A devastated mother whose son died after a botched weight loss operation in Turkey has warned others against travelling for surgery.
Joe Thornley, 25, went to Istanbul to have a large portion of his stomach cut away as part of the gastric sleeve procedure.
His mum, Julie, was told her son had suffered a cardiac arrest, although a post mortem found the cause of death was from internal bleeding.
The 58-year-old said: “The so-called surgeon rang me and said he had a cardiac arrest and he couldn’t save him. I believed him.
"But when we had his body back the post-mortem found he had bled at the site of the operation. He died of internal bleeding.
“It was the aftercare, or they didn’t realise he was bleeding.
"It looked like a nice hospital and it had good reviews. I didn’t think anything would go wrong.”
Joe had decided to have the operation to help him slim down from 19 stone.
Julie now has urged people to be very careful should anyone decide to travel for an operation.
She added it is “not worth it”, and says people should not go at all.
Thousands of patients opt for bargain bariatric surgery in Turkey according to concerned doctors in the UK, as waiting lists for NHS weight-loss surgery can be up to five years.
Private surgery in the UK costs up to £12,000 while people struggling to lose weight can buy procedures such as gastric sleeves and bypasses for £3,000 at some Turkish hospitals .
Increasing numbers of desperate patients are returning home needing corrective surgery and aftercare, concerned British doctors report.
At a recent medical conference every bariatric surgeon in the room reported problems treating patients returning from Turkey with complications.
Serious issues can include internal bleeding, hernias and infections that require emergency surgery.
Other patients need ongoing dietary support as they struggle with common problems like acid reflux.
Specialist surgeon, Nick Carter, says "every hospital" in the UK has had to perform emergency operations on people who have returned from having cut-price surgery in Turkey.
He added: "I have had disasters of people who have had emergency operations a day or two after their procedures in Turkey and they have come back with issues.
“I have someone with mesh sticking out of their abdominal wall. One case presented... and [surgeons] had left some dead tissue inside them and they needed emergency surgery.
"Every bariatric surgeon I talk to has the same story. I have also heard from patients who say ‘I was poorly and they just pushed me out of hospital’.
“It would be wrong to say that’s happening in all Turkish hospitals, but certainly it is happening in some."
Omar Khan, a consultant bariatric surgeon, said he had to perform two corrective surgeries in a single week on patients with botched foreign ops.
He explained: "There is a perception weight loss surgery is a bit like a tummy tuck.
"The problem is when bariatric surgery goes wrong there’s the potential for catastrophic problems.
“If there is a leak it can cause really severe infections and it needs to be managed quickly, appropriately and effectively."
