A family has issued a grim warning over the dangers of cut-price weight loss surgery in Turkey - after a 25-year-old died following a procedure in Istanbul.
Thousands of people flock to Turkey each year to undergo cosmetic surgery, as the costs of doing so are far cheaper than both here and the UK.
The majority return happy with what they've got, but one man didn't make it back.
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Builder Joe Thornley, 25, from Birmingham, died after a gastric sleeve procedure in Istanbul.
The surgeon told Joe’s devastated mum that he had a cardiac arrest, but a post-mortem revealed he had suffered internal bleeding at the site of the op.
He booked a £3,000 (€3,400) operation online in a bid to slim down his 19-stone frame.
Julie, 58, told BirminghamLive : "It looked like a nice hospital and it had good reviews. I didn’t think anything would go wrong."
The grieving mum said: "A few days later the so-called surgeon rang me and said he had a cardiac arrest and he couldn’t save him. I believed him.
"But when we had his body back the post-mortem found he had bled at the site of the operation. He died of internal bleeding. It was the aftercare, or they didn’t realise he was bleeding."
Julie warned others: "I would tell anyone to be very, very careful where you go. Or don’t go at all. It’s not worth it."
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