I’m in my 50s and spent £5K on Love Island boob job in Turkey… I knew something was wrong when my nipple turned black
SAT on the plane staring out of the window, Vicky Quait felt a wave of dizziness wash over her.
The nail technician and amateur bodybuilder from Radlett, Herts, was flying home from Istanbul, Turkey after undergoing a £5,000 boob job in May.
The Love Island superfan had been inspired to have the uplift procedure and implants after admiring the perky breasts of Danica Taylor and Ekin-Su Culculoglu – and decided to have it done at a clinic abroad because it was half the price of surgery in Britain.
But as she began feeling increasingly faint, Vicky, 53, knew something was seriously wrong.
“I blacked out – the next thing I knew, we were on the tarmac and I was being checked over by an ambulance crew,” she recalls.
“I had no idea how I got there or what had happened. I don’t remember collapsing mid-air. It’s all a blur.”
In the “hellish” three months that followed, Vicky says her breasts became infected after her stitches burst, and one of her nipples turned black and partially fell off.
She claims she was refused aftercare treatment by the NHS because she’d had the surgery abroad, and had to go private – costing her over £2,500.
Vicky says: “I wish I’d never had the surgery. I have no feeling in my boobs now, and I’ve lost part of my left nipple. I also have necrotic scarring on my breast tissue.
“The private doctor who treated my infected breasts says the implants are too big and caused the stitches to break, so I need more treatment to repair the botched job.
“It’s been hell.”
Life-threatening
According to research by the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), there was a shocking 44 per cent increase in botched cosmetic procedures from abroad needing emergency intervention back home in Britain.
In 2021 more men and women than ever before were treated for complications – some life-threatening.
Turkey was top of the list of countries where British patients suffered serious complications, with boob jobs second to tummy tucks as the procedure most likely to be botched abroad.
Keen gym-goer Vicky, a size 10, says it’s not just women in their twenties and thirties who want perfectly sculpted “Love Island bodies”.
“I have always had a good body but in the last decade my boobs started to lose their shape,” she explains.
“I gained 2st during lockdown, and when I lost it back in the gym, my breasts became droopy. I went from a 36D to a 36EE.
“I love my bikinis and couldn’t stand the thought of tucking them into a frumpy swimsuit this summer.”
Vicky researched surgeons and was won over by the cheaper clinics in Turkey, which she claims had rave reviews from celebrities and reality stars.
“I told my surgeon I wanted perfect 36D boobs and even showed them pictures of Love Island stars Ekin-Su and Molly Mae,” she recalls.
Surgery hell
Vicky flew to Istanbul, Turkey, by herself in May and within 24 hours she was having surgery, which led to a 48-hour stay in hospital.
“It was really fast. The surgery was just four hours. It felt like a conveyor belt. I had to beg to stay more than 24 hours,” she says. “I came around from the surgery in agony.”
Vicky, who has a boyfriend, complained about the pain and the size of her new breasts, which seemed much bigger than a D-cup, but claims she was told it was just swelling and her body adjusting.
Her wounds were dressed in tight, corset-style bandages and she flew home three days later, but on the plane she began to feel unwell and fainted.
“The ambulance offer put me in a wheelchair to get through customs. The aircrew had already called my mum to come to get me because I was panicked about collapsing.
“I was travelling alone. I had collapsed mid-air and just had a boob job. I have never felt so vulnerable.”
She headed to her mum’s home to recover, but five days later she woke up with a wet patch under her dressing, and feeling like someone had stabbed her in the chest.
“I unwrapped the bandages and discovered my left nipple had a gaping hole which was oozing green pus and was turning black, and the right one had partially darkened tissue and swelling,” she says.
“I was horrified. I knew enough to know the blood supply to my left nipple was compromised.
“I had no feeling in my left breast and nipple . The right breast had partial sensation.
“My left nipple was hot to the touch, but I couldn’t feel anything, even when I did a pinprick test.
“I could see my stitches had burst. The smell was awful, like rotting meat.”
Hospital dash
Vicky’s mum rushed her to their local A&E but she claims they were told they couldn’t treat her if she’d had surgery abroad.
Vicky rang another two hospitals and says she was told to see her GP because the NHS was unable to help people with post-surgery infection from overseas, unless it was life-threatening.
Her mum then found a private surgeon in a nearby town.
Vicky says: “He told me I had nipple necrosis (dead body tissue) and that my left nipple was necrotic and would likely drop off or die completely.”
The surgeon arranged for a private nurse to see Vicky twice a week to treat the infection and re-dress the wounds.
After two weeks, she says her wounds finally began to heal.
“I couldn’t work for three weeks. I am self-employed and being unable to lift things or do people’s nails meant I lost over £1,200 in three weeks,” she says.
Vicky has lost her left nipple and has no feeling in either boob.
She adds: “My confidence is shot – I’m more self-conscious than ever and have been left with scars and dead tissue.
“I so regret my Love Island makeover. I wish I’d just bought a better bra rather than risking surgery abroad.
“I want all women – and men – planning a plastic surgery makeover to think twice.”