Warning after woman dies following 'arm tuck' in Turkey
The report said: "British citizens are travelling abroad for significant and serious surgical operations with seemingly little in the way of follow-up and no way to return easily to the operating hospital if they encounter complications once they are back in the UK."This is not only dangerous but could place a significant burden on the NHS."The inquest heard Mrs Towlson died from a "mystery illness" after her wounds failed to heal properly.
Immediately after her surgery, Mrs Towlson complained her "right arm was hurting" and her "compression garments were too tight".Her right hand was said to have "swelled up like a balloon and was seeping", the inquest was told.She stayed in hospital for three days before going to a hotel.Mrs Towlson returned to the hospital twice where she was given antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, painkillers and a cream to take with her, the inquest was told.She flew home on 3 May, nine days after the surgery.Between 4 May and her death, her internet search history included "infected stitches symptoms", and "armpit yeast infection symptoms", the inquest heard.
Death 'inconclusive'
On 7 May, she sent a video of her arm to the hospital, and was told it would be shown to a doctor, but did not hear back.On 11 May, she told her daughter her arm was "killing her". Six days later, Mrs Towlson was found dead. The report said police photographs showed "the tummy tuck wound healing nicely" but "open wounds to Mrs Towlson's armpits and triceps" with her right arm "weeping and swollen".A post-mortem examination to determine the cause of death was inconclusive.Her inquest was unable to secure any information from the hospital including what the surgery consisted of, Ms Thistlethwaite said."On the balance of probabilities, Mrs Towlson was not given enough time to properly consider this decision," the coroner added.The report was sent to Green Park Hospital in Turkey, as well as the British Association of Aesthetics and Plastic Surgeons.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
'Chemo wrecked my teeth, I can't afford treatment'
A woman who says her teeth were destroyed by cancer treatment says dental care in the UK "feels like we're going back to Victorian times".Faye Woodley, who is unable to work because of chronic illness, said she was unable to afford the required treatment to fix her teeth, which would cost thousands of pounds at her said she had "no confidence" in planned NHS dentistry reforms and the current situation felt like a step back in time when "only the rich were well and had good teeth, whereas everyone else suffered".The government's newly-published 10-year health plan said a new dental contract would be at the heart of a "transformed" NHS system by 2035. As a result of her chemotherapy for breast cancer, Ms Woodley said her front teeth were chipped and had holes in and she had lost 10 one molar she had left had no chewing surface, she said, meaning she could only eat soft Woodley, from Chippenham in Wiltshire, gave up work 10 years ago because of health says her teeth problems have left her in pain and she is unable to pay for private treatment as her condition worsens. 'Sleepless nights' "I'm on benefits, I struggle to survive month on month as it is, without having to find nearly £100 for a check up. "I'm going to be looking at thousands and I don't have that money to be able to get my teeth looked after," she Woodley was registered as an NHS patient at Hathaway Dental Practice in Chippenham before it decided to go private last year, and said she could not find another dentist which would offer her NHS Garber, practice director at Hathaway Dental Practice, said the decision to only offer private care to adults was "not easy", and had been made after a struggle to recruit NHS dentists and "sleepless nights". "We lost four NHS dentists within a short space of time who wanted to go to private practices elsewhere," he said."We advertised for eight or nine months to get replacements for NHS dentists and didn't have a single applicant." "It was a case of either doing that [becoming private] or probably going out of business," he Department for Health and Social Care said it had rolled out 700,000 urgent and emergency added its reforms would "bring in measures to make sure NHS-trained dentists work in the NHS for a minimum period".A government consultation with the public about the planned reforms ends on Tuesday.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Methanol poisoning: Man saw kaleidoscopic light before going blind
When Calum Macdonald arrived at the Vietnamese border, he couldn't read the administrative forms in front of him. All he could see was a blinding kaleidoscopic had just stepped off an overnight bus with his friends from the popular tourist destination of Vang Vieng in day before, the group had been staying at a hostel where free whisky and vodka shots were offered to guests. Calum was mixing them with soft was only at the border that he suspected something might be wrong with his sight - which he told his shots and beer buckets in party town at centre of methanol deaths'Don't let it be your best friend that dies from methanol poisoning'"[We agreed] it was strange but we thought it was food poisoning and the light I was seeing was some kind of sensitivity," he tells BBC when they arrived at their destination in Vietnam, it was clear something was seriously wrong."We were sitting in the hotel room, my friends and I, and I said to them: 'Why are we sitting in the dark? Someone should turn a light on.'" The lights were already 23, is now blind and telling his story for the first time. He was one of several victims of a mass methanol poisoning in Vang Vieng last people died. Calum knew two of them - Danish girls he had met on a night out. All had been staying at the town's Nana Backpacker Hostel. Calum is now working with the families of three other British people who died following methanol poisoning in South East are calling on the Foreign Office to be clearer about the dangers people face when booking holidays in countries where methanol poisoning is a White was one of those day after Calum left Vang Vieng, Simone drank free shots at the hostel. Earlier she'd sent her mum a text message saying this was the best holiday she'd ever been was admitted to hospital in the following days and a friend called her mother Sue to inform her of what had happened. Later, she rang again to say Simone was in a booked a flight immediately but, before she could take off, she received another call in the middle of the night from a doctor in Laos who was treating Simone."[He said] you need to give permission for urgent brain surgery or she's not going to survive…"I flew out the next day knowing she was going through surgery and I expected the worst, to be honest."The 28-year-old died in hospital from methanol poisoning."It's very hard to come to terms with what's happened," Sue says. "Nothing is going to bring Simone back." Methanol is a type of alcohol commonly found in cleaning products, fuel and antifreeze. It is similar to ethanol, which is used for alcoholic drinks, but is more toxic to humans because of the way it is processed by the drinks can become contaminated with methanol if they are manufactured poorly. It is a known problem with cheap spirits in South East Asia where hundreds of people are poisoned each year, according to the charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF).If you consume one of these contaminated drinks and suffer methanol poisoning, symptoms can include dizziness, tiredness, headaches and many people it feels similar to a normal hangover, which makes it difficult to know if you have been poisoned or just had a few too many 12-48 hours, more serious problems can emerge like seizures and blurry vision. In severe cases, it can lead to total blindness and leave sufferers in a coma. As little as 30ml of methanol can be fatal to humans, says the diagnosed within 10-30 hours after consumption, methanol poisoning can be treated successfully with dialysis. Kirsty McKie, 38, died in 2022 but it was not the result of accepting free had been enjoying drinks at home with a friend ahead of a night out in Bali - the Indonesian island where she had been living and working for eight friend, Sonia Taylor, said they both felt like they had a particularly bad hangover the next day before Kirsty was taken to hospital for had also drunk the contaminated alcohol, but survived."We had no idea," says Sonia. "That's probably been the hardest part for me, not knowing why you live and somebody else dies… It doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason as to why."On Sumatra, another Indonesian island, Cheznye Emmons died after drinking gin that was later found to contain 66,000 times the legal limit for methanol in drinks. Cheznye's mother Pamela tells the BBC: "I think the worst part about that… [was] just before she started having a fit, when she first arrived at the hospital, she said to her boyfriend: 'I'm really, really scared.' "And that was basically the last time [she spoke]."Calum's advice to tourists is to avoid free drinks and spirits in general. "There are lots of lovely beers in south-east Asia, which I'm sure people would really enjoy."He says learning of the deaths of the two Danish girls he met in Vang Vieng changed his perspective about his blindness. "Part of the way that I [had] dealt with it was to bury my head in the sand… I did really feel like, in many ways, my life wasn't worth living."Calum is now learning to use a cane and hopes to apply for a guide dog adds: "[The deaths] made me realise that I was very lucky and I felt very grateful that, although I had some difficult consequences, a lot of people did have it worse."I felt, given that I was lucky enough to survive, I have a bit of a responsibility to try and prevent the same thing from happening to other people."The Foreign Office described methanol poisoning and counterfeit alcohol as a "serious problem in some parts of the world" and said it was working with local authorities and the travel industry to tackle the issue."We seek to make clear the risks to British people travelling abroad and we raise awareness through our travel advice and Travel Aware campaign."
Telegraph
2 hours ago
- Telegraph
High street diagnostic centres opening at evenings and weekends
The NHS delivered more than 1.6 million more tests and scans from July 2024 to June 2025 and there were 218,463 people who had cancer ruled out or diagnosed within 28 days, the Department of Health said. Improved performance on the faster diagnosis standard means that nearly 97,000 more people had cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days between July 2024 and June 2025, compared to the same period last year. At Oldham CDC in Greater Manchester, extended opening hours have cut lung cancer diagnosis times from 42 days to just 18.8 days, while Queen Victoria Hospital CDC in East Grinstead, West Sussex, is recording five times more respiratory patient interactions per session, with 92 per cent avoiding the need for hospital outpatient appointments. Patients can be referred to CDCs through their GP or hospital-based clinical teams. Mr Streeting said the Government's 10-year health plan is 'revolutionising how healthcare works' and the measures are helping to bring care closer to the community. Prof Meghana Pandit, NHS England national medical director, said: 'We know people are living incredibly busy lives and it's vital NHS care reflects that. 'The services provided by community diagnostics centres enable people to receive the all-clear or a diagnosis at a time and location that suits them, whether before a school drop off or after a work shift, and extending their opening hours means more people are being seen more quickly.' CDCs can provide a range of tests including MRI and CT scans, echocardiography and phlebotomy services. Wayne Rowlands, who visited the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital Community Diagnostic Centre for an emergency CT scan, described it as a 'pleasant experience' in a setting that was 'very bright and not at all like a hospital'. The Government's Plan for Change is backed by more than £6bn of additional capital investment to improve capacity for elective, diagnostic, and urgent care services over five years, with more than £600m capital funding committed for 2025-26 to transform diagnostic services. This includes funding up to five additional CDCs in 2025-26 and extending opening hours for all CDCs at evenings and at weekends. Laura Challinor, of the Blood Cancer UK charity, welcomed the move but said more must be done to tackle regional variation and speed up testing. She said: 'It's imperative that everyone affected by blood cancer can readily access the diagnostic tests and appointments they need. 'With blood cancer being the UK's third biggest cancer killer and survival lagging behind countries of similar wealth and health, doing all we can to turn that tide is critical.'
