Woman left unable to close eyes from 'horror surgery' after wanting face to look like 'Snapchat filter'
A mum has been left with a post-operation nightmare after having surgery to look like a 'Snapchat filter'.
Joanne Law, 56, saved around £5,200 for a face, neck and eyelid lift as well as a fat graft in June 2023, after undergoing gastric sleeve surgery in February of that year in the same hospital.
She made her way to a hospital in Turkey and said she was 'excited' to get the work done. However, she has now been left unable to fully shut her eyelids.
Joanne said she was taken to an operation room for her second surgery, which she compared to a 'horror film' as it was apparently in a basement.
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The mother-of-two, from Manchester, claimed she then suffered from blepharitis straight after the operation, as her eyes started to swell and grow blisters over the course of three months.
As well as this, her eyes have also started to dry out and tear up as photos reveal that they even remain open when she's sleeping.
Joanne now can't drive at night as her eyes are too sensitive to the lights, blaming her eyelids that 'droop' without shutting.
She claimed she has also been left with a 'wobbly turkey neck' following the procedure.
The 56-year-old said she 'felt wrinkly' after her weight loss, seeing the surgery as her next step, despite not doing much research into it.
Describing the operating room, she recalled: "There was an old-fashioned bed screen separator, someone was being operated on the other side in the same theatre.
"Immediately after I got blepharitis, which is a bacterial infection, and had blisters under my eyes for three months."
The Brit continued: "When I get tired, the bottom of my eye droops. I'll be driving and will have to pull over at services and shut my eyes because I'll be driving as if I've had no sleep for a week.
"You can see one of my eyeballs more than the other."
As well as her 'turkey neck', she added: "I have scars on the back of my ear and earlobe so I can't put earpods in my ear and it is still painful.
"It's like a five-year-old's done it."
Gutted, Joanne said that her sleeve was 'such a success' that she believed her face lift would make her look 'like something straight out of a Snapchat filter'.
The surgery, which involved an eyelid lift, has since caused her to stay inside more and use makeup to cover scars.
She claimed that the hospital coordinator kept recommending that she had a fat graft and that when she got in touch with the practice, they reportedly said to wait 12 months for the scars to heal.
But as the 12-month period came and went, they allegedly stopped replying to her emails.
"One side of my scars is different from the other, as if two different people were stitching me up for quickness," she explained.
Joanne said she feels 'like a mess' without makeup, adding: "The fat graft made me look like a cartoon character, it's changed how I look. It just made my face flat and weird.
"I've sent them pictures every month and they kept saying to wait 12 months. Now they're just ignoring me."
Joanne's goal is to raise awareness of the risks associated with going overseas to get surgery, as she recalled that there were no before and after photographs of the surgeon's previous work.
She added: "I remember he fobbed me off to the point that I believed him. I was excited about what I was going to have done and ignored my gut feeling."
Joanne has also urged others not to take the plunge, concluding: "The recovery was horrendous, there was no aftercare. That hospital is a butcher's shop."
Joshua Nair