Mum, 23, ‘nearly died’ after £1,600 gastric sleeve operation she found on Instagram
A young mum was put in a coma and stranded in Turkey after having a £1,600 gastric sleeve operation performed by a surgeon she found on Instagram.
NHS worker Chloe Quick, 23, booked the surgery just two days before going under the knife after a previous company botched her booking.
With non-refundable flights already booked, Chloe, from Herefordshire, scrambled for an alternative.
She found it on Instagram.
A seemingly ‘reputable’ account with 14,000 followers advertised the weight loss surgery for some £500 less than her previous provider.
They even offered a chat with the surgeon and their patients over WhatsApp, something the ‘others weren’t offering’, Chloe’s friend Leah Mattson said.
‘It does sound rushed’, Leah, 23, said, ‘but she really did do some research’.
She added: ‘This company promised better care and lower prices than the last company and made her feel she was in 100% safe hands.’
Despite the rushed booking, and the surgeon suddenly bringing forward the operation by a day, no alarm bells rang, even when Chloe’s surgery ended up taking five hours on Friday, May 26.
A gastric sleeve operation usually takes no more than an hour, and Leah’s surgery at a different Turkish clinic had been only 25 minutes.
Leah said: ‘That should have set off alarm bells but I thought maybe she just needed more time in recovery.’
Then, in the early hours of Saturday, Chloe collapsed on her way to the toilet.
She felt a sharp pain and blood gushed into her drain.
Chloe’s surgery had ruptured her spleen, and she was losing blood.
Leah said: ‘Her heart rate and breathing was all over the place and they had to perform emergency surgery and put her in an induced coma.
‘They tried claiming the ruptured spleen was as a result of the fall – but I’ve spoken to people who said a fall would not have caused this.
‘It is more likely they have nicked her while doing the sleeve but they are not admitting to this.’
Now Chloe’s family faces bills of at least £5,300, her father being reassured there would be no costs for care associated with post-op complications.
Leah has launched a Gofundme campaign to raise money for these costs and to help transport Chloe home.
Writing on Facebook after the surgery ‘that came so close to taking [Chloe] from us forever’, Chloe’s mother, Kelly Marie Storer, said: ‘Like a lot of people, we just don’t have that kind of money lying around.
She added: ‘As you can imagine, this has been and still is an horrific time for her and us as a family as we don’t know when she will be well enough to come home.’
Leah said: ‘Chloe couldn’t even talk at first and she’s still in a bad way, but she’s come off oxygen today which is promising.
‘She is just really emotional and overwhelmed by all the support.
‘I don’t think it has really hit her yet she nearly died.’
Metro.co.uk has approached Meta, Instagram’s parent company, for comment.
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