‘My breasts had been empty pockets and my arms had wings’ – The hellish penalties of my 12 stone weight reduction and why surgical procedure in Turkey was my greatest mistake

Hannah Thompson has a single phrase for what it took to get her dimension 10 physique: ‘Hell’.

It was not the load loss itself, although — as a result of Hannah, 31, a beautician from Liverpool, had bariatric surgical procedure on the NHS which was quickly efficient.

Nevertheless, her weight reduction left her with ‘massive’ quantities of saggy, irritated, extra pores and skin.

‘My abdomen sagged, my breasts had been empty pockets that hung to my abdomen and my arms had bingo wings,’ she says. ‘I had flaps of extra pores and skin throughout.’

Hannah Thompson had bariatric surgical procedure on the NHS however her weight reduction left her with ‘massive’ quantities of saggy, irritated, extra pores and skin

However Hannah discovered herself unable to get the surgical procedure wanted to take away the surplus pores and skin on the NHS.

‘I used to be instructed it was “beauty” and so they would not assist me,’ she says.

After the being pregnant along with her youngest youngster made the unfastened pores and skin even worse, she ended up paying 1000’s of kilos to go to Turkey to have the surgical procedure there.

It was a call she now bitterly regrets. Not solely did she wake from her 11-hour operation in insufferable ache, Hannah says she has ‘everlasting nerve harm in each arms’.

‘I’ve ache down my arms like I am being stabbed, and unhealthy pins and needles always. I can’t even elevate my arms to sure positions,’ says Hannah, whose kids are actually aged 12, six and 4.

Consultants say they’re seeing rising numbers of instances like Hannah’s, and are warning people who find themselves contemplating weight-loss surgical procedure to concentrate on the potential downsides.

Round 70 per cent of sufferers who’ve bariatric procedures might want to endure ‘physique contouring’ surgical procedure afterwards (i.e. elimination of extra pores and skin), says Mark Soldin, a plastic surgeon at St George’s Hospital, South-West London, and beforehand chair of the physique contouring committee on the British Affiliation of Plastic Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons.

A excessive proportion of those sufferers will develop problems, he warns. Whereas most of those will resolve, he says, there are additionally tales reminiscent of Hannah’s.

The mother-of-three had no thought what lay forward earlier than her bariatric surgical procedure in 2016.

She’d gained weight after the beginning of her first youngster, James, going from a dimension 14 to a dimension 28. At one level her weight reached 21st 7lb. At 5ft 4in, her BMI was above 51 and he or she was classed as ‘morbidly overweight’.

The beautician, pictured earlier than her bariatric process, was unable to get the surgical procedure wanted to take away the surplus pores and skin on the NHS and paid 1000’s of kilos for remedy in Turkey

Weight-reduction plan did not work, and finally she requested her physician about having weight-loss surgical procedure. On the age of 24, she underwent a gastric bypass — the place a pouch is created on the prime of the abdomen, then related to the small gut to bypass the abdomen.

‘Once I got here to, I felt reduction that finally I might begin shedding pounds,’ says Hannah. ‘I used to be warned about extra pores and skin, however as I used to be younger I assumed it would not be that unhealthy.’

Hannah discovered ‘the load fell off’ — certainly, she misplaced 12st in lower than two years. However shedding pounds so rapidly got here at a worth.

‘I had a lot of extra pores and skin,’ she says. ‘I attempted to cover it by sporting tight garments. However the minute I took my garments off, my pores and skin would hold in flaps round my physique. I felt terrible.’

Extra pores and skin is a typical side-effect of considerable weight reduction, because the once-stretched pores and skin turns into ‘deflated’.

A lot of elements can contribute to this, explains Mr Soldin, together with genes, age (youthful pores and skin is extra elastic) and velocity of weight reduction (the pores and skin is extra more likely to cope if weight reduction is extra gradual).

Nevertheless, getting extra pores and skin eliminated on the NHS is a ‘postcode lottery’, he says.

Below NICE pointers, sufferers who’ve shed 50 per cent of their extra physique weight, have a BMI of 30 or beneath, have maintained a steady weight for at the very least 12 months and have ‘purposeful disturbance’ must be provided skin-removal surgical procedure on the NHS.

‘This isn’t about feeling embarrassed undressing in entrance of your associate or not liking the look of your self within the mirror,’ says Mr Soldin. ‘It is about important purposeful considerations, reminiscent of infections within the folds of pores and skin and abscesses, or an incapacity to train as a result of the pores and skin is simply too wobbly.’

Nevertheless, as a result of it’s left to native well being authorities to determine whether or not they’ll fund these operations, solely a small variety of individuals are given the surgical procedure on the NHS, and so they typically have to attend for effectively over a 12 months for it.

Even then, surgical procedure would not often cowl all 4 areas the place saggy pores and skin sometimes happens — the abdomen, interior thighs, interior arms and breasts, says Mr Soldin. ‘It is going to often cowl solely the areas the surgeon feels meet the factors for physique contouring.’

Hannah was instructed she wasn’t eligible for the surgical procedure as her drawback was ‘beauty’ and wasn’t affecting her high quality of life — ‘though it was affecting my psychological well being’.

‘I used to be in despair, as I might misplaced the load however nonetheless appeared horrendous,’ she says.

To have surgical procedure on these 4 areas privately prices round £30,000 within the UK, so it isn’t stunning individuals are tempted to go overseas for his or her surgical procedure.

In 2022, Hannah noticed adverts on social media for the surgical procedure in Turkey. ‘It price a 3rd of the worth of that within the UK, and other people had been posting footage wanting unimaginable afterwards,’ she says.

Hannah opted for a breast elevate and to have the sagging pores and skin on her abdomen and bingo wings eliminated at a clinic in Ankara. Her mother and father stated they’d foot the £8,500 invoice.

‘Once I got here to, I heard a girl screaming in agony — and realised it was me,’ Hannah recollects. Regardless of being in horrible ache and ‘convulsing with the shock’ attributable to dangerously low iron ranges, the hospital needed to discharge her that very same day.

‘However I refused and made them maintain me in till the following morning,’ Hannah says.

She flew house 5 days later.

Cosmetically, the surgical procedure was largely successful. ‘My abdomen was flat, my breasts perkier and all the surplus pores and skin had gone,’ Hannah says. ‘My arms had horrible scars however had been taut and slim.’

However over the following few months, she developed agonising ache in her arms. Nevertheless, as a result of the operation had been carried out overseas, her GP instructed her the NHS was unable to assist.

Hannah noticed a plastic surgeon privately 5 months in the past, who recognized nerve harm. ‘However they could not do any surgical procedure on my arms as it could worsen the ache,’ she says.

Mr Soldin says UK plastic surgeons are seeing an increasing number of comparable instances.

‘The complication price of this sort of surgical procedure is huge: most likely between 50 and 100 per cent of sufferers will get problems after physique contouring following weight reduction,’ he says.

That is true each within the UK and elsewhere, he provides, however the bottom line is the supply of follow-up care.

‘Such a surgical procedure wants shut, steady follow-up care from a professional group that features nurses, physiotherapists and surgeons,’ Mr Soldin explains.

‘When folks go overseas, they cannot get that. Three or 4 days after the operation, these sufferers are again on the aircraft, typically with drains hanging out of their our bodies, and the recommendation they’re given is to go and see their GP for any considerations.

‘However the NHS would not tackle individuals who have problems from surgical procedure within the non-public sector except they’ll die from these problems [such as open wounds or infections].

‘Observe-up remedies must be agreed between the affected person and surgeon earlier than the preliminary operation. Sadly, sufferers are sometimes not conscious of this.

‘With the excessive complication price of physique contouring surgical procedure, you are throwing loaded cube should you journey to a different nation.’

So what can these affected do?

‘Both stay with it or pay for it — there isn’t any magical answer,’ says Mr Soldin.