‘More Brits will die unless we crack down on Turkey’s cheap cowboy surgery market now’

At least 24 British citizens have died after cosmetic surgery in Turkey. 

Yet foreign surgeons, unqualified in the UK, are allowed to tour the country as part of cosmetic surgery roadshows, enticing Brits to travel abroad to go under the knife.

The consequences for patients and the NHS are clear. 

When people come home and find they have an infection or have been injured, they naturally turn to the NHS, at an estimated cost of millions of pounds over the last few years alone. (Though the Government still does not record the true figure.)

Yet ministers are failing to introduce the regulation needed to stop these cowboy surgeons.

Anyone giving consultations on medical procedures including cosmetic surgery should be registered with a UK authority.

Registration would allow people to look up a surgeon on an official basis, see their qualifications, where they are from, and allow people to make a more informed choice about whether they are putting their health in the hands of an unsafe surgeon. 

It could also provide the basis for a better system of redress in future for those who are harmed.

Currently, people often rely on online reviews but these should be treated with caution. 

Along with fake positive reviews, some clinics threaten to fine people thousands of pounds if they say anything negative. 

Some even include NDAs in pre-surgery agreements, which should be a red flag to anyone seeking a procedure whether it is abroad or in the UK.

We also need a crackdown on aggressive marketing techniques, which often exploit people’s vulnerabilities.

Terms such as ‘mummy makeover’ prey on insecurities and some clinics offer procedures as part of ‘all-inclusive’ packages, with the return flight just days later.

Terms such as all-inclusive glamorise medical tourism and feed in to a ‘celebrity’ culture that appeals to so many, particularly younger people. 

Flying so soon after some procedures also carries huge risks.

There needs to be a much more proactive approach by social media giants to reviewing ads for these procedures on their platforms, that is clear about the risk of harm.

Anybody considering cosmetic surgery should not go to Turkey. 

Without Government action more people will die and our overstretched NHS will continue to pick up the bill when things go wrong.

The British victims of surgery carried out in Turkey

At least 24 Brits have died following medical tourism trips to Turkey since January 2019, according to the Government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

Here, MailOnline highlights some of the known victims.

Leah Cambridge

Leah Cambridge, 29, suffered a blood clot during a £6,500 Brazilian butt lift surgery in Turkey. 

The mother-of-three, from Leeds, died just one day after travelling to an Elite Aftercare clinic in Turkey in August 2018. 

The trainee beautician, described as being ‘paranoid about her body’, paid in cash for the procedure after being inspired by pictures on Instagram. 

The procedure involved having fat extracted from the waist and injected into the buttocks.

But she suffered a fatal complication when fat was accidentally injected into a vein, causing her to have three heart attacks on the operating table.

Ms Cambridge’s partner Scott Franks told Wakefield Coroner’s Court the surgeon who carried out the procedure told him he had ‘injected the fat too far into the muscle and it entered her veins’. 

Mr Franks said when he flew out to Turkey after his partner died, Dr Ali Uckan, the surgeon who treated Leah, had told him: ‘It’s a guessing game, you can’t see where you are going into.’ 

Ms Cambridge father, Craig, took his own life in 2021, with an inquest held in July last year hearing how he was never able to get past the loss of his daughter. 

Diarra Akua Eunice Brown

Diarra Akua Eunice Brown, died aged 28, two days after getting liposuction at a clinic in the suburb of Bahcelievler in Istanbul, in October 2021. 

She reportedly underwent the operation to have fat removed from her hips. 

While the procedure initially appeared to be a success, Ms Brown ‘suddenly’ fell ill while having her dressings changed.

She died just hours later. 

Social media posts from family and friends described her as a ‘beautiful soul’ and a ‘close friend’.

‘This must be a dream,’ one post said. ‘Still can’t come to terms with this yet.’

‘I miss you angel. I’m devastated you were taken away way before your time,’ said another.

Shannon Bowe

Shannon Bowe, from Denny, near Falkirk, died while undergoing gastric band surgery in Turkey in April 2023. 

The 28-year-old passed away during the procedure which involves placing a band around the stomach.

Where exactly Ms Bowe had the procedure in Turkey and the complication that led to her death have not been revealed.

In the aftermath of her death, Ms Bowe’s boyfriend Ross Stirling wrote on social media: ‘Sleep tight my angel, love you forever and always.’

Gastric band surgery involves a doctor placing a gastric band around the top of the stomach, creating a small pouch.

When the patient eats, this small pouch fills up more quickly than their stomach normally would, making them feel fuller with less food.

By encouraging them to eat less, the procedure can help patients lose weight.  

Melissa Kerr

Melissa Kerr, 31, died while undergoing cosmetic butt-lift surgery in Turkey before her wedding.

Ms Kerr traveled to Istanbul’s Medicana Haznedar Hospital in November 2019 for gluteal augmentation, which can cost up to £3,150. 

The mental health counsellor, from Gorleston, Norfolk, died from a blocked artery in her lung while undergoing surgery.  

Her twin sister Natasha who set up a justgiving.com page after her death described her as ‘a pure and beautiful soul inside and out’.

Abimbola Ajoke Bamgbose 

Abimbola Ajoke Bamgbose, a 38-year-old social worker from Dartford, Kent, died in August 2020 after liposuction surgery in Turkey. 

The mother-of-three bought an overseas package deal with Mono Cosmetic Surgery suffered multiple organ failure as a complication of the lipo. 

Her husband Moyosore Olowo was unaware she had traveled abroad for cosmetic surgery. He believed his wife was simply going on holiday with her friends. 

It was not until Mrs Bamgbose called her husband to say she was suffering from stomach pains following the procedure that he found out what had happened. 

Mr Olowo said his wife had visited a private medical practice in the UK but that the cost had been too high for her to have the treatment carried out there.

Carol Keenan

Carol Keenan, 54, died six days after undergoing surgery for a Brazilian butt lift and a tummy tuck in Turkey.  

The grandmother, of Glenrothes, Fife, paid £7,000 to undergo the surgery at a private hospital in Istanbul after becoming anxious about the way her body looked.

Ms Keenan also accepted the offer of free abdominal muscle repair surgery shortly before she was taken into the operating theatre.

But she died before she was due to have a final check up and fly home.  

Her daughter Leonie Keenan, 32, said: ‘My mother was a fit and healthy individual. She was a very petite size 10 and she kept in shape by walking everywhere and going swimming.

‘She was a very active grandmother who loved bouncing on the trampoline with the kids, but she was not happy with her body even though everyone told her she looked great.

‘She set her heart on having surgery after seeing stories about other people and celebrities having procedures. I don’t know if it was like a mid-life crisis.’