Online recruiters blamed as woman dies after cosmetic surgery in Turkey

The death of a young Dutch woman shortly after she had cosmetic surgery in Turkey has triggered a soul-searching national debate and condemnation of social influencers who act as “recruiters” for cut-price clinics in Turkey.
Aleyna Bozkurt, 24, was about to get married this autumn and flew to Izmir for a holiday in mid-July, not telling her family about plans for a cosmetic procedure for a “tighter body” as part of the package.
She died shortly after an operation that lasted seven hours, probably having suffered a pulmonary embolism caused by a blood clot, which is a known risk after long surgical procedures.
Her family have blamed online influencers on social media such as TikTok who advertise and normalise procedures including liposuction, tummy tucks and buttock surgery.
“These girls are influenced by advertisements on social media where very serious operations are presented as if they are nothing,” Haci Aslan, Bozkurt’s uncle told NOS, the state broadcaster. “As if you go into an operating room laughing. They have no idea what an onslaught that is on their body.”
Deaths after medical tourism are rare but doctors have warned prospective patients about the dangers of cheap and less-regulated cosmetic surgery in Turkey. There have been high-profile fatal cases from the Netherlands and Britain, including Leanne Leary, 38, who died last year in Istanbul after a “gastric sleeve” operation to help with weight loss.
Edin Hajder, a surgeon and director of the Dutch Society for Plastic Surgery, said he sees “some complication of medical tourism every week”. He said: “The severity varies from less-attractive scars, infections, third-degree burns to mutilations, dead nipples and you name it.”
Hajder suspects there are many cases of “medical tourists” with complications when they return home that are not recorded. “There is a lot of shame,” he said.
He believes action should be taken against online “recruiters” who promote treatments abroad but who are not medically trained. “Influencers try to sell things like VIP service, home pick-up service, all-inclusive plastic surgery holidays. They also advertise with a kind of stacking discount. The more surgery you take, the higher your discount, but I only see the risks piling up,” he said.
In 2021, four Dutch and Belgian women suffered serious complications after cosmetic surgery in Turkey. One of them died. In 2022, another Dutch woman died after so-called Brazilian buttock lift surgery in Turkey.
Egepol hospital in Izmir, which carried out the surgery, has denied negligence. “As a hospital, we have the principle of providing care without compromising medical-ethical principles,” a spokesman told the Yeni Asir newspaper.
Bozkurt phoned her family to tell them she was having a variety of surgical procedures carried out all at once and her relatives, of Turkish origin, were unable to persuade her of the potential dangers.
“It was a major procedure, three operations in one,” her uncle said. “In the Netherlands, they would do it in three sessions. But she didn’t see the risks at all. She is the victim of all kinds of advertisements and beautiful reels on social media, in which such clinics are shown as five-star hotels. We hope that other young people will realise that there are great dangers involved.”
Turkish prosecutors are investigating her death.