Mother killed by £6,500 ‘buttock lift’ op in Turkey
‘I didn’t think about any risk’
A MOTHER of three died when cosmetic surgery to give her a more shapely bottom went disastrously wrong, an inquest heard yesterday.
Leah Cambridge, 29, had the ‘Brazilian butt lift’ operation in a Turkish hospital after handing over £6,500 cash.
The trainee beautician was encouraged to have the surgery by pictures on Instagram and was described by her partner as ‘paranoid about her body’.
But blood fat was accidentally injected into a vein. This triggered three heart attacks on the operating table.
Miss Cambridge’s partner, Scott Franks, said he spoke to surgeon Dr Ali Uckan after the tragedy to demand an explanation and was told that ‘everyone has a different anatomy’.
Mr Franks said the surgeon told him: ‘It’s a guessing game, you can’t see where you are going into,’ and added: ‘It’s a matter of life or death when you are doing it.’ He said the surgeon admitted to him that he had injected ‘too far into the muscle’.
The inquest heard that Miss Cambridge lived in Leeds with Mr Franks and her sons, aged two, three and ten.
She had already had breast enlargement surgery, and about a year before the tragedy she discussed having the ‘butt lift’ procedure with Mr Franks.
‘She was looking at Instagram posts,’ he said. ‘She was asking me to pay for it and I refused.’
Mr Franks said his girlfriend ‘started doing well in her business’ and saved up for it herself.
During the operation fat is taken from areas such as the stomach and used to reshape the patient’s backside.
Mr Franks told the inquest in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, she told him that the intention was to give her an ‘hour glass figure’, adding: ‘I didn’t think about any complications or any risk.’
Miss Cambridge flew to Izmir in Turkey in August last year with her mother Theresa Hall for the operation. She paid in cash on arrival at the hospital and was taken through the paperwork in a ‘hurry’ so as not to miss the allotted operation time.
Miss Hall said she had a nap and was woken to be told her daughter was dead.
Mr Franks, who flew out to Turkey, wept in the witness box and told how he is still struggling to come to terms with the tragedy. ‘You have to get on with it for the kids,’ he added.
The surgery was booked through a Turkish-based company called Elite Aftercare.
Mr Franks told of his anger at a suggestion made later by Elite that Miss Cambridge may have taken illicit drugs before surgery. This was strongly denied by the family and tests showed no drugs in her system.
Dr Uckan, who still operates for Elite in Turkey, refused to be questioned but in a statement read to the hearing he said: ‘I have conducted similar procedures 1,000 times.’
He said Miss Cambridge, who was under general anaesthetic, began to deteriorate after ‘purified fat’ was injected into her hips.
The post-mortem examination confirmed cause of death was as a result of the cosmetic surgery. Fat tissue blocked an artery to the lungs, the inquest was told.
Elite Aftercare was founded four years ago by Georgina Neville, a Turkish citizen living in the UK, to act as a ‘go-between’ for clients and surgeons and arrange care after surgery. She declined to answer when coroner Kevin McLoughlin asked if she would still send clients for the operation. The inquest continues.