I had my loose skin removed after shedding heaps of weight - I begged doctors to kill me when I woke up and realised my deadly mistake
Sarah Platt went abroad to get loose skin removed but the operation went terribly wrong, and she walked away with a life-threatening infection and 'excruciating pain.'
She joined hosts Robert Rinder and Charlotte Hawkins in the ITV studio to discuss the deadly procedure that convinced medics she may not have long to live.
After having a gastric band operation in the country, the mother rapidly lost weight, which prompted her to get the loose skin removed.
Research into UK clinics revealed she 'couldn't afford it, no way about it,' and the NHS said they could not help, according to Sarah, although she complained of 'constant skin infections and constant bleeding.'
Looking further afield, Sarah evaluated eight different clinics, saying: 'I saw all the certificates, I asked them the right questions, I'd done my research.
'My surgeon had a YouTube channel with amazing reviews, [he was] five-star rated and it still happened to me.'
Sarah realised something was wrong as soon as she woke up in agonising pain.
'I was asking them to kill me,' she said. 'I couldn't deal with it, I can still feel the pain now, mentally, I can still feel the pain.
'And this is what people don't realise, it's not just about the scars, it's about the mental health side.
'It's about how it changes your family, changes your future, changes your life. It changes everything.'
As Sarah spoke, a video of her after the operation appeared on the screen, and viewers saw her in blood-soaked clothes.
She told how the staff were late in fetching her for the operation, rushed her to hospital and got her to sign things quickly in a foreign language.
And instead of being discharged to the UK after 12 days as she had been told, she 'was left rotting in a hotel room for 28 days.'
'When I got home I was falling to pieces,' she said. 'I looked like a jigsaw puzzle.'
Host Robert said: 'And on top of that, they do the first operation under anaesthetic. The next one they do, you're awake.'
'Yeah it was horrendous,' Sarah responded. 'I was screaming.'
Upon returning to the UK, it emerged Sarah had life threatening infections and her family was warned she might not live.
'All I wanted to do was see my kids,' she said. 'I'm a totally different mum now.
'I wasn't allowed to see them because of the infection, because I had MDRO [multidrug-resistant bacteria] and septasemia, so I wasn't allowed to see my children.
'Me thinking, "Oh my gosh, three days and I might not be here" was horrendous.'
Sarah has since gone through a series of operations revive her health, and one of her surgeons, Professor Iain Whitaker, appeared on the programme.
'I knew immediately she needed to come straight into hospital for specialised care,' said Prof Iain. 'My first thought she was a vulnerable patient who was incredibly unwell.'
'She had too much altogether at the same time in different areas, she clearly wasn't warned of the risks and I don't think the patient selection and discussion was appropriate. This, in my opinion, would not have happened in the UK.'
In the UK, Prof Iain explained, there is much stricter regulation and the aftercare would have been 'completely different,' with much greater emphasis on pain relief.
'Even if you do your research, like Sarah, it's very difficult to know where to go,' he said.
The government is currently working with video site TikTok on a campaign to stop the glamorisation and promotion of dangerous surgery abroad
But Sarah thinks it's 'too little,' adding: 'The government needs to use people like us, people who have been through it. People need to know the risks. Stay in the UK, it's not worth it.'
'It destroys me. I go on to social media and try to act like this brave person because I want to be there for other people.
'But in my bedroom, when I'm looking in the mirror, I absolutely hate myself because of what they did to me.'
The clinic where Sarah had her surgery denies all the claims put to them, and stressed they are not a hospital nor medical provider, but an independent entity that facilitates connections between patients and qualified health providers.
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