The cadaver of a 38-year-old British woman who passed away during cosmetic surgery in Turkey was reportedly returned to her homeland with several essential organs missing.
Kaydell Brown died on the operating table at Clinic Expert in Istanbul on March 26.
She had paid £5,400 to travel to Istanbul for a “mummy MOT,” a one-day all-in-one procedure that combines a Brazilian butt lift, a tummy tuck, and a breast augmentation.
Brown’s sister, Leanne, accompanied her to provide support through the procedure.
She detailed the moment Kaydell entered the clinic and the frightening hours that followed when the surgeons emerged to explain the complications that occurred during the operations.
“She went in for surgery at about 9.30 a.m., and that was the last time I saw her,” Leanne Brown told ITV. “They took me to a room, and they just started trying to say, you know, there’s complications with surgery, you know things can happen. And I asked, ‘Has my sister died?’ And he just said, ‘I’m sorry, but yeah.’”
Leanne said she didn’t have much time to absorb the deeply shocking and unexpected news as clinic staff handed her an envelope containing money and a one-way plane ticket back home.
“They just gave me an envelope and said here’s your money back and here’s your sister’s money back. And here’s your flight. It’s like, sorry she’s dead, here’s your plane ticket,” Leanne said.
Leanne added that what intensified her grief and distrust was the clinic’s refusal to allow access to Kaydell’s body. When Kaydell’s remains were finally returned to the U.K., a coroner found that large portions of her brain, lungs, and heart were missing, her sister stated.
“When they returned her body, they kept pieces of her heart and her intestines, and that could show the cause of death, but we might not know because they’re not very cooperative,” Leanne remarked.
The clinic rejected any suggestion that it had removed and kept organs before handing Kaydell’s body to a Turkish coroner’s office.
“No evidence of organ trauma was found. We have handed the body untouched to the Coroner’s Office (in Turkey),” the clinic told ITV. “It is highly possible parts were removed while trying to determine the cause of death.”
The coroner’s office issued a death certificate to the family, noting no stated cause of death, but later asserted that her death resulted from surgical complications, not medical malpractice.
“An internal investigation found no malpractice, and Kaydell’s death was likely caused by fat blocking a blood vessel, which can occur during this type of surgery,” the clinic stated.
A clinic spokesperson noted that, out of more than 23,000 cosmetic procedures performed by its doctors for Turkish and international patients over the past 13 years, only two patients have died.
More than one million people travel to Turkey annually for medical procedures, including around 150,000 British citizens. According to Foreign Office records, 28 British citizens have died in Turkey from cosmetic-surgery complications since 2019.
“The UK government has been actively engaging with the Turkish government on how to support the safety of patients who decide they wish to travel to Turkey for medical treatment,” a government spokesperson said. “We urge anyone considering a cosmetic procedure abroad to research the treatment in question, the qualifications of their clinician and the regulations that apply in the country they are traveling to.”
Brown noted that Kaydell had recently celebrated her 38th birthday and had chosen these cosmetic procedures as a form of self-care after several difficult years. She was a mother of two sons, aged 12 and 16.
The family continues to await a formal cause of death for Kaydell from Turkish authorities.
