Cut price Turkish clinic convinced me to get boob job and butt lift in ONE op but was left looking like car crash victim
YEARS of working as a yacht hostess on the Med left Nicole Reed feeling incredibly self-conscious about her body. So when a colleague told her she’d had cut price plastic surgery in Turkey, Nicole thought that was the answer. But the 30-year-old, from Auckland, New Zealand, was left looking like a car crash victim after […]
YEARS of working as a yacht hostess on the Med left Nicole Reed feeling incredibly self-conscious about her body.
So when a colleague told her she’d had cut price plastic surgery in Turkey, Nicole thought that was the answer.
But the 30-year-old, from Auckland, New Zealand, was left looking like a car crash victim after her botched breast lift.
Here in an exclusive interview, Nicole tells her story – and urges others to think twice…
Scrolling through Instagram on my phone, my heart sank a little further.
Pictures of girls in bikinis with sculpted bodies, plump lips and perfect skin filled the screen.
“I’d love to look like that,” I thought to myself. Working as a stewardess on superyachts around the Mediterranean coast, I was surrounded by gorgeous, flawless people.
Basically living in a swimming costume every day, I couldn’t help but feel inadequate.
After losing weight and yo-yo dieting for a few years, my breasts were droopy.
“I had cheap plastic surgery overseas,” a friend told me one day. By shopping around, she’d saved thousands of pounds.
I’d already had lip fillers and decided I wanted breast implants. I found a clinic in Turkey that’d perform it for about £2,800 – thousands cheaper than the UK or New Zealand.
Waking after the seven-hour op, I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. My whole body ached and I was vomiting blood
Nicole Reed
A few months later, I landed in Istanbul, buzzing with excitement for my new body.
It all went well. I loved my new implants but now I thought my breasts needed a lift.
Once I started, I just couldn’t stop. I wanted a face graft, liposuction and a Brazilian butt lift too.
Flying back to Istanbul in October 2017, I met with the surgeon again.
“If you get it all done at once, you can save money and it’s just one operation,” he said.
I booked myself in. I hadn’t planned on having it all done in one go, but now I was ticking off surgeries like items on a shopping list.
Waking after the seven-hour op, I felt like I’d been hit by a bus. My whole body ached and I was vomiting blood.
“I feel so sick,” I told the nurse, as I shook uncontrollably.
Because I’d had both my breasts and my butt done, I couldn’t lie on my back or front. Sleeping was agony, I balanced awkwardly on one side.
I cried my eyes out and begged the nurses to help. But despite being in excruciating pain, I was discharged after only two days.
Staggering along the street, I felt like a 90-year-old woman. I checked into a hotel and curled up on the bed. Every part of my body throbbed with unbearable pain.
Lifting up the gauze, I saw it was infected and filled with pus
Nicole Reed
After a week in bed, I dragged myself to the airport. I had booked a flight to Thailand, thinking I could recuperate in the sun.
The doctors had signed me off as ‘fit to fly’, so I hobbled onto the plane, still in agony.
Lying across three seats, I sobbed as the plane shook and rattled in the sky.
When I landed in paradise, I didn’t have any energy to enjoy it. Instead, I lay awkwardly across pillows in a beach bar as I nursed my broken body.
“What have I done to myself?” I thought. I felt like a car crash victim.
A few days later, I noticed the wound on my breast had opened.
Lifting up the gauze, I saw it was infected and filled with pus. I went straight to the pharmacist and begged them to help me.
After having the stitches removed from the gaping wound, I was prescribed another dose of antibiotics.
Feeling I hadn’t received proper aftercare from the clinic in Turkey, I tried to contact the surgeon. But the number no longer connected.
My breasts looked slashed and deformed, like I’d been in an accident
Nicole Reed
I was scared, sick and alone. I just wanted to go home. It took over 36 hours of torturous flights and airport delays before I landed back in New Zealand.
When my brother picked me up at the airport, I knew I needed help. He took me straight to the hospital.
The nurse who looked at my wounds was horrified. “What on Earth happened?” she asked.
My breasts looked slashed and deformed, like I’d been in an accident.
How to have surgery safely abroad
Surgery abroad often costs less than here in the UK, but you need to weigh up the risks.
No surgery is risk free, but overseas clinics may not provide the same follow-up treatments as here in Britain. Aftercare is an important part of the treatment.
The NHS advise being especially cautious of websites selling cosmetic surgery as part of a holiday.
If you do get a holiday package, make sure you have your consultation with the surgeon, not a sales rep, and don’t pay for a hospital you haven’t seen or a doctor you haven’t met.
Do your research, find out what insurance the clinic has and if it will cover you if something goes wrong.
You should have two consultations before the op, and a two-week ‘cooling off’ period to think it through.
Air travel and major surgery increases your risk of a blood clot. Do not fly for 5-7 days after surgery like boob jobs or lipo, and for 7-10 days after facial ops or tummy tucks.
A local breast surgeon recommended I have corrective surgery in the future. In the meantime, all I could do was wait for them to heal.
He explained bacteria had entered the wound and caused the horrible infection. Without proper medical aftercare, it hadn’t healed properly.
“You’re lucky you didn’t lose the implants,” he said.
Now I’m still bearing the injuries of the botched procedure.
I need to change the wound dressings regularly, bawling my eyes out as I look at my mutilated skin.
I can’t even lift my handbag. I wish I’d known the dangers of medical tourism before going under the knife.
The worst thing is, I did this to myself. I regret it with my entire heart and soul.
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I want to warn people not to be sucked in by photos on Instagram – it’s just not worth it.
Learn from my mistake. I realise now you get what you pay for. And I paid dearly.
We previously spoke to a woman who hated her ‘mum tum’ after three kids – but a budget tummy tuck at a Tunisian clinic left her fighting for her life.