Kayleigh Mckenna flew to Turkey for a nose job to fix her deviated septum
A mum is warning people not to get surgery in Turkey. It comes after a ‘botched’ £4,500 op left her with a ‘piggified’ nose that she said doesn’t work.
Kayleigh Mckenna flew to Turkey for a nose job to fix her deviated septum which she was ‘massively insecure’ about and a breast reduction because it was ‘massively cheaper’ than in the UK. The 35 year old says she came across a clinic online and ‘thought she’d done all the right research’.
However, the surgery in October 2024, which was meant to last around seven hours, allegedly took ten and she left ‘screaming in pain’ afterwards, before she said she developed blood circulation issues in her breasts. Days later, she says her left nostril was ‘completely blocked up’ and she says the surgeon had to remove a blood clot and take out her splints a day earlier than planned.
After returning home, she says she was ‘devastated’ when doctors took blood tests and a scan revealed that her septum was still deviated. The mum of three said she was forced to visit a UK clinic in December 2024 to get her stitches removed as they were causing sinus infections.
However, more than a year on, she says she’s been left feeling ‘piggified’ with a ‘collapsed and wonky’ nostril that is ‘non-functional’ and says she is forced to buy nasal spray every week just to be able to breathe.
Jessica shared photos of what she says happened to her. One shows Jessica illustrating how she says she has to pull her nostril to the side as it is ‘the only way she can breathe properly’.
Now she says she has to decide whether to fork out £9,000 for a private op or risk minor surgery on the NHS that might not help. Jessica says she ‘regrets’ the op and warns others against getting procedures done abroad.
Jessica, a maternity healthcare support worker who lives in Swindon, Wiltshire, said: “I’m absolutely devastated and traumatised. They’ve completely botched my nose and it’s now non-functional.
“I wanted the septum corrected but I also wanted the look to be different. It’s something I’ve never liked. I’ve been massively insecure about it and I thought it’d be a nice confidence boost. I was due to get it fixed in the UK but obviously the wait list was quite long. At the same time I went to Turkey I had a breast reduction as I thought I’d just kill two birds with one stone.
“It was massively cheaper than the UK. I thought I’d done all the right research. I checked the surgeon out and looked at reviews. Nothing could change my mind so I booked and paid the deposit.”
Jessica said she booked the procedures over WhatsApp and was told she would be able to return home after six days.
However, after arriving in Turkey, she said the consultant said she needed to stay for an extra day but she couldn’t change her flights. After the surgery, she says she developed blood circulation issues in her right breast and says the surgeon was forced to remove a blood clot in her left nostril, which she says was preventing her from breathing.
Jessica said: “When I got into the operating room it was so scary. It was the scariest thing I’ve ever done. My husband was in the hotel room waiting for me the whole time. He actually thought I’d died or something.
“When I came out of theatre eventually I was screaming in pain. Every time I tried to move my leg it was causing me intense pain. I was so worried. One of my hands swelled up and I felt really dizzy and that the room was spinning and I was hallucinating.
“[A couple of days later] all I remember saying to [the surgeon] was ‘I can’t breathe out of my nose’. It felt worse and completely blocked up on one side. He got the blood clot out of the nostril and because he knew I was flying home a day earlier he had to take the splints out a day early.
“Really that should’ve probably been left in another day. When he pulled the splints out of each nostril I remember his assistant said to him ‘too soon’. From then I still had a plaster on my nose and I was still struggling with the breathing side of things more.”
After flying back home she said she went to hospital days later where she says she was given blood thinners. She says a scan found that her nose was still deviated. Despite messaging the Turkish aftercare team to complain she claims she was just told to wear nasal retainers while it healed.
She says she was forced to visit a UK clinic in December to have stitches in her nostril and breasts removed after she kept getting sinus infections. She says ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeons have now declared her nose as ‘non-functional’ and she says she is forced to buy nasal spray every week to be able to breathe.
Jessica said: “Now we’re a year and a bit on and I’ve been seen by ENT here a couple of times now and they’ve said my nose is non-functional and basically collapsed inside. I regret having surgery. It’s affecting my mental health and confidence when I look in the mirror. When I first had it done I was crying every single day.
“It feels like they’ve just done a quick fix. It feels like they haven’t touched the inner part where it was deviated. They’ve just done something to the end of it and made it go up slightly and sort of piggified, which has not done anything to the function of it and if anything made it worse.
“It looks collapsed and completely different to the other one. My nose in pictures looks slightly wonky. To breathe properly I have to pull my nostril to one side and I can breathe better.
“I’m having to buy nasal spray every week, which is a cost I shouldn’t have to do. Sometimes my nose can be continuously dripping or it’s completely blocked up so I can’t breathe.
“I still have to sleep with the plastic retainers every night and if I don’t sleep with them in the left nostril sticks to my nose so it completely shuts. I could stop breathing in my sleep. In the mornings when I wake up my nose is blocked but nothing can come out. I have to try to blow it.
“Where the left side is slightly smaller in the nose it’s very hard getting anything up there to clean my nose out which is why I have to use the spray.”
Jessica claims the Turkish clinic is refusing to send her medical records over and despite them offering to do another surgery she vows to never go back. Now she urges people to ‘pay that extra’ for plastic surgery to avoid getting it done abroad.
Jessica said: “It makes me feel like I’d never go to Turkey again. I messaged the clinic saying I’m not happy and I will be taking this further. I’ve got a right to my medical records form when the surgery was done and they’re now ignoring me.
“I said ‘I don’t want to come back, I’ve lost complete trust in you guys and there’s no way I’d come back’. Even if I did, I certainly shouldn’t have to pay for anything.
“If you want something done, pay that extra and get it done in your own country.”
