Botched BBL left me covered in rotting flesh like something out of a horror film – I can never look in the mirror again
A WOMAN was left fighting for her life in intensive care after a botched Brazilian butt lift left her covered in rotting flesh.
Layla, 23, travelled to Turkey and paid £6,600 for a cosmetic package that included breast implants and liposuction as well as the doomed BBL.
After the horror procedure, which involves moving fat from other parts of the body to the bottom, she spent a month in hospital where she had six life-saving skin grafts but her ordeal didn’t stop there.
When she arrived back in the UK, to her horror she discovered she had contracted a flesh-eating disease.
“I was in intensive care for one month. I had six surgeries, I had a bad infection, necrosis – which means dead flesh.”
Layla’s self-confidence was also shattered by the disastrous procedure.
She said: “The doctors had to give me skin grafts to save my life. I cry a lot – I can’t look in the mirror. I cannot love myself.”
Her story features in a new Channel 4 documentary Hunting the BBL Butchers, which follows investigative journalist Mary Mandelfield as she exposes the dangers behind the popular procedure.
During the documentary, Mary was reduced to tears looking at footage of Layla following her botched procedure.
Speaking to the Mirror, the journalist described Layla’s scarring as “something from a horror film”.
“It didn’t look real, it looked like special effects from a film, where people’s skin has been cut away,” she told the publication.
“There was really deep scarring, as that’s what happens when there’s necrosis – flesh-eating disease – it’s horrifying to look at.”
Mary specifically focuses on surgeries conducted in Turkey, booked through websites that target black and brown women.
“Some companies are specifically targeting Black women with their advertising – they take it to the extreme,” Mary explained in the documentary.
“Social media is a massive marketing tool for them and you can see they have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram and a lot of their imagery is of Black women who have had the surgery.
“There is a massive market for plastic surgery that does cater to Black women.”
She explained that the before and after snaps the companies share on Instagram made the women look “cartoonish”.
“They are saying, ‘look we can cater to people like you’ which leaves a really horrible taste in my mouth,” she continued.
“The dangers and risks aren’t made clear – it’s just this shop window that they’ve put out there. I feel like a lot of people who are just viewing it on their phone aren’t aware of the bigger picture.”
Mary said that there was a “stark contrast” between the photos that agencies were sharing online, versus the reality of the final results.
In March 2024, 38-year-old Kaydell Brown died after travelling to Istanbul for a ‘mummy MOT’, which included a BBL.
The mum-of-two from Sheffield paid £5,400 at what her sister Leanne called a “pop-up butcher shop”.
After the procedure, Leanne who was due to be operated on next by the same surgeon, was informed by medics that her sister had died in the recovery room.
Staff said they tried to wake Kaydell up after surgery and some fat must have travelled to her lungs.
The Foreign Office says 28 Brits have died after having cosmetic surgery in Turkey since 2019.
A BBL in Turkey is a fraction of the cost of UK procedures and some cost as little as £2,600 which also covers the hotel accommodation.
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) banned BBLs in the UK in 2018 over safety concerns.
“The new BAAPS guidelines are very robust and comprehensive, and the evidence has been critically analysed,” a BAAPS spokesperson explains.
“The deaths recorded with BBL have all had breeches of the fascia with fat injected into the muscle. So, it’s ‘no’ to BBL but ‘yes’ to Superficial Gluteal Lipofilling (SGL) where the fascia is not compromised.
“To ensure this we are recommending that surgeons should only perform this with real time ultrasound guidance as the only way to ensure the procedure is performed superficially and safely.”
Hunting the BBL Butchers is available to watch on YouTube.