Mum's warning after son, 25, died following weight loss surgery in Turkey

A heartbroken mum has issued a warning after her son sadly died following botched weight-loss surgery in Turkey. Joe Thornley, from Derbyshire, had travelled to Istanbul for a gastric sleeve procedure, an operation in which a large part of the stomach is cut away.

The 25-year-old had a heart attack during the operation and was unable to be saved, his mother Julie was told. But a post-mortem examination revealed that Joe had actually died from internal bleeding, as he had bled at the site of the operation.

Julie, 58, said that, when Joe booked the operation online, she had not been concerned because it "looked like a nice hospital". But she is now warning others to be careful when considering cheap surgeries, reports YorkshireLive.

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She says: "It looked like a nice hospital and it had good reviews. I didn’t think anything would go wrong. A few days later the so-called surgeon rang me and said he had a cardiac arrest and he couldn’t save him. I believed him.

"But when we had his body back the post-mortem found he had bled at the site of the operation. He died of internal bleeding. It was the aftercare, or they didn’t realise he was bleeding."

Joe had hoped that the surgery would help him to slim down from 19 stone, but his devastated mum has now told people that "it's not worth it". She is urging others to "be very, very careful where you go. Or don't go at all."

Sadly, Joe's story is not unusual - as scores of Brits are travelling abroad to countries such as Turkey for cheap surgery. Some hospitals are offering gastric sleeve and bypass operations for as little as £3,000, which is appealing for patients who cannot bear the NHS