A young French student took his own life following a beard transplant gone wrong during a trip to Turkey, his father said.
Mathieu Vigier Latour was just 24 when he travelled to a specialist clinic in the Turkish city of Istanbul in March this year, where the price of a beard transplant was a fraction of what it would have cost back in France.
The student, who was studying at a business school, went ahead with the €1,300 (£1,082) procedure after he was told the clinic he was at had been approved by the Turkish health ministry, according to his father, Jacques Vigier Latour.
He told french media that the procedure went horribly wrong, with the original plan of removing 4,000 grafts from the back of Mathieu's head and moving them to his face not being fulfilled.
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Instead, it was reported via the Telegraph that the clinician lost 1,000 of the grafts, as Jacques explained to local broadcaster BFM TV: “When it started to grow out, it looked like a hedgehog, it was unmanageable,
“He was suffering, he wasn’t doing well. He was in pain, suffered from burns, and he couldn’t sleep,” he added, explaining that the beard looked unnatural and poorly shaped, with hairs ending up growing at an unnatural angle from his face.
According to his father, the student looked into the surgery more and claimed that the person who did it was not even a surgeon, but an estate agent.
Luckily, his family found a specialist in Belgium that was part of the way through of correcting the botched procedure, but the medical specialist sadly came to the conclusion that the part of his scalp where grafts were removed could not ever recover.
Mathieu did not react well to this news, as he was said to have fallen into a deep post-traumatic shock after being told, and would suffer from severe body dysmorphic disorder.
His father then added that his son had 'entered a vicious circle' and felt trapped, noting that he 'couldn't get out'.
Unfortunately, just three months after the first operation in Turkey, Mathieu took his own life at his student accommodation in Paris.
Jacques hopes that speaking out about his son's situation and death will raise awareness and expose the dangers around low-cost medical tourism.
Jacques concluded: “If this testimony could prevent this from happening again and alert everyone, I think that would be a tribute to Mathieu.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Topics: Mental Health, Health, World News
Joshua Nair