality, that you think you’re not good enough, you find things to pick at.
‘I had an unrealistic idea that having surgery would take away everything issue I had.
After the surgery, Louise was barely able to get out of bed or walk, saying she never anticipated that she would be in so much pain And seven weeks after the operation, Louise said she was happy with the results of her surgery but didn’t consider what she had a BBL
‘I wouldn’t recommend surgery, it’s not a quick fix to whatever underlying issue you have about yourself.’
Viewers were shocked by the programme, with many suggesting it was ‘all wrong’.
One commented: ‘On Sun, Sea and Surgery…wait, is this guy (surgeon) trying to persuade the young girl to have a BBL?’
One wrote: ‘Sun, sea and surgery is so wrong. Pressuring girls to have things done they don’t want, and giving them hardly anytime to think it all over. All they care about is money.’