A woman who made the life-changing choice to have surgery in Turkey has revealed how the botched operation has left her in so much pain, at times she has wanted ‘to die’ and at one point was hospitalised with psychosis caused by the realisation of the extent of the disfigurement.
According to a report by ITV, Sara Platt, 33, from South Wales, had an operation in 2021 in Turkey to reduce the size of her stomach. She went on to lose 12 stone, but was left with excess skin, causing sores and an unpleasant smell, as it rubbed together.
Her only option to get rid of the skin was further surgery, but as she was not able to have the operation on the NHS, she says getting it done privately would cost around £33,000 in the UK.
Instead, she researched, and found a surgeon in Turkey, who had numerous five-star reviews (which Sara now believes are fake) who would perform the loose skin removal as well as a breast uplift and implants, all for £15,000.
In addition to the price of the op, Sara was lured in by the promise that she’d be able to recover from the extensive work under the Turkish sun – however, this was not the case, and instead, she was left to rot in a dingy hotel room because of botched surgery, which has led to her requiring nine corrective surgeries on the NHS, as well as permanent disfigurement that at one point left her hospitalised.
Sara Platt (pictured) from South Wales has shared her horror story of getting plastic surgery abroad in a bid to help others
The 33-year-old paid £15,000 to have loose skin removed as well as a breast uplift and tummy tuck – but went on to need another 10 operations on the NHS to try and fix the damage
Previously speaking about the surgery, she said: ‘My body is mutilated: 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.’
She added: ‘Surgery in the UK would be £33,000, which was beyond my means.
‘I found a place where it would cost £15,000 in Turkey. It wasn’t the cheapest, but the clinic and the surgeon had plenty of five-star reviews although I have since found out they were almost certainly fake.’
She flew to Turkey for the operation in February 2023, but realised as soon as she woke up from the 13-hour procedure that something was wrong.
Dressed in a compression suit and covered in drains, she has said she was in horrific pain, and couldn’t breathe as the surgeon had taken so much skin that she ‘couldn’t expand [her] lungs.
Speaking to ITV, she said: ‘I remember coming round and my Dad being by the side of me and saying, “you need to breathe Sara, you need to breathe”. There were loads of nurses around me and I was like “kill me, tell them to kill me, Dad, you need to tell them to kill me. I can’t do this, you need to tell them”.’
According to the mother-of-four, the pain was so intense she had never experienced anything like it before, and ‘wanted to die’ because she ‘couldn’t deal’ with it.
Sara continued to feel ill, and was still suffering immensely nine days after the surgery, at which point, she asked her husband to help her remove the bandages, which they did in the hotel bathroom
Among the results of the botched surgery, Sara (pictured) was left with a scar on her stomach after requiring a skin graft following the original operation
What happened next left her horrified: brown liquid was seeping from her body, leaving her feeling like she was ‘coming apart’.
Far from recovering by a pool under the Turkish sun, Sara says she was rotting away in a hotel room.
The surgeon decided to perform a further procedure on the 33-year-old, but this time, it was performed in what she believes was a beautician’s clinic – and only local anaesthetic was used, meaning Sara was awake while the work was being done.
She told ITV that the surgeon was handed a ‘burning tool’ – and that she could feel the burning sensation on her stomach, an experience that made her feel like her skin was on fire – and one that she says will forever haunt her, ruining her life.
Sara was provided with a fit-to-fly certificate following this procedure, and she returned to South Wales, when she went to A&E.
The on call Consultant Plastic Surgeon, Professor Iain Whitaker, has described Sara’s case as ‘devastating’.
He reports that she was suffering from significant infection and had lots of dead tissue.
As well as being left with scars, the botched surgery left the mother-of-four with pain and limited movement
In fact, the situation was so serious that a delay in care could have created a chance of mortality, he said.
According to Sara: ‘I also discovered I had contracted MDRO [multidrug-resistant organisms] from the dirty implements used.’
Se spent more than eight weeks in hospital, undergoing nine surgeries in an attempt to repair the damage and save her life.
But 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.’
Sara lost her right breast, and was left with significant scarring around her body, including a wound on her stomach left from a skin graft. In addition, the work has left her with limited mobility.
During ITV’s coverage, the broadcaster followed Sara as she underwent her tenth corrective operation – which helped close the gap left on her stomach from the skin graft, and will hopefully increase her mobility and reduce her level of pain.
According to The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, when treating complications caused by surgeries had abroad, it costs the NHS an estimated average £15,000 per patient.
And Professor Whitaker noted that in addition to the financial cost, these patients cost the NHS ‘bed days’, which could be used to treat others.
Sara says she will ‘repay the NHS for saving my life’, and she could not ‘be more thankful’ for the care and surgery she received from the service.
In addition to the physical pain caused by the botched work, realisation that she’d undergone a near death experience, and that she will be disfigured for life also badly affected Sara mentally.
At one point, she endured a period of psychosis, during which she was admitted to an in-patient mental health unit.
Describing the whole process, Sara told ITV that it has ‘destroyed’ her, her family, and her whole future, leaving her feeling like ‘a shell’, and not feeling like herself anymore.
Sara (pictured) says that the experienced ruined her life, she is haunted by the fall out, and no longer feels like herself
She has shared her story because she wanted to warn people about the potential consequences of having cosmetic procedures abroad, in the hopes of helping people.
According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), those needing hospital treatment in the UK after cosmetic surgery abroad has shot up 94 per cent in three years — from 57 in 2020 to 111 in 2022, with 124 cases so far this year — with procedures carried out in Turkey accounting for more than three-quarters of those in the past six months alone.
The organisation started to ‘join the dots’, as BAAPS president Marc Pacifico puts it, two years ago, when colleagues shared stories of patients with complications arising from procedures abroad. ‘It became apparent that these stories weren’t one-offs,’ he recalls. He started an online database where those affected could share their experiences.
‘One of the fundamentals of plastic surgery best practice is whether you are doing the right operation on the right person at the right time,’ he says.
‘We were hearing things like tummy tucks on morbidly obese wheelchair-bound diabetics who should never be remotely considered for surgery. There were also many absolutely dreadful stories of aftercare — or lack of it.’
