A mum says getting a Brazilian butt lift (BBL) in Turkey was 'the biggest mistake of her life' after dying on the operating table and needing to be resuscitated - leaving her with life-long heart problems. Courteney Smith flew to Turkey for a BBL - where fat is transferred from the abdomen to the buttocks - in August 2020 after finding a cosmetic surgery company on social media.
The 25-year-old says she regretted the op the moment she woke from surgery in excruciating pain and was then forced to spend days at the clinic's private villa without any doctors on hand to care for her. After waking up from surgery two hours later than expected on her back instead of her front, and with an unusual mark on her chest, the mum suspected that something hadn't gone to plan but says doctors denied any issues.
But when she returned to the UK and visited her GP with chest pain, she claims she was told the bruise was from being resuscitated, which she says doctors in Turkey eventually confessed to. Courteney says she has now been left with heart problems for life as well as other lasting issues from the surgery despite not even getting the result she had hoped for.
Courteney, from Hertfordshire, said: "When I woke up from surgery I was lying on my bum. Obviously you're not meant to be lying on your bum when you've just had BBL surgery, you're supposed to be on your front.
"As they were taking the garment off me I was screaming and crying because I was in so much pain - my bum looked like I'd had a skin graft, it was red raw. The pain was 1,000 times worse than childbirth without pain relief, it was unbearable. I literally thought I was dying.
"The next day I was lying on my front like you're supposed to after the surgery but I was struggling to breathe and had pain in my chest. When I looked at my chest I had a massive lump and bruise.
"I questioned them about why it was there and they basically said it was because of the liposuction but the liposuction should stop underneath your boobs. When I got back to the UK I went to the doctor and they said that the bruise is from being resuscitated.
"That was really scary to hear. I never had any problems with my heart before so I wasn't expecting them to say that." The stay-at-home mum says her experience with the Turkish clinic was poor as soon as she arrived at the hospital for surgery.
She claims the promised consultation to discuss her goals for the op was bypassed with the surgeon instead just marking up her body and saying he would give her 'what all the English girls like'. Courteney says that she was advised the surgery would take three hours but she woke from the op five hours later confused to find herself lying on her back.
BBL patients usually remain lying on their front after doctors have been working on their buttocks and are advised not to lie on their back for the first couple of weeks after surgery. This coupled with a bruise and pain in her chest led Courteney to discover that her heart stopped beating during the surgery and she had to be resuscitated.
After confronting staff at the Turkish clinic with her symptoms and what her GP had told her, Courteney says they eventually admitted what had happened. Courteney said: "I was meant to be having a consultation but I was told that because the clinic wasn't open that early the doctor was literally just going to come in and draw on me and that was it.
"The surgeon didn't even ask me how I wanted it to look or if I had any pictures to refer to, he just said 'all the English girls like to have the hourglass figure'. But that wasn't how I wanted it. I wanted a small amount put in the top of my bum - they put way too much in my bum and then also filled out my hips to make me so much wider.
"They don't have doctors at the villa where you stay, there's just one admin person who sits on a computer in the front room. If I ended up having another cardiac arrest in my room there was no one there to give me the care I would've needed.
"I had to make my way in a taxi to the clinic the day after surgery because I was in so much pain and the doctor just looked at me and said 'you're fine, you can go'. It was literally like as soon as they took the money from me everything changed. It was just all so unprofessional, I don't think they know what they're doing."
Despite initially being told she had to stay at the clinic's villa for seven nights to recover from the surgery, the mum-of-two left after four nights due to what she perceived to be a 'lack of care'. After returning to the UK and discovering the worrying reality of what had happened during the op, Courteney claims she underwent numerous tests to assess the damage to her heart.
She says doctors suspect that she has Brugada Syndrome - a condition that affects the way electrical signals pass through the heart and can cause the heart to beat dangerously fast. But due to falling pregnant just four months after the BBL surgery, the mum says doctors have been unable to do certain tests until after the birth of her baby, in September 2021.
The mum says she was even forced to give birth to her daughter without any pain medication due to worries that it could trigger a cardiac arrest. She is currently undergoing further testing to try and confirm her diagnosis.
Aside from the problems with her heart, Courteney says she has also been left with painful lumps on her ribs and a 'fold' across her stomach from where too much fat was taken, as well as constant pain in her buttocks. She claims that the Turkish clinic responded to her numerous concerns by offering a revision surgery, which she has declined due to fears over her health.
Courteney said: "I wasn't even left with the results I wanted. They left me with a fold in my stomach where they took too much fat across the belly button area which made the top part fold over. If I lean to the side and stretch my skin out you can see there's two lumps which are painful - it feels like my skin is literally going to pop.
"I also get these pains in my bum still and it feels like there's fat sitting on the nerves that shouldn't be there. When I told them that they seemed quite panicked and asked me to come back in for a revision surgery for free.
"But I just said to them with all the problems that I've had I would not come back and have another surgery with them. They just said 'that's all we can do for you'." Courteney now vows never to go under the knife for cosmetic surgery again and even worries local anaesthetic could kill her due to the damage done to her heart.
She hopes to warn others of the risks of getting cosmetic surgery abroad as she continues to deal with ongoing health issues. Courteney said: "I wish I never did it, it was the biggest mistake of my life.
"I had a healthy heart prior to this surgery but now I wouldn't even go and have a local anaesthetic because I'm worried that if I get put to sleep I won't wake up. I would never recommend the surgery to anyone. It's too risky knowing you could possibly die to then not even get the results you wanted at the end of it."
