A New Zealand medical tourist whose weight loss operation went wrong in Turkey says her bid to get her money back has hit a wall.
Helen Watson had gastric sleeve surgery at the Medicana Health Group clinic in Istanbul last year, and was immediately stricken with pain and problems.
Her pleas for a refund from Medicana have so far fallen on deaf ears and she has few options to claw back her money.
For some New Zealanders who head overseas for surgery, the consequences are even worse.
A year ago Watson was in Palmerston North Hospital, barely able to move.
Now recuperating at her Feilding home, she fears her life will never return to what it was like before her September 2025 operation in Turkey, and the resulting major corrective operation she needed earlier this year.
"I'm still recovering, obviously. I'm doing a lot better than what everyone has anticipated. I still have my days where I feel sluggish or I don't feel well, or something doesn't feel 100 percent right.
"I'm doing the best I can."
Only about 500 publicly funded bariatric surgeries are available in New Zealand every year, while the operation would cost about $20,000 through a private hospital.
Watson decided to go to Turkey for the surgery because it was cheaper. She paid about $10,000 for the procedure, flights and accommodation.
As soon as she came to after surgery, she knew something was wrong. She flew home just a couple of days later - much sooner than recommended - and felt unwell on the journey.
Not long after touching down she was taken to hospital with sepsis. She remained there for several weeks, before returning earlier this year for a six-hour stomach reconstruction.
Her surgeon for that, Alexandra Gordon, said there was nothing Watson could have done to prevent her gastric sleeve leak.
Medicana, however, has previously told RNZ it denied the operation had gone wrong. It declined to comment for this story.
"They had one job to do and they just botched me," Watson said.
"They literally closed my throat, stapled it closed, and they also had a leak as well.
"I couldn't eat or drink. I couldn't even swallow my own saliva."
Watson wants her money back, but her pleas to Medicana have gone nowhere.
"The only option is to probably get a lawyer in Turkey, but I don't want to do that because I'll probably get screwed over with the Turkey lawyers.
"It's $3500 just to start that legal process."
In correspondence to Watson in April, a Medicana representative said her concerns were taken seriously and that it was engaging with New Zealand authorities.
"We are sorry that you are going through a difficult time and we appreciate your patience while these reviews are completed."
Watson said she'd heard nothing from the hospital since.
Patients aren't aware of the risks - surgeon
Auckland surgeon Richard Babor has seen first-hand how surgery overseas can go wrong.
"There was a woman who came back from Turkey paralysed, and I have to be careful about issues with privacy," he said.
"She had some sort of incident during her surgery in Turkey, which left her tetraplegic, and spent months in the hospital there and was then medical transferred from Turkey to the spinal unit here.
"I consulted about her.”
A trickle of patients would go through Middlemore Hospital suffering problems from overseas bariatric surgery, many with dehydration, nausea and vomiting.
Babor said he didn't think they always knew what they were letting themselves in for.
"It's very hard to communicate risk, even when we take a lot of time and care in New Zealand. Overlay that with cultural differences, language barriers and quite aggressive marketing that we see from Fiji and Mexico.
"I feel that patients are uninformed. I'm not sure that they talk about a lot of the risks that are attached to long-distance travel."
Auckland University law professor Alex Sims said some people seeking operations overseas used New Zealand-based brokers, and those organisations could be approached if something went wrong.
"But if you arrange it with the hospital overseas and go and do it there, you'd have no recourse at all in New Zealand, and you'd have to try to pursue it in whichever country has performed the surgery."
She encouraged anyone thinking of turning to medical tourism to do their research.
"It is a case of asking around, because there are people that have had surgery done very successfully overseas. It's not a case that all surgery over there is poor, but it's just finding the right people and using them if you're going to do it."
Watson's treatment injury is covered by ACC as her surgeon at Medicana has the equivalent qualifications of a New Zealand health professional.
The corporation can cover injuries from overseas operations, if certain criteria are met.
