The Department of Foreign Affairs has welcomed increased publicity on the dangers of Irish residents seeking surgery abroad.
Michael Martin, Minister for Foreign Affair confirmed to VMTV that since 2020 there were 12 serious cases, some very serious, nine deaths and three with medical complications. These were arising out of mainly bariatric surgery (gastric bypass and other weight-loss surgeries) and dental treatment.”
“That is a very high number in such a short space of time. I am somewhat taken back by the casual nature of this that this is ongoing.
“I think, as a country we have to take stock and engage with the medical community in terms of really alerting people to the dangers that are involved here now um in respect of this issue and the fact that people have lost their lives, that people residing in Ireland are now going to Turkey for a product that seems vastly inferior and seems to run against the core of what good medical ethics is all about.”
Mr Martin was speaking as part of a documentary presented by Zara King and screened on VMTV, which highlighted the story of Estelita Hamlin, a childminder originally from the Philippines who lived in Cork, and went to Turkey for a tummy tuck.
According to her daughter Hazel, Estelita had downloaded a social media app where she could participate in consultations, mainly because she wanted to view the website of the hospital where she planned to have the surgery. The main reason Estelita chose this hospital was that the surgery was much more affordable compared to Ireland.
Estelita experienced complications during the surgery and ultimately passed away. Hazel said: ‘We went down to the Intensive Care Unit. They gathered all together in the same room, and that’s the time they told me that my mum is dead.’
Watch the VMTV documentary here: https://www.virginmediatelevision.ie/player/show/2564
In June last year, a woman in her early 50s originally from Portugal and based in Shannon Co Clare tragically passed away after undergoing an abdominoplasty at a Turkish clinic.
On May 28th, another man lost his life during a dental procedure. In November 2022, a young mother in her 30s from west Dublin died following a bariatric procedure.
In April 2022, Carol Sheehan, a mother-of-two from Co Waterford, underwent a medical procedure and did not survive.
Earlier in the same year, Tony Rogers, a father-of-three and taxi driver from Drogheda, travelled to Istanbul for an emergency dental procedure but became unwell and later passed away.
St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin saw a near three-fold increase in the number of people presenting to its emergency department with complications between 2018 and 2021.
One of the contributors to the programme told VMTV journalist Zara King: “you can’t sue the hospital. If anything goes wrong, they’re not held responsible for death and they’re not really under their law anyway. You have no come back. They don’t care about you. It is like a conveyor belt.”
The endspiece for the programme noted: “The investigation into the death of Estelita Hamlin is still ongoing. Two years on, there is no autopsy report, no answers, no accountability. The family’s solicitor says she is unaware of the surgeons whereabouts, adding that it is possible he is still operating in Turkey today.”
