[imagesource: Pinky Jolley]

Lured in by the promise of cheap medical treatment, thousands of Brits are heading to Turkey for procedures that often turn out to be life-threatening if not fatal.

The popular procedures for tourists to have in Turkey include hair transplants, mammoplasty (boob jobs), rhinoplasty (nose jobs), facelifts, abdominoplasty (tummy tucks), and dental implants, the cost of which are all a fraction of what one would pay in the UK.

A tummy tuck, for example, can cost around £6 000 (R117 000) in the UK, while in Turkey it can be done for around £2 000 (R40 000).

With such a competitive edge, Turkish doctors have even been offering more invasive surgeries such as gastric bypasses and sleeves, with tourists able to buy a package deal to get the life-changing surgery done quickly.

An average all-inclusive package for a gastric sleeve in Turkey – which includes flights, accommodation and a translator who speaks your native language – is around £3 000 (under R60 000), while in Britain it’s often as high as £10 000 (under R200 000).

But when something is that cheap, you can bet your bottom dollar you’ll be shortchanged on quality.

Birmingham Mail reported that the UK’s Foreign Office (FCO) revealed that a total of 22 UK citizens died during medical tourism trips to Turkey since January 2019:

The FCO now urges medical tourists to prioritise medical accreditations and reliability over cheaper prices. It comes after a rise in ‘underground establishments’ cropping up online that appear to be legitimate and give an aura of professionalism, but are actually not accredited by Turkish authorities.

Last year, Joe Thornley from Derbyshire tragically died after travelling to Istanbul to get a bariatric sleeve fitted – a procedure where your stomach is cut away to help you lose weight:

His mother, Julie, was told that her son had died during the operation after having a heart attack. However, when Joe’s body was returned to the UK, a post-mortem found the 25-year-old had actually died from internal bleeding.

“It was the aftercare, or they didn’t realise he was bleeding,” Julie says. She had initially not been concerned when her son told her of going to Turkey because it “looked like a nice hospital,” reported YorkshireLive.

45-year-old Pinky Jolley raised £2 000 through a GoFundMe to get a gastric sleeve in Turkey but was left fighting for her life as the botched surgery left her stomach ”like concrete”:

”It’s been a horrible ordeal I just want to be well again. ‘Looking back it was so cheap that I really should have thought twice but I just got so swept up.” Pinky explained: “I was excited that I might be finally doing something about my weight that I had waited four years to sort out. I had so much support from people after raising the money.

“I wanted to get started straight away.” Pinky explained: “It felt like someone was stabbing my stomach constantly. The only pain medication that was offered was paracetamol which barely helped with the pain. I demanded blood tests because I had never felt pain like this before.”

Meanwhile, thousands more have jetted off to Turkey for a new smile, with the highest profile case of Katie Price documenting her experience getting cosmetic dental work done:

 

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Although her gnashers appear perfectly pearly white, underneath those crowns and veneers are her real teeth, completely chiselled away. She revealed them in this horrific behind-the-scenes video:

A dental expert also said that she could potentially have “no tooth tissue remaining” after years of dental work.

[source:birminghamlive]