There is already an alarming list of deaths following cosmetic surgery in Türkiye, and it has now emerged that these botched procedures are the direct cause of a secondary wave of suicide deaths.
Earlier this week, it was revealed that French business student Mathieu Vigier Latour, 24, took his own life after failing a beard transplant surgery in Turkey in March this year.
Mathieu committed suicide three months after his €1,300 (£1,082) transplant, which had been carried out by an estate agent posing as a surgeon, leaving him in constant pain and with irregularly shaped facial hair that grew at an unnatural angle. .
While there is a seemingly endless list of patients left with serious disfigurements or infections after being lured to Türkiye by the rock-bottom prices of cosmetic “work”, Mathieu’s case highlights a worrying pattern of suicides among those whose procedures go wrong.
The devastation caused by a botched procedure is undoubtedly exacerbated in those who were mentally vulnerable to begin with, many of whom struggle with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), which causes sufferers to obsess over perceived defects in his physical appearance.
Among them is Jack Castell, a 24-year-old British man with Asperger’s and BDD, who took his own life after being left with numerous scars and immense pain following multiple surgeries in Istanbul.
Meanwhile, the family of Leeds woman Leah Cambridge, who died on the operating table during a Brazilian butt lift, suffered a double tragedy when her devastated father took his own life following her death.
Mathieu Vigier Latour after his failed hair transplant in Istanbul
Leah Cambridge (right) from Leeds, died on the operating table in 2018 after Brazilian butt lift surgery. His father (left) died three years later. A senior coroner ruled: “This was a suicide attributed in part to the death of his daughter, who died in surgery in Türkiye.”
Jack Castell, 24, before undergoing multiple plastic surgeries on his face in Türkiye
Mathieu Vigier Latour’s father, Jacques, told local broadcaster BFM TV: “When he started to grow, he looked like a hedgehog, he was unmanageable.
“He was suffering… He was in pain and couldn’t sleep,” she added, stating that her son suffered “post-traumatic shock,” felt trapped and “couldn’t get out.”
this year The times reported on the death, also apparently by suicide, of Jack Castell, 24, after having undergone multiple plastic surgeries on his face in Turkey.
Jack’s family said he had suffered from BDD for years.
In late 2022, he left for a series of operations including jaw reduction, chin reduction, lower facelift, nose and hairline reduction with eye enlargement.
His father, Tim, begged him not to go.
“I just told him, ‘Jack, you don’t need any of this.’ I said, ‘You’re beautiful.’ You’re an absolutely stunning man,” she recalled.
Jack returned from his operation with many scars and immense pain that forced him to rely on strong painkillers.
In a message to his father, he wrote: ‘I should have listened to you. “I’m sorry, I feel like I’ve made a serious mistake,” he said.
The young man, described by his father as “loving and kind,” was found dead after suffering an overdose on June 7 of that year.
The treatment left his beard with an irregular shape and growing at an unnatural angle.
The student, seen before the operation, took his own life after the failed procedure
Castell said her son was an easy victim for clinics eager to sell a series of procedures as solutions to perceived problems with his appearance.
‘Due to his Asperger’s syndrome and also suffering from body dysmorphia, he was an easy target and easy prey. “I was 24 years old, but I was still like a child in many ways,” he said.
The trauma of failed surgery also impacts families, as demonstrated by the terrible case of Leah Cambridge.
Cambridge was just 29 when she suffered a fatal blood clot during a £6,500 Brazilian butt lift (BBL) surgery in Türkiye in 2018.
The mother-of-three, from Leeds, described as “paranoid about her body”, paid cash for the procedure after being inspired by photographs on Instagram.
A BBL is a procedure in which fat is extracted from the areas around the waist and injected into the buttocks with the aim of giving a curvier figure.
But Leah suffered a fatal complication in which this fat was accidentally injected into a vein, causing three heart attacks on the operating table and she later died.
However, the tragedy did not end there.
Leah Cambridge, 29, died after cosmetic surgery to lift her butt in 2018. Doctors and nurses at the Turkish clinic were unable to save her.
Her father, Craig, 51, was found dead in his home in April 2021 by suicide after he ‘spiralled’ following the death of his daughter.
An investigation, conducted in 2022, found that the personal trainer had never been able to get over the loss of Leah, that he was prescribed antidepressants and that he also had a problem with alcohol after her death.
Returning a verdict of suicide, senior coroner Kevin McLoughlin said at the time: “I am normally quite distant and hard-hearted at inquests, but when I saw that another tragedy had befallen his family I was quite distressed.”
He added: “I intend to send it to the medical authorities in Türkiye so that they are aware of how a tragedy manifests itself years later.”
Last month, a woman named Nina, who wished to remain anonymous, who suffered from mental health issues, said The times that a nose job in Türkiye had left her feeling “suicidal” and “the worst she had ever felt.”
Nina, like Jack, suffered from BDD. The condition should normally exclude patients from surgery and should be carefully examined by a doctor before surgery.
However, many clinics in Türkiye enroll patients after little more than a WhatsApp or Instagram exchange.
Nina, who had already had a nose job in the UK before her diagnosis, sought another one in 2019 and flew alone to Turkey, despite her family objecting.
Although the operation went as planned, Nina’s mental health plummeted.
‘After Türkiye, the recovery was the worst I’ve ever had. I was suicidal and totally focused on having more surgery to fix the next thing, to fix what I felt like they had changed in a way I didn’t like.
“I was so obsessed with it… I’m no longer in that place, I now accept that another surgery is not the solution,” she added.
According to the Turkish state health agency, USHAS, in 2023 more than 1.5 million people traveled to the country to undergo cosmetic surgery.
Kitty Wallace, chief operating officer of the BDD Foundation, told The Times that she felt there was a need to improve the regulation of cosmetic surgery internationally.
She said: “Rigorous mental health and DBT screening for patients and an end to Turkish surgeons preying on young adults in Britain without sufficient care for their physical and mental wellbeing.”