A BRITISH mum has been left butchered and in constant pain after some cosmetic surgery in Turkey went horribly wrong.
Sara Platt, 33, forked out £14,000 for a tummy tuck, a boob job and three other procedures in Antalya earlier this year – a mere fraction of what she would have paid in the UK.
But, the mother-of-four claims she was “mutilated” by the surgeons during the 13-hour operation.
She told MailOnline: “I’ve got two holes in my stomach, I’ve got no boobs, I’ve got a hump on my back and I’m in constant pain.
“What happened over there has ruined my life.”
Sadly, Sara, from South Wales, is far from alone.
Turkey is set to overtake France as the second most popular European destination for Brits, largely due to a huge surge in what has been called ‘cosmetic tourism’.
This is when people travel abroad to undergo cosmetic surgery in countries where it is much cheaper.
The Government updated travel advice this year to say at least 25 British nationals had died following medical visits to Turkey since January 2019.
Other Brits had been left with a host of horrible complications, ranging from wound-healing issues to life-threatening sepsis, which requires further life-saving treatment on the NHS.
Like many others before her, Sara had been lured by the prospect of getting the surgeries done in Turkey, where they would be a third of the price, and she could recover in the sun.
She had just lost 12st after being fitted with a gastric sleeve but was left with vast volumes of painful loose skin, which the NHS would not remove.
Surgery in the UK would have cost £33,000, which she said was well beyond her means.
Then she discovered a surgeon in Turkey who had “plenty of five-star reviews” and offered to do the procedure for half the price.
In February, she and her parents flew into Antalya.
When she went for pre-op blood tests the next day, she noticed the hospital was advertised as a fertility and birth unit, which she said seemed a bit odd.
Then she met the surgeon who told her “he would get his knife ready”.
“His exact words were: ‘I’ll sharpen it tonight,’ I’ll never forget it,” she added.
The next day, Sara claims the hospital rushed her into signing paperwork that was in Turkish.
I called my husband and said I was going to die.
Sara Platt
She was in surgery for 13 hours and woke up in a compression suit, covered in drains and in horrific pain.
Sara discovered that not only had her surgeon operated on her stomach and breasts, but he’d also removed skin from her arms and sides, too – a procedure she had discussed undertaking at a later date.
Doctors had allegedly taken so much skin from her chest that she couldn’t breathe, she explained.
When she finally got a chance to look at her body, Sara was horrified.
It looked like she had three boobs, and her body was black and blue, she said.
“I called my husband and said I was going to die and begged him to look after our four children. The youngest is four, and the oldest is only 13,” she recalled.
The mum was discharged to her hotel room and given no further care by the hospital.
Back in the UK, still in huge pain, her doctor said her wounds were infected.
She was rushed into emergency surgery for the first of nine procedures to try to fix the damage done by her surgeon in Turkey.
Doctors revealed Sara had contracted a treatment-resistant infection from the Turkish hospital – forcing her into isolation for weeks, away from her children.
Sara said the surgeon removed too much of her stomach skin, leaving a gaping wound that needed skin grafts from her legs.
And her right breast has died, with part of the left boob also dying due to tissue damage.
Despite the best efforts of NHS doctors, she has been left with holes in her stomach and lumps under her skin where fatty tissue has died.
“The trauma is so huge that I have endless nightmares and PTSD,” she said.
“I would do anything to turn back the clock.”
