A woman who spent £3,500 on a tummy tuck to get rid of her "mum tum" has warned others against the procedure after it left her with a gaping hole in her stomach.
Emma Bestall, 34, paid for the operation in eastern Europe after she lost four and a half stone and was left with excess skin.
The mum-of-three from Sleaford in Lincolnshire, said she didn't like the look of the "overhang" of her stomach.
"I'd hoped it would shape my body a bit more, I wanted a flat tummy," she said.
After three years of research, Emma picked out her clinic and flew out to have the operation, which was on the same day she arrived.
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"I was quite anxious and upset when they were putting me to sleep because I felt so nervous," she said.
"As soon as I woke up, I just couldn't believe what I'd done to myself. I was in that much pain I couldn't walk or go to the toilet.
"I woke up in agony and I was crying my eyes out until they gave me morphine.
"I didn't look at my stomach for about a week and a half, even when they changed my bandages, I couldn't bear to look at myself."
After being discharged from the clinic, Emma flew back to the UK. But 10 days after having the operation, she realised something was seriously wrong.
She was cleaning the operation wound as instructed but began to notice infection seeping through her bandages - and went straight to A&E.
Emma was then transferred to Nottingham City Hospital where medics had to open her stomach so wide that skin was taken from her thigh to cover it.
She then underwent VAC (vacuum-assisted closure) therapy to help heal the wound, resulting in a two-and-a-half-inch thick scar.
Emma said: "They couldn't close me properly because it's so wide and I still have to drive to Nottingham every other week for a check-up."
Six months on from the botched procedure, Emma wants other people to be aware of the risks of cosmetic surgery before deciding to go under the knife.
"The scar has healed but it's affected my mental health more than I could ever have imagined, I don't like looking at it," she said.
While her partner Liam, 37, has tried to reassure Emma there's nothing wrong with her body, she says she dislikes it now as much as she did before having the procedure.
She said: "I'm not comfortable in my skin and I feel like I'm wrapped in duct tape.
"I'm struggling with my body, it's horrible. People compliment me and it upsets me because they don't know what it looks like underneath.
"It's not painful but it feels tight and uncomfortable, it's just massive and ugly. I look like I was butchered."
