A woman has spoken of her heartache after spending her life savings on a ‘booty job’ bum lift operation – only for the surgeon to bungle it and leave her in agony and unable to sit down.
Heidi Faulkner, 36, from Hertfordshire, decided to have the procedure after slimming down from 16st to 8st over three years with the help of a gastric band.
Although overjoyed to be a size six, Ms Faulkner says the dramatic weight loss left her with a ‘wrinkly granny bum’.
Horrified: Ms Faulkner, who has since had some of the damage repaired, said her rear looked ‘horrific’
‘I lost so much weight I looked ill and had to have a break from the [gastric] band,’ she explains. ‘But I went from a size six to a 14 in weeks before having the band fixed and losing weight again.
‘The fluctuation in my weight left me with loose skin on my stomach and legs and wrinkly folds and sagging skin around my hips and bum.
‘I was a 30-something with the body of an 80-something old woman. My son used to say, “Mum, it looks like your bum has melted”. My skin looked like candle wax dripping down the back of my legs.
‘It had no shape, my buttocks were flat and exercise wasn’t making any difference.’
Determined to do something about it, the mother-of-one saved £2,000 and jetted to Prague for cut-price cosmetic surgery.
Having previously had a tummy tuck at the same clinic, Ms Faulkner says she had no qualms about her bottom lift beforehand but was aghast when she awoke to see two huge scars across her buttocks.
‘When I looked in the mirror I could see these two enormous diagonal scars right across my misshapen buttocks,’ she remembers.
‘I thought I must be having a nightmare or the drugs were affecting me. Then, I heard someone screaming, and realised it was me.
‘It looked just like a shark had come and taken a massive bite out of my bum. It was horrific. They called the surgeon who said it would be fine when the swelling went down.
‘But swelling should have plumped my bum up – and this looked like a chunk had been taken out.’
Heidi Faulkner, 36, from Hertfordshire, decided to have the procedure after slimming down from 16st to 8st over three years with the help of a gastric band.
Although overjoyed to be a size six, Ms Faulkner says the dramatic weight loss left her with a ‘wrinkly granny bum’.
Horrified: Ms Faulkner, who has since had some of the damage repaired, said her rear looked ‘horrific’
‘I lost so much weight I looked ill and had to have a break from the [gastric] band,’ she explains. ‘But I went from a size six to a 14 in weeks before having the band fixed and losing weight again.
‘The fluctuation in my weight left me with loose skin on my stomach and legs and wrinkly folds and sagging skin around my hips and bum.
‘I was a 30-something with the body of an 80-something old woman. My son used to say, “Mum, it looks like your bum has melted”. My skin looked like candle wax dripping down the back of my legs.
‘It had no shape, my buttocks were flat and exercise wasn’t making any difference.’
Determined to do something about it, the mother-of-one saved £2,000 and jetted to Prague for cut-price cosmetic surgery.
Having previously had a tummy tuck at the same clinic, Ms Faulkner says she had no qualms about her bottom lift beforehand but was aghast when she awoke to see two huge scars across her buttocks.
‘When I looked in the mirror I could see these two enormous diagonal scars right across my misshapen buttocks,’ she remembers.
‘I thought I must be having a nightmare or the drugs were affecting me. Then, I heard someone screaming, and realised it was me.
‘It looked just like a shark had come and taken a massive bite out of my bum. It was horrific. They called the surgeon who said it would be fine when the swelling went down.
‘But swelling should have plumped my bum up – and this looked like a chunk had been taken out.’
She added: ‘I was on my own in Prague and didn’t know what to do, who to talk to. All I’d wanted was to stop feeling embarrassed about my body – now I’d made things worse.’
Worse still, the surgeon had removed so much fat, her coccyx (tailbone) was left exposed with the result that sitting down became painful.
Having spent her life savings on gastric band, tummy tuck and botched bottom surgery, Ms Faulkner was also in the unenviable position of having no spare cash to fix the problem.
Instead, she turned to Channel 5 reality series Botched Up Bodies and was sent to see Harley Street surgeon Patrick Mallucci.
Fixing the damage required an operation that lasted for almost three hours and involved taking fat from Ms Faulkner’s knees and thighs and using it to pad her bottom back out.
Improvement: Ms Faulkner has since gone under the knife again to improve the appearance of her bottom
Although still not entirely confident about her body thanks to the scarring, Ms Faulkner says the operation has ‘changed my life for the better’.
‘The pain has gone and I can sit again,’ she explains. ‘I’m doing lots of squats to build up the muscles and improve the shape.
‘Aesthetically, I still wish my bum looked better – but the damage done in Prague was pretty hard to fix.’
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