Experts Warn Against 'Sun, Sea and Surgery' Cosmetic Tourism as Overseas Procedures Carry Lethal Risks

A woman travelled to Turkey for a tummy tuck. Once there, she was sold something larger: a "mummy makeover" that included a breast uplift she had never planned to have. She came home with a severe infection, and she ultimately lost most of her left breast and the whole of her right, as the medical negligence lawyer Chrissie Wolfe tells it. It was an operation, Wolfe said, that the patient "didn't even want in the first place."

Her case sits at the center of a warning issued this week by British experts. Overseas cosmetic surgery is often marketed as a package of sun, sea and surgery, and specialists say it can end in infections, disfigurement and death. The British College of Aesthetic Medicine has launched a checklist as part of a campaign called "vet it before you get it," meant to help would-be patients make safer choices.

The checklist sets out red flags. It also advises people to verify a surgeon's qualifications independently, to find out what emergency facilities are near the chosen clinic, and to ask what insurance the practitioner holds.

Nora Nugent, a consultant plastic surgeon and former president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said the dangers of going to countries such as Turkey are not confined to the operating table. "The risks start from the moment you step on the plane," she said, and they continue after the patient returns home, until they are fully healed and past the period of clotting risk. Travel itself can raise the chance of clots, and she flagged the lack of in-person aftercare as a further concern.

Cost is a major draw. Nugent said prices are lower in Turkey, while UK prices are high partly because of the higher cost of living and higher fees for medical indemnity and insurance.

Wolfe, founder and chief executive of Lupa Law, a specialist medical negligence practice, described the legal picture as bleak. Turkey is, she said, the most popular destination for cosmetic surgery by far, "but it is absolutely the most difficult from a legal perspective." Claims after a failed procedure overseas can run into many obstacles, and any compensation awarded could be far lower than in the UK. She urged caution around clinics selling bundles of procedures or time-limited deals, and said that presenting surgery as a glossy holiday "shifts the patient's mind away from the seriousness of what they're actually embarking on."

Nugent described three patients she has seen. One woman developed abscesses and infections in her neck after a facelift abroad, needed long-term antibiotics and drainage procedures, and was left with significant scarring. A woman in her late 20s had a breast lift and labiaplasty abroad after pregnancy. She lost tissue on one breast, had an exposed implant and over-reduced labia, and needed corrective surgeries, including redoing the lifts and improving the labiaplasty. A third woman had a tummy tuck in which the wound came apart and needed surgical cleaning; she has scarring and a dip in her abdomen. "You can't get things back to how they were," Nugent said. All three, she said, had procedures meant to improve how they looked and felt, and ended up with the opposite. Brazilian butt lifts carry the highest risk of death, though other overseas procedures have also left patients with serious problems.

The warnings are not new. Wes Streeting, then health secretary, urged caution over such procedures in 2024. Yet the numbers keep rising. Office for National Statistics data show about 524,000 residents of Great Britain travelled overseas for medical treatment in 2024, cosmetic procedures included, up from 431,000 in 2023.

For anyone weighing a trip, the checklist offers a starting point: confirm the surgeon's credentials, know where emergency care is, and understand the insurance, before booking.