A woman whose insides “turned to cement” after a botched Turkish weight-loss operation is ready to eat solid food for the first time in three years after surgeons built her a new stomach.
Pinky Jolley, from Wirral, Merseyside, raised £2,000 through crowdfunding to pay for gastric sleeve surgery in November 2022, after weighing 17st 11lbs.
The 46-year-old diabetic, who wore a size 24, wanted to lose weight when she gained weight after medical complications left her wheelchair-bound.
But Ms Jolly, who runs an online dog adoption service, felt going to Turkey for the surgery was her “only option” after trying several calorie-controlled diets.
However, the “horrible experience” that saw Turkish surgeons remove 85 per cent of her stomach left her feeling “cheated”, “upset” and unable to eat.
Pinky Jolley, from Wirral, Merseyside, travelled to Turkey for gastric sleeve surgery in November 2022 after weighing 17st 11lbs.
The 46-year-old diabetic, who wore a size 24, was told by UK doctors to slim down when she gained weight after medical complications left her wheelchair-bound.
She raised £2,100 through GoFundMe for accommodation, flights and the surgery and, after booking the procedure, flew out two months later.
Doctors told Jolly she should consider weight-loss surgery in 2018 after she was rushed to hospital with pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas gland, which sits inside the abdomen and produces vital hormones) and sepsis.
Pancreatitis, which causes nausea and vomiting, is more likely in overweight people and can be fatal if left untreated.
Ms Jolly, who says a hormonal problem is partly responsible for her weight gain, said: ‘I tried calorie-controlled diets, Slimming World and even pills prescribed by my GP.
‘On Facebook, my friends mentioned that it is possible to have weight loss surgery in Turkey for a fraction of the cost of private surgery in the UK.
“Not knowing that Turkey was ‘cheap’ compared to the UK, which was ‘expensive’, I thought it was my only option.”
When she recovered from the two-hour operation, she felt very unwell and suffered from severe stomach pain, vomiting and dehydration. Four days later, she returned home and visited her GP, who recommended an immediate visit to hospital.
She raised £2,100 through GoFundMe for accommodation, flights and surgery and, after booking the procedure, flew out two months later.
When she arrived at the clinic in Istanbul, she was concerned because the doctors “could barely speak English,” but they went ahead with the surgery.
When she recovered from the two-hour operation, she felt extremely ill and suffered from severe stomach pains, vomiting and dehydration.
Four days later he returned home and visited his family doctor, who recommended an immediate visit to the hospital.
Doctors performed a CT scan which revealed an infection that had left a ball of hardened pus inside her.
Doctors performed a CT scan which revealed a serious leak had caused an infection that left a ball of hardened pus inside her.
Ms Jolly said she lost 40kg in just four weeks when her initial goal was 40kg in two years.
Ms Jolly was also forced to undergo life-saving emergency surgery last January, in which three doctors flushed the inside of her stomach to remove the infection.
This left her only able to consume food through a special tube that passed through her nose and throat, and doctors warned her that she would almost certainly never eat solid foods again.
But surgeons at Solihull Hospital this week carried out a pioneering operation to effectively build him a new stomach.
Now Ms Jolly plans to celebrate her new life by enjoying her favourite dish of mushrooms with garlic and cheese.
“I know it won’t fix everything and it won’t be a cure, but I’ll be able to eat again,” she said.
He added: ‘I’ll be able to go out with friends, have a life.
‘I feel cheated and upset that something that was supposed to help me has caused me so much suffering.
‘I lost four kilos in four weeks because my stomach was very small.
‘I wanted to lose four hundred kilos in two years.
‘I had to use a feeding tube to help, but it’s all very painful.
‘They botched the operation completely and left my insides so infected that they were all hard and like cement,’ the doctors said.
“It’s been a horrible experience. I just want to be okay again. Looking back, it was so cheap that I really should have thought twice, but I just went with it.”
Ms Jolly, who now weighs 5.5kg and wears a size 18, hopes to return home in the coming weeks with her new stomach.
Senior surgeon Professor Rishi Singhal removed her colon, liver and spleen which were stuck and out of position.
Ms Jolly, who now weighs 5.5kg and wears a size 18, hopes to be allowed to return home from hospital in the coming weeks with her new stomach.
In the most recent operation, lead surgeon Professor Rishi Singhal helped fix the internal arrangement of his colon, liver and spleen, which had become stuck and lost their normal position after the botched Turkish operation.
He and his team performed a bypass operation, creating a small pouch from the upper end of his stomach and connecting it to his small intestine.
Professor Singhal said dissecting his stomach was “like cutting concrete”.
He added: ‘This is normally a routine surgery but because of the state of his insides, on a scale of one to ten, this is an 11.
‘Surgeons in other areas of the NHS have refused to do so.’
Ms Jolly is not the only Briton to have health problems after undergoing surgery in Turkish cities such as Istanbul.
Fixing botched plastic surgery in Turkey alone is estimated to cost the NHS £94m a year and takes much-needed hospital beds away from patients, NHS consultant Dr Rajan Uppal has warned.
Explaining his calculations on the true cost of this to the NHS, he said that if one patient a month required treatment in each of the UK’s 900-plus hospitals, this would result in an estimated annual cost of £94m and 58,000 lost bed days in the NHS.
He said he sees at least one Briton with complications every month, while thousands continue to visit clinics in Turkey, despite the increased risk posed by cheap surgeries.
