A mother-of-three claims she’s been left looking like a human ‘Shar Pei’ dog after five botched surgeries – because she is riddled with scars, and has rolls of skin and flesh ‘hanging off’ her inflated breasts.
Katherine Hanna, 54, from Ridgefield, in Washington, turned to surgery to fight the flab after her weight reach more than 266lbs when she was stuck in an unhappy 16-year marriage.
However she was forced to undergo four separate gastric ops between 2011 and 2018 after one saw the wrong portion of stomach removed and another caused such severe acid reflux that she was barely able to eat.
Despite the horrifying ordeal, the nurse was delighted to drop more than 126lbs but was then left with rolls of loose skin that clung to her petite figure.
She resorted to taking equity out of her home in a desperate final attempt to ‘correct’ her body, forking out more than $20,000 on a full body lift and breast implant surgery in India.
But the surgeries were ‘botched’ again – leaving Katherine with folds of loose skin dangling from the bottom of her newly-implanted breasts.
Katherine Hanna, 54, from Ridgefield, Washington, turned to surgery to fight the flab after rher weight reached 266lbs when she was stuck in an unhappy 16-year marriage (pictured now)
As well as being devastated over her ‘ugly’ breasts, Katherine says her body is riddled with a road map of scars, and she has suffered a painful infection in her arm and a fist-sized lump in her stomach.
Katherine is now warning others of the unwanted consequences of surgery – as she continues to hide from mirrors despite forking out a total of $30,000.
Katherine said: ‘I think this is what I’m stuck with now. My breasts are asymmetrical, badly scarred and ugly.
‘I did get the abdominoplasty [tummy tuck], but instead of doing the breast lift and scar revision, I was stuffed full of implants which was not what I signed up for.
Mother-of-three Katherine said she was left with life-changing scars on her whole body due to a botch surgery in India, which cost her $20,000
Katherine had gained wait during her 16-years-long unhappy marriage and wanted to feel better about herself (pictured then)
‘There’s upper fullness on my breasts then everything is hanging off. He did nothing to shape or fix anything.
‘There is a knot the size of my fist in my abdomen and it feels like I’m tearing when I’m walking. It’s miserable.
‘The surgeon said I could come back for a revision – does he really think I’d let him touch me again?’
Kath married her ex-husband when she was 30, but piled on the pounds because she was unhappy in the relationship. But after getting divorced following 16 years of marriage in 2011, Katherine vowed take permanent action against her yo-yoing weight.
She had had a gastric lap band months before her ex-husband filed for divorce, but soon after she was unable to keep any food down – dropping weight because she was unable to eat properly.
The mother-of-three, pictured with her new partner Al Randazzo, revealed she could not stand the sight of her body in a mirror
The mother-of-three said she felt her body looked like a ‘Shar Pei’ dog after the series of botches procedures
The desperate mother said she only wanted her body to ‘fit’ her and feel good in her own skin, but was left with terrible scars instead
Katherine said: ‘When I got divorced I lost 316lbs of ex-husband – best weight loss ever!
‘But I’d been yo-yoing around for years and it was time to lose the weight. I lost around 70lbs thanks to the lap band but I threw up almost every meal for two years.
‘I couldn’t eat meat or vegetables. I went back to the doctor and said “Can we take this out?” It wasn’t working. They said “No, it’s once in a lifetime. Live like that”. So I went to Mexico.
‘I had my gastric lap band removed and swapped for a sleeve. But they only took about 40 per cent of my stomach when they should have taken 85 per cent.
‘It didn’t do much for weight loss – I wasn’t 270lbs though, I was 180lbs. That was an improvement.
‘A couple of years later I saved up and went back to have a revision of my sleeve. This was weight loss surgery number three.
A picture of a screen in hospital shows that Katherine’s skin got infected quickly after her second surgery
After her botched full bodylift in India in September 2019, Katherine’s stitches got infected (pictured)
‘A couple of weeks later I had an episode where I threw up, heard something pop and had immediate heartburn. The pop was a hernia developing.
‘I got down to around 170lbs. It was a 100lb weight loss. I was thrilled not to be where I used to be, but I got really tired of having heartburn.
‘It leads to so many problems, like oesophageal cancer. The only thing to fix this was a gastric bypass. I ended up having one – not for weight loss but to fix the acid reflux. This was my fourth weight loss surgery.’
In the months following her fourth and final weight loss surgery, Katherine dropped a further 30lbs and although she felt confident with clothes on, she hated how she looked undressed.
Katherine said: ‘After my fourth weight loss surgery, I got down to about 140lbs and felt great with clothes on, but I looked like a human Shar Pei naked.
‘I shopped around a lot. The worst price I got for a total body lift was $170,000 in Southern California.
‘That’s a house. It was so far out of my league, my heart sank. That’s not my reality – at all.
‘Mexico was $30,000, Brazil $40,000, Vietnam was $22,000. I checked Turkey, UK, South Korea – then India came in at $11,000.
Katherine, pictured with boyfriend Al, decided on a cheap procedure in India because she couldn’t afford prices in California prices – where a body lift costs as much as a house
Katherine shows the scars under her breasts and on her tummy after the failed operation, which cost her $20,000
Katherine said her breasts were ‘asymmetrical and ugly’ after her last operation, and she wanted to warn other women
‘I pulled the equity out of my house, paid off some bills and I went to India. This was my only option – it was in or out. I didn’t have another resource.
‘My boyfriend Al went with me – he didn’t want me to go alone. It was such a blessing having him there. I don’t know I would have survived the trip without him.’
But nothing prepared her for watching the surgeons take off their shoes as they entered the operating theater in Chennai, India, for her her life-changing surgery – leaving her so nervous she considered leaving.
Katherine said: ‘The surgeon I saw had trained in London and New York, his English was good. I figured it was okay.
‘But this was as ‘no-frills’ as you could possibly get. You hear about medical tourism and five-star resorts – this was not that.
‘When we first saw the medical apartment, I was really nervous. I considered just leaving.
‘I was supposed to have a total body lift, breast lift with scar revision and possible small implants if necessary. Losing that much weight there was a lot of loose skin.
‘I was having a brachioplasty, neck lift, face lift and upper and lower blepharoplasty (eye lids) too.
Katherine, pictured now, said she felt so nervous before the Indian operation that she thought about leaving, but stuck to it
Katherine, pictured left in her 30s and right on a recent vacation, said she compared operations prices for Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, UK, and South Korea
‘When I got there, the doctor said “We have to do this in stages. We’ll do the front and in a few months you can come back”.
It would have been nice to know before I used every resource I could scrape together [to get there].
‘We eventually agreed we’d do what I wanted in two separate surgeries two days apart.’
After the surgery, Katherine lay in bed recovering for a week, before she was given the all-clear to fly the 21-hour journey back home to Washington.
Katherine said: ‘This has been a huge deal. I deserve to feel good in my own skin – and I’d like that skin to fit.
‘I was in surgery about eight hours each. It was a lot. I do not recommend it. I’d say by September 25 I was concerned. I had a lot of swelling in my abdomen.
‘I figured when I got home I’d go in and get checked by my own doctor – I was concerned at that point.
‘There was so much swelling, and as a nurse I know it takes time. I knew I wouldn’t have a good picture of it for a few weeks.
‘I tried to keep an open mind. I was literally bandaged from my knuckles and shoulders on both arms.
The mother-of-three said her body hurt for a total of five months after the surgery that left her deeply scarred
The mother-of-three, pictured with partner Al on vacation, said that people who wanted to find deals on surgeries needed to be careful, and not go alone
‘The nurses were trying to take my blood pressure on my upper arm where I’d had surgery. You don’t take blood pressure over bandages or surgical sites.
‘The nurses didn’t do a good job flushing the IVs – I ended up with phlebitis. It is amazingly painful. It took five months before that stopped hurting.’
Katherine had hoped that her trip to India would be her final time under the knife and would leave her happy with her body – so is devastated with the results.
She warns others to think hard before making the same mistakes. Katherine said: ‘I’ve lived with disfigurement for years and [last year] I needed to finish the journey for me.
‘I don’t spend a lot of time looking at myself in the mirror now. I want more than you can imagine to fix this but it’s not my financial reality.
I keep food on the table for my kids and luckily clothes hide an awful lot of flaws.
‘My message to people who think they’ve found a deal is that there are great surgeons all over the world – but there are bad surgeons all over the world too.
‘When you’re traveling that far, you do not know what you’re getting. Don’t go alone. Be aware there could be consequences that you don’t want.’