A British woman has described waking up in the middle of surgery in Turkey. Cennet Lo traveled to Bodrum in April to undergo cosmetic procedures, including liposuction and other weight loss surgery. The result was severe complications, including sepsis. Speaking to UK reporters, Lo explained that not only did she wake up mid-procedure, but she also experienced excruciating pain for weeks and has undergone four additional surgeries to tackle skin infections.
During one return trip to the Turkish clinic to close an open wound, she described how the surgeons removed dead tissue without anesthetic. “He started cutting at my stomach with no pain relief, no nothing,” she said.
Lo’s case is the second to emerge in a few weeks. In a separate instance, a 38-year-old British woman died after traveling to Turkey for a “tummy tuck,” which she believed would change her life. The operation cost around $6,000 in Turkey but roughly $16,000 in the UK. Hair stylist Kaydell Brown booked into the Clinic Expert facility in Istanbul but never returned home.
Her sister Leanne said she was excited to lose the weight she had gained while recovering from a broken ankle, and the two sisters went to Turkey together. The operation, which should have taken around five hours to complete, was still ongoing after more than ten hours. Leanne waited for news and said she was casually told it had gone wrong and her sibling was dead. Refused permission to see her sister’s body, Leanne returned to the UK alone and reported the incident to the media.
When British TV contacted Clinic Expert, a spokesperson said the death was not the result of malpractice but “likely caused by fat blocking a blood vessel, which can occur during this type of surgery.”
The UK’s Foreign Office reports that 28 British citizens have died during surgery in Turkey since 2019 and that more than 150,000 have traveled to the country for surgical procedures over the same time period. Britons are more likely to seek out cosmetic surgeries in Turkey than any other nationality. The British government said it has spoken to its Turkish counterparts about the high number of deaths, and “discussions are ongoing.”
