Sally got a new nose in Prague, it left her
looking like a toucan....

Sally Farmer was entranced by the slick e-brochure she received in 2005.
Filled with enticing photos of Prague, it promised 'cosmetic surgery of the
highest quality, while taking in the historic, beautiful cities of the Czech
Republic'. Like thousands of women, Sally was unhappy with her face -
a small bump in the bridge of her nose had bothered her since childhood.

'I'd always wanted it fixed,' she says. 'I had just had my daughter, Madelyn,
and decided the time was right. My mother had read about cut-price
plastic-surgery holidays, and they sounded like what I was looking for.

Now: Sally Farmer after £3,300 of corrective surgery to put right the results of the Prague operation.

'I searched online and called the first company I found with a decent- looking website.' The brochure was from one of the hundreds of UK-based 'fixer' agencies that have mushroomed in answer to the increasing demand for surgery abroad. South Africa, India and a number of Eastern European countries were among the destinations on offer. Sally chose the Chotoviny Clinic, near Prague.

'The website seemed professional, showing before & after shots, and the
agency emailed me official-looking documents proving their credentials,'
says the 37-year-old beauty therapist. She booked a £2,000 package that
included rhinoplasty (a nose job) and ten days at a local hotel for her
recovery. In the UK, the operation would have cost about £3,000.

In June that year, she flew to Tabor, about a two-hour drive from Prague,
where she was picked up by taxi and taken to her hotel. Later that day,
she was driven to the clinic. 'The surgeon didn't speak good English so I
wasn't sure he fully understood when I said I wanted my nose to be nice
and straight.

'I was nervous but I'd already handed over £1,500 for the operation.
'The procedure itself went smoothly. It took a couple of hours and I was
back in my hotel the next day. I looked a state, with my face bandaged and
two black eyes, but that's normal after a nose job. I wasn't in much pain.'

Sally had hoped to explore Prague but she felt too self-conscious.
'I got such stares that I ended up sitting in the hotel bored witless.'
Yet, when the bandages came off, the bump had gone. She was thrilled.
Even the fact that the tip of her nose felt soft to touch and almost hollow
failed to dampen her mood.

'Everything will settle,' Dusan Vlcek, Sally's Czech surgeon had said when
she queried the peculiar sensation. 'I was due to fly home that day so had
to take his word for it,' recalls Sally. But it was to be the start of a four-year
ordeal that would leave her disfigured & needing two repair procedures
- as well as a sizeable bill.

Back at her Birmingham home where she lives with Madelyn, now four,
Sally was horrified as, over the next few weeks, her nose began to change
shape. 'The hard cartilage in the middle seemed to protrude more each
day - it looked as if the tip was melting off. It was like a toucan's beak
I was mortified,' says Sally.

'Initially, the agency lady I spoke to on the phone had been really helpful
and enthusiastic but when I called them and explained things had gone
wrong the agency said any grievances were between me and the clinic.'
Eventually, after 'countless emails', Sally's surgeon agreed to perform a
revision operation. But while the clinic waived the fee for surgery, she had
to pay for flights, accommodation and for the anaesthetic - a further £500.

Nightmare: Sally Farmer's profile before any surgery and, right, after a bungled £2,000 operation in the Czech Republic

A year after the initial operation Sally went back to Prague for the repair,
hoping it would be the end of her nightmare. But it was just the beginning.
'I was told a general anaesthetic would cost £400 but I could have a local
for about £100, so I agreed,' recalls Sally.

'It was horrible. The surgeon didn't explain what had gone wrong or
what he was going to do. He just said he would "put it back".
'I went into theatre awake, so I saw all the instruments. And although I
couldn't feel anything, I heard all the scraping and chiselling noises.
'But then, about an hour into the operation, my nose began throbbing
with pain. I started to shake uncontrollably and the nurses held my arms
to stop me moving.

'The surgeon told me to stop being a big baby. I don't remember much
about the next two days recovering in the clinic because I needed so
much morphine to control the pain.'

Three days later, Sally went home clutching a bag of pain-killers and
antibiotic cream. After ten days she removed the bandages. Her nose
seemed to be straight. But within a month, the tip began to droop again.

'I asked for a refund so I could get it fixed in the UK. The clinic said I
could go there for more surgery but I couldn't have my money back.
Then they stopped replying to my emails,' she says.

'My GP was sympathetic but said the NHS wouldn't help because it was
a cosmetic problem. I couldn't afford to hire lawyers so I had to leave it.'
Her GP recommended Sally contact Bruce Richards, consultant plastic
surgeon at Birmingham Children's Hospital and University Hospital
Birmingham NHS Trust, who specialises in corrective surgery
for cleft palates.

Sally's final corrective procedure at Spire Parkway Hospital in Birmingham
cost her £2,800. During the original operation, said Mr Richards, the
Czech surgeon had cut through her nostril plate, which supports the
septum (the part of the nose that divides the nostrils), causing the tip of
her nose to collapse.

Mr Richards repaired this by inserting a piece of cartilage taken from high
inside her nose lower down to act as a new support. Sally now has the
straight nose she always wanted - but in total it has cost £5,300.
'I feel like an idiot,' she says. 'I thought I was being clever and saving
money by going abroad. I'm lucky I wasn't disfigured for life, or worse.'

Source: MailOnline