‘I begged surgeons to kill me,’ says mum, 33, who felt her skin ‘sizzling’ while wide awake during botched Turkey op
SARA Platt weighed 24st and was utterly miserable.
She was taking steroids to treat her endometriosis, and piled on a significant amount of weight as a result.
In 2021, she flew to Turkey to have an operation to reduce the size of her stomach.
And it worked. Sara, from South Wales, lost a staggering 12st.
However, such a dramatic loss left her with excess skin that she said rubbed together, causing sores and an unpleasant smell.
She decided that after such a positive experience the first time round, she would travel back to Turkey for corrective surgery.
The 33-year-old spent 17 months researching her options before deciding which firm to go with for her “dream body“.
Then, in February 2023, she underwent what is often dubbed a ‘mummy makeover‘, which involves excess skin removal, a breast lift and implants.
But within minutes of waking up from the £14,000 procedure in Antalya, Sara knew something had gone terribly wrong.
“I remember coming round and there were loads of nurses around me and I was like, ‘Kill me, tell them to kill me. I can’t do this, you need to tell them’,” the mum-of-four told ITV News.
“I’d never experienced this. I wanted to die. I couldn’t deal with this pain.
“I remember realising that, after an hour of coming around, my breast was totally purple.”
Sara continued to feel unwell and nine days later, got another shock.
“As my husband was undoing my bandages in our hotel bathroom, all this brown liquid started seeping out of my body,” she said.
“I screamed. I felt like I was falling apart. It was like, ‘Oh my God, my insides are going to come out.
“They told me I’d be sitting by the pool within three days, but I was rotting in a hotel room. I was totally butchered.”
As her wounds weren’t healing as they were supposed to, Sara’s surgeon performed a second procedure.
But instead of being carried out in an operating theatre, she was taken to what looked like a beauty clinic.
I could hear the sizzling in my skin. I felt like I was on fire
Sara Platt
And this time, she received only local anaesthetic so was wide awake as the doctor cut away at her dead stomach flesh.
“He was handed a burning tool and he started burning me, and that will, for the rest of my life, haunt me every day, every night,” she said.
“I could hear the sizzling in my skin. I felt like I was on fire.”
Sara returned to the UK and went straight to A&E where the on-call plastic surgeon found she was riddled with dead tissue.
It transpired that she had contracted a treatment-resistant infection, the Turkish surgeon had removed too much skin, leaving a gaping wound that needed grafts from her legs, and her right breast had ‘died’.
Her condition was deemed life-threatening.
‘TERRIFIED OF EVERYTHING’
Sara, who was in excruciating pain and could barely move, spent more than eight weeks in hospital and has now had 10 surgeries to save her life and rebuild her body.
The latest, on August 14, involved removing the 3.1in (8cm) wide and 4.3in (11cm) long skin graft on her stomach, then closing the gap and sealing her skin.
Speaking last year, Sara said: “I’m not the person I was. I was very confident and strong and outgoing. Now I’m terrified of everything.
“I can’t shower because I can’t face looking at my own body.
“I have these horrible dreams about getting killed in hospitals, drowned in blood.”
What are the risks of getting surgery abroad?
IT'S important to do your research if you're thinking about having cosmetic surgery abroad.
It can cost less than in the UK, but you need to weigh up potential savings against the potential risks.
Safety standards in different countries may not be as high.
No surgery is risk-free. Complications can happen after surgery in the UK or abroad.
If you have complications after an operation in the UK, the surgeon is responsible for providing follow-up treatment.
Overseas clinics may not provide follow-up treatment, or they may not provide it to the same standard as in the UK.
Also, they may not have a healthcare professional in the UK you can visit if you have any problems.
Source: NHS