I went to Turkey for a nose job – I was left with a hole under my ear

A mother claims she was left with a hole under her ear after travelling to Turkey for cosmetic surgery.

Sharon Maxwell, from Ayrshire, Scotland, visited a clinic in Istanbul last October to undergo a facelift and a nose job.

However, the 39-year-old says the clinic instead performed a skin lift — a procedure that involves pulling back the skin to tighten the face — and failed to give her a nose job.

The hairdresser and Airbnb host, who now campaigns for increased awareness over the dangers of going under the knife abroad, claimed medics failed to stitch up her wound correctly afterwards.

Miss Maxwell also shared with MailOnline the horrors she saw at the unnamed clinic during her trip.

These included patients suffering recurrent infections for weeks and being unable to leave the clinic, as well as patients with breast implants poking through their skin. 

Miss Maxwell went to Turkey last year after her regular surgeon in Lithuania, where she has undergone nine separate procedures since 2015, refused to give her a nose job and told her she did not need one. 

She forked out £7,000 to travel to Istanbul for a facelift and nose job. The sum also covered her accommodation and flights.

Such procedures can be much cheaper abroad than done privately in Britain.

Sharon Maxwell, 39, from Ayrshire, Scotland, has told MailOnline of how she went to Turkey to get a facelift and a nose job but instead witnessed a mass amount of horrifically botched jobs which led to some people nearly dying on the table and going home with implants gaping out their boobs 

Despite the horrific bruising and painful swelling Miss Maxwell says they never gave her a nose job and she left looking the same as she went in

Miss Maxwell said: ‘I got there (the hotel) about three in the morning and was picked up at half past five to go and get it (the procedure) done. I was there for two-and-a-half hours in total.’

She added: ‘I had my anaesthetic in the hallway. I didn’t know they were giving me an anaesthetic. They never told me.

Miss Maxwell claims the surgeons didn’t actually perform the requested nose job because she looked the same as she did before the op.

And, she says the surgeons gave her a ‘skin lift’ rather than a facelift — a treatment that involves pulling back the skin but also redistributing fat and tissue in the face and neck. 

Miss Maxwell says the procedure left her with a ‘hole’ under her ear, where medics failed to stich her up properly. 

She told MailOnline: ‘They did nothing, they cut me open and did a skin lift at the side of my face and left me with a hole at the back of my ear. 

‘They didn’t take up any muscle or anything. I didn’t feel any pain when I woke up and the nose job definitely didn’t get done.

‘I could breathe absolutely fine and they wouldn’t take the cast off or show me my nose at all until I got home. 

‘It looked the exact same as it was, there is no change.’

The mother-of-one said she arrived around three in the morning and was on her way to recover in the villa two and a half hours later

Cosmetic procedures in Turkey often go at bargain basement prices compared to their British counterparts. Turkey and UK prices have been sourced from multiple websites (model is a stock image)

Miss Maxwell’s transformation in 12 years after spending thousands of pounds in multiple European countries

Here, MailOnline details some of the most striking differences in some cosmetic procedures in UK and Turkey

Miss Maxwell claims the luxury experience on social media is not reality and the chef’s cooking was ‘disgusting’

Miss Maxwell was also horrified with her accommodation, which she shared with five girls and likened to a ‘jail cell’ that served ‘disgusting’ food. 

She claims that influencers, who advertise the clinic in their social media posts, get put up in ‘amazing’ villas with private chefs. 

And, during her time at the clinic, she says she witnessed other woman undergo similarly sub-par care.

Miss Maxwell said: ‘One girl was just 21 but her parents didn’t know she was over there. 

‘She needed at least five blood transfusions and she said she felt as though she was about to die and she asked them to phone her mum and they didn’t do it. 

‘They didn’t have her blood type, they left her for hours and she thought she was going to die. She had a rare blood type and they never had it.

‘I met her in the taxi (which was taking them to their villas). She has been there for weeks.’ 

One patient became so unwell that she was not allowed to fly back home during Miss Maxwell’s time at the clinic, she claims.

Miss Maxwell said: ‘There was a girl from Germany and she fell really ill. She didn’t get to go home.

‘She had liposuction, tummy tuck, BBL (Brazilian Butt Lift) and her boobs. She kept getting infections and she also needed blood transfusions.

She explained she only went to Turkey because her regular surgeon in Lithuania did not want to operate on her nose. These are pictures Sharon shared with MailOnline to give us an insight into how badly the recovery can be from having plastic surgery 

The hairdresser and Airbnb host, who now campaigns for increased awareness around the risks of going abroad

‘There was another girl and she was from London and was very ill and we tried to see her in her room, but we never saw her again.’

Another woman was left with a breast implant that began to peak out between her breasts after she returned home to the UK. 

Miss Maxwell said: ‘They (the clinic) told her she could fly back with it but then it got worse and worse and it (the implant) started to hang out. 

‘She went back and got it fixed. I think it is alright now, but she still is not happy with them.’

Miss Maxwell claims the clinic informed her that her surgeon was subsequently fired.

She said: ‘I think they overbooked him with lots of surgeries. He did to me what he did to everyone else which was half the work or none at all. 

‘Every girl there had paid for what they wanted and were talked out of it to get something cheaper.’ 

She said the care provided was ‘absolutely shocking’ and the women are in and out of surgery ‘like a revolving door’. 

Miss Maxwell now campaigns online to spread awareness of the dangers of going abroad for surgery and urges anyone considering it to do thorough research. As a result, many women reach out to her for help and guidance.