Dutch woman dies after surgery in Turkey; Experts concerned about "medical tourism"

Aleyna Bozkurt from Drunten was 24 years old and about to get married when she had a cosmetic procedure done in Turkey. The surgery lasted seven hours, and she died a few days later. Such a death is exceptional, but complications after cosmetic treatment abroad are common. Experts are concerned by “medical tourism” promoted by online influencers, Nieuwsuur reports.

Aleyna’s family also thinks social media played a role in her decision to go to Turkey. “These girls are influenced by advertisements on social media where very serious operations are presented as if they are nothing,” her uncle, Haci Aslan, told the program. “As if you go laughingly into the operating room. As a result, they have no idea what an attack that is on their body.”

Aleyna went on holiday to Turkey in mid-July. While there, she called her parents to tell them that she had decided to undergo liposuction, a tummy tuck, and another procedure at a private hospital in Izmir. “It was a major procedure, three operations in one. In the Netherlands, they would do it in three sessions. But she didn’t see the risks at all,” Aslan said.

Aslan also spoke to his niece and tried to convince her to get treatment in the Netherlands. But she did not want to wait. She was getting married in the autumn. “She had a gastric reduction two years ago, which caused her to lose a lot of weight and have excess fat. In the Netherlands, her weight would first have to be stable. If she had the procedure done here, it would all have been in stages.”

Aleyna stayed in the hospital for two days after the surgery. When leaving, she collapsed while getting into the taxi bus that was going to take her to her holiday home. Hospital staff tried to resuscitate her, but it was to no avail.

Whether her death was directly related to the surgery is not certain. The Turkish Public Prosecution Service is investigating. “There is no doubt that mistakes were made,” Aslan said. At the very least, the hospital made her go home too early, he thinks. “We want clarity: did the hospital try to find out whether she could handle the operation? How did the operation go?”

Plastic surgeon Edin Hajder, the director of the Dutch Association for Plastic Surgery, thinks Aleyna died due to a pulmonary embolism. “That is a blood clot that breaks loose from the legs and travels to the lungs. It is a known risk for very long procedures.”

Hajder works at the OLVG hospital in Amsterdam and sees “a complication of medical tourism every week,” though death is rare. “The severity varies from less attractive scars, infections, third-degree burns, to mutilations, dead nipples, and so on.”

In Aleyna’s case, things probably went wrong because of the duration of the surgery, the plastic surgeon told Nieuwsuur. “You can take precautions to prevent clotting. But why would you take such a high risk? The longer you operate, the higher the risk of complications. In the private clinic where I also work, we operate for up to three hours, in exceptional cases, a little longer.”

Hajder stressed that treatment abroad is not necessarily risky. “Very renowned, world-famous surgeons work in Turkey. But I don’t think they have recruiters on social media who offer package holidays with operations at rock-bottom prices.” He wouldn’t ban medical tourism but would like action against influencers promoting treatment abroad without any medical training.

A few years ago, research showed that young people who follow influencers who have undergone cosmetic surgery are more likely to opt for such a surgery themselves. “We need to make young people resilient to the effects of these types of influencers and social media,” Hajder said.