Face-lift surgery in Turkey left me unable to close my eyes

A mother-of-two who looked 'wrinkly' after losing seven stone pinned her hopes on cosmetic surgery in Turkey—but the 'horror-film' op left her unable to close her eyes.

Joanne Law lost the weight following a successful gastric sleeve surgery, a weight-loss procedure that removes part of the stomach, in Turkey in February 2023.

But, as with other dramatic weight loss methods, including weight loss jabs, losing fat from the face can make people look gaunt—dubbed 'Ozempic face'. 

The 56-year-old from Manchester was 'excited' to get work done on her face at the same hospital to give her a wrinkle-free look.

She saved up around £5,200 for a face, neck and eyelid lift along with fat grafts and went under the knife again in June 2023. 

But when she was taken to the operation room, she was 'frightened' to see it was in basement and looked like a 'horror film'.

Ms Law said she suffered from blepharitis, which is a bacterial infection, immediately after surgery, which caused her eyelids to swell and grow blisters, lasting three months.  

Since her surgery she has not been able to fully shut her eyes, even when she is sleeping, causing them to dry out and tear up.

It has also meant she is unable to drive at night because the lights blind her.

Ms Law also suffers from 'painful' scars behind her ears and on her eyes, while she was left with a 'wobbly turkey neck' after the botched lift.

'When it's windy out I just can't see, my eyes fill with tears. My eyes are so dry so they need to tear up to be protected from the elements,' she said.

'When I get tired, the bottom of my eye droops. I'll be driving and will have to pull over at services and shut my eyes because I'll be driving as if I've had no sleep for a week.

'You can see one of my eyeballs more than the other.

'I got a turkey neck, it wobbles, and they didn't tighten my muscles.

'I have scars on the back of my ear and earlobe so I can't put earpods in my ear and it is still painful. It's like a five-year-old's done it.

'I'm really deflated because my sleeve was such a success I thought I was going to look like something straight out of a snapchat filter.'

She has since admitted that because she previously had work done at the clinic and 'trusted' them, she didn't do enough research which she ultimately believes was her downfall. 

'The procedure was around the back of the hospital in a basement. It frightened the hell out of me, it was awful, like a horror movie,' she said.

'There was an old-fashioned bed screen separator, someone was being operated on the other side in the same theatre.'

Now, Ms Law said the surgery has knocked her confidence as she does not like to leave the house and uses makeup to cover her scars.

When Ms Law got in touch with the hospital she was reportedly told that her scarring was normal and to wait 12 months for them to heal.

However, the hospital reportedly ignored Joanne's emails after the 12-month period.

Ms Law said: 'I'm not rich, I was saving up and gave things up, and I was really excited for the surgery.

'One side of my scars is different from the other, as if two different people were stitching me up for quickness.

Read More

'Snorting cocaine made my nose collapse': Warning as woman reveals harrowing images of the damage

'I've practised makeup, without it I feel like a mess.

'I don't like going out of the house, if anyone sees me without makeup, they straight away say, you look "tired".

'The fat graft made me look like a cartoon character, it's changed how I look. It just made my face flat and weird.

'I've sent them pictures every month and they kept saying to wait 12 months. Now they're just ignoring me.'

She is now raising awareness of the risks involved with operations abroad.

Ms Law said: 'What made me suspicious was before I went in is that I couldn't find any before and after photographs of the surgeon's work.

'I remember he fobbed me off to the point that I believed him. I was excited about what I was going to have done and ignored my gut feeling.

'I've been so frustrated, I want to scream to other girls and say don't do it.

'The recovery was horrendous, there was no aftercare. That hospital is a butcher's shop.'