Mother-of-two left fighting for life after botched liposuction procedure led to ‘flesh-eating’ disease and deadly sepsis (Photos)

A British mother of two was left fighting for her life after a botched liposuction procedure in Turkey led to a ‘flesh-eating’ disease and left her with deadly sepsis.

 

 

Carrie, 36, from Slough, booked herself in for liposuction at an Istanbul clinic in 2022, after years of feeling unhappy with changes in her body following the birth of her two children. 

 

 

However, the minute after she woke up from the six-hour operation, she realised the £4,500 op had gone drastically wrong.

 

 

Her abdomen had ‘turned black’ as a result of the life-threatening flesh-eating disease necrotising fasciitis, which she’d contracted on the operating table.

 

 

Days later, she collapsed in agony and was admitted to intensive care, where doctors found she’d developed deadly sepsis that had caused her organs to begin shutting down. 

 

It was only after five emergency surgeries to cut out the dead flesh and three months in hospital did Carrie started her long road to recovery. 

 

 

‘When I woke up, everything was painful — I knew something wasn’t right,’ she said. 

 

‘It was a really tight feeling to the point I felt like my body was going to split in two.

 

 

‘I wanted to take the pain away. My stomach started turning black and they [doctors] said I had necrotising fasciitis.’

 

Necrotising fasciitis, also known as the flesh-eating disease, is a rare and life-threatening infection that affects the deep layers of the skin, according to the NHS. 

 

 

Recalling the ‘hellish’ ordeal, Carrie said doctors detected the infection as soon as she woke up, and attempted to ‘wash it out’. 

 

 

She said: ‘I had to go back to surgery to wash everything out. They cut me open while I was awake, putting a screen up in front of me so I couldn’t see what was going on.’

 

 

Within a day she’d collapsed in her bathroom and was consequently rushed to hospital and, eventually, intensive care.

 

 

‘I went back to hospital and they said I had sepsis and needed emergency surgery,’ she said. 

 

 

‘They had to cut out the flesh and ended up just taking half of my stomach away.’

 

 

In total, Carrie had five surgeries over the course of 12 days where medics cut out the dead flesh in a bid to save her life. 

 

Following the ordeal, Carrie is warning others to have surgery in the UK rather than fly to Turkey.

 

‘I struggled with my stomach since having children. I’m not skinny but I’m not massive, but there’s a pouch and stretch marks that I hated. I wanted it gone.

 

‘I got some inheritance money from my grandma and I wanted to use it to get something to make me happy.

 

 

‘I was talking to the company who performed my surgery for two years — I researched them, they had good reviews and I trusted them massively.

‘I thought I’d gone with the right doctor.’

 

 

Now, the mum regrets her decision and has urged others to ‘just diet and hit the gym’ if they want to change their body.

 

 

‘If I could turn back time, I would never have got it,’ she said.

 

 

‘It still affects my mental health and I have to position my clothes so you can’t see my stomach because I look deformed.

 

 

‘I’ve had to get on with it. I can’t change it and if I keep dwelling on it my mental health will suffer.

 

 

‘I try to stay positive and think that I’m lucky to be alive and see my kids grow up.’