Worrying wave of suicides after Turkish surgery: Calls grow for mental health checks before cheap surgeries – as victims of botched procedures commit suicide

There is already an alarming list of deaths following cosmetic surgery in Turkey, and now it has emerged that these botched procedures are the direct cause of a secondary wave of suicide deaths.

Earlier this week it was announced that 24-year-old French business student Mathieu Vigier Latour committed suicide after failing a beard transplant in Turkey in March this year.

Mathieu died by suicide three months after his €1,300 (£1,082) transplant, which was 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.

Although there is a seemingly endless list of patients who suffer deformities or serious infections after being lured to Turkey by rock bottom prices for cosmetic ‘work’, Mathieu’s case highlights a worrying pattern of suicides among those whose procedures fail.

The devastation caused by a botched procedure is undoubtedly compounded in those who were mentally vulnerable to begin with – with many struggling with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), causing patients to become fixated on perceived flaws in their physical appearance.

Among them is Jack Castell, a 24-year-old British man with Asperger’s and BDD, who committed suicide after suffering severe scarring and immense pain following multiple operations 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 committed suicide in the aftermath of 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 a Brazilian butt lift operation. Her father (left) died three years later. A senior coroner ruled: ‘This was a suicide partly attributed to the death of his daughter who died during surgery in Turkey’

Jack Castell, 24, before undergoing multiple facial plastic surgeries in Turkey

Mathieu Vigier Latour’s father, Jacques, told local broadcaster BFM TV: ‘When it started to grow, it looked like a hedgehog, it was unruly.

“He was suffering… He was in pain and couldn’t sleep,” he added, saying his son suffered from “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 undergoing multiple facial plastic surgeries in Turkey.

Jack’s family said he had suffered from BDD for years.

At the end of 2022, he left for a series of operations including a jaw reduction, chin reduction, lower facelift, nose and hairline reduction with eye widening.

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 are an absolutely gorgeous looking man,” he recalled.

Jack returned from his surgery with severe scars and immense pain, leaving him dependent on strong painkillers.

In a message to his father he wrote: ‘I should have listened to you. “I’m sorry, I feel like I made a big mistake,” he said.

The young man, described by his father as ‘loving and kind’, was found dead on June 7 of that year after taking an overdose.

The treatment left his beard with an irregular shape and growing at an unnatural angle

The student, seen before the surgery, took his own life after the botched procedure

Mr Castell said his son was an easy target for clinics eager to sell a large number of procedures as a solution to perceived problems with his appearance.

‘His Asperger’s and body dysmorphia made him a soft target and easy prey. He was 24, but still childish in many ways,” he said.

The trauma of a botched operation also reverberates through families, as evidenced by the terrible case of Leah Cambridge.

Ms Cambridge was just 29 when she suffered a fatal blood clot during a £6,500 Brazilian butt lift (BBL) operation in Turkey in 2018.

The mother-of-three, from Leeds, described as ‘paranoid about her body’, paid cash for the procedure after being inspired by photos on Instagram.

A BBL is a procedure in which fat is extracted from areas around the waist and injected into the buttocks with the aim of achieving a fuller figure.

But Leah suffered a fatal complication where this fat was accidentally injected into a vein, causing her to suffer three heart attacks on the operating table and subsequently die.

However, the tragedy did not end there.

Leah Cambridge, 29, died in 2018 after cosmetic surgery to lift her buttocks. Doctors and nurses from the Turkish clinic were unable to save her

Her father, Craig, 51, was found dead at his home by suicide in April 2021 after ‘going down’ following his daughter’s death.

An inquest, held in 2022, found that the personal trainer never got past the loss that Leah was prescribed antidepressants and also had an alcohol problem after her death.

Returning a verdict of suicide, senior coroner Kevin McLoughlin said at the time: ‘I’m normally quite aloof and callous about inquests, but when I saw that another tragedy had befallen your family I felt quite saddened.’

He added: ‘I plan to send it to the medical authorities in Turkey to make them aware of how a tragedy manifests itself years later.’

Last month, a woman named Nina – who wished to remain anonymous – said she was suffering from mental health problems The times that a nose job in Turkey had left her feeling ‘suicidal’ and ‘the most unwell I had ever been’.

Nina, like Jack, suffered from BDD. The condition should normally rule patients out from surgery – and should be carefully screened by a doctor before surgery.

Yet many clinics in Turkey sign up patients after little more than a WhatsApp or Instagram exchange.

Nina, who had already undergone a rhinoplasty in Britain prior to her diagnosis, sought another rhinoplasty in 2019 – and flew to Turkey alone, despite objections from her family.

Although the surgery went as planned, Nina’s mental health plummeted.

‘After Turkey the recovery was the most unwell I have ever experienced. I was suicidal and I was just completely focused on getting more surgeries to fix the next problem, to fix what I felt had changed them in a way I didn’t like.

“I was so attached to it… I’m not in that place anymore, I now accept that further surgery is not the answer,” she added.

According to the Turkish state health body USHAS, more than 1.5 million people went to the country for cosmetic surgery in 2023.

Kitty Wallace, head of operations at the BDD Foundation, told The Times she believed there needed to be better regulation of cosmetic surgery internationally.

She said: ‘Rigorous mental health and BDD screening for patients and an end to Turkish surgeons preying on young adults in Britain without adequate care for their physical and mental wellbeing.’