"Turkish Weight Loss Surgery Led to Tube Feeding and Husband Becoming Caretaker, But I Have No Regrets - OK! Magazine"

After embarking on various weight-loss journeys, including NHS weight management, Pinky Jolley knew that something needed to change. At 17st 11lb and a dress size 24, doctors gave her a stark warning. If she didn’t shed the pounds, her life would be at risk.

Following nine long months of research, the 46-year-old decided to take serious action. In November 2022, she headed to Istanbul, Turkey, for a gastric sleeve procedure – but the two-hour operation turned her life upside down.

“I chose a professor of bariatrics who’d been practising for over 25 years, but from the moment I woke up from the surgery, I knew something was seriously wrong. They kept telling me to drink more, but I just couldn’t get anything down,” she tells OK!.

“Since the operation, I’ve had sepsis four times, plus a blood clot and a hospital-acquired infection that made me resistant to antibiotics, which was all a struggle. In July, I had a revision from a gastric sleeve to a gastric bypass that was technically a success, but I still can’t eat and I’m being fed via a tube in my stomach now.”

But while her experience may be shocking, Pinky isn’t alone. According to statistics, the number of visitors going to Turkey solely for surgery has skyrocketed from 701,000 to 1.8m in just four years, with 63% of people surveyed saying they do so because of the bargain prices.

For example, the cost of a breast enlargement in the UK is on average £5,500, whereas in Turkey they are half price, at £2,775. Meanwhile, for liposuction in the UK you’d pay up to £5,000, but travel to Turkey and you’d get the procedure for as little as £1,600. In Pinky’s case, she raised £2,100, which covered everything from accommodation to flights and the actual surgery. Had she undergone a gastric sleeve operation privately in the UK, the surgery alone would have cost around £10,000.

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With endless influencers on social media encouraging their followers to try it – with neatly constructed videos designed to show the country’s ‘medical tourism’ at its best – it’s little wonder so many more people are lured in by success stories.

Stars such as Katie Price, who recently had a face lift in Turkey, and TOWIE ’s Dani Imbert, who opted for a Brazilian bum lift in the country, are both examples of high profile women who have spoken openly and positively about their experiences.

However, Love Island ’s Anna Vakili and her sister Mandi had negative experiences of a BBL in which Anna admitted she was “convinced I was going to die”. And Ex On The Beach’s Chloe Goodman had a botched vaser liposuction procedure abroad, which she said she’ll regret for the rest of her life.

For Pinky, she realised that something wasn’t quite right even before she headed back home to Merseyside. “I booked an appointment with my GP straight away. They did bloods, and he called me and said, ‘Get to hospital. It’s sepsis,’” she recalls.

“I had a CT scan, and they found a leak really high up. They’d nipped my oesophagus, and anything that I tried to drink had leaked out of the hole. Straight away, I went into surgery to see what they could do. They tried to patch it up, but the inflammation was too bad and there was overstapling.

“They also saw a twist in my stomach because they’d cut it so poorly. It carried on twisting, and it had practically closed up, so nothing was going down anyway. So, I had a nasojejunal feeding tube inserted.”

Despite recently undergoing revision surgery from a sleeve to a bypass, Pinky’s life still isn’t the same as it was before. These days, the only food she can eat is thin soup in extremely small quantities, and she’s “had therapy and plenty of breakdowns” in the 21 months that have followed her trip to Turkey.

“I’ve been in a wheelchair for 10 years so I was pretty much housebound anyway, but this is even more limiting because I’m stuck on the bed, hooked up to machines,” she admits. “I am also never allowed to have elective surgery again. I wouldn’t anyway, definitely not. I’d only have emergency surgery.

“It really does stress my husband Paul seeing me in so much pain and just the shocking things I’ve been through – and he’s a qualified nurse. But I’m lucky to have him, he’s my full-time carer and he’s brilliant.”

As a result, it’s been reported that treating Pinky has cost the NHS more than £100,000. According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, the NHS has spent almost £5 million on corrective surgery since 2018.

“Cheaper can sometimes prove far more expensive,” says leading plastic surgeon Mr Paul Banwell (paulebanwell.com). “I frequently have patients come to see me, who need corrective surgery after travelling abroad.”

He adds, “There is a plethora of first-class surgeons abroad who will do an excellent job. But that isn’t the point. It is about the recovery period, which is far more comfortable at home, where follow-up appointments can be made. Complications can occur with any surgery, it doesn’t matter who you are, and the issue is how to manage them if they do occur. If you are abroad, they cannot be managed properly.”

But despite her experience, Pinky doesn’t entirely regret undergoing the procedure. “I wouldn’t change anything. I feel that it happened to me because I’ve got a mouth on me and I can tell others. I’ve had people message me saying, ‘Thank you, you’ve potentially saved my life, or you saved my mum’s life,’” she explains.

That being said, she wouldn’t advise others to fly out to places such as Turkey for treatment. “Don’t do it. It’s so scary. Originally I kept saying, if you must do it, do your research. But I did nine months of research and it didn’t get me anywhere,” Pinky says.

“At least if you stay in the UK, the NHS is accountable and we’ve got much better standards in the UK on the NHS or privately. Put safety first always.”