21 November 2023 , 20:19
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The death of a British woman after butt lift surgery in Turkey has sparked a meeting between the two countries’ health officials to discuss the safety of cosmetic operations.
Coroner Jacqueline Lake was moved by the case of Melissa Kerr to write to the Department for Health about the risks of cosmetic surgery abroad. Ms Kerr was 31 when she had a Brazilian butt lift in Turkey in 2019.
Fat from elsewhere on her body was injected into her bottom but some entered a vein and blocked her pulmonary artery. She died on November 19 that year, the cause of death listed as pulmonary thromboembolism.
Melissa died from a pulmonary thromboembolismCoroner Ms Lake wrote to then-Health Secretary Steve Barclay after Melissa’s inquest in September this year.
She wrote: “I am concerned that patients travelling to Turkey for this procedure are not being made aware of the risks and high mortality rate associated.”
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Minister for Women’s Health Strategy Maria Caulfield said Department of Health officials would meet counterparts in Turkey to discuss Miss Kerr’s case and the wider issue of cosmetic tourism and its regulations.
Her inquest had heard the psychological wellbeing practitioner, of Gorleston, Norfolk, may not have known the risk of death from BBL surgery is 10 times that of other procedures.
She went ahead with the £3,200 operation despite her requests for photos of previous patients apparently being ignored, it also heard.