Nanette opted to go to Belgium to have her 20-year-old breast implants replaced.
At a regular check up, Nanette's doctor suggested there may be a problem with one of her old implants and a chance it had ruptured. Although referral to a specialist determined the implant was intact and not leaking, Nanette felt that for peace of mind and also to reduce their size in keeping with her age, she would go ahead with a replacement operation. She was pleasantly surprised when she was assigned the director of the clinic, Dr Hoeyberghs, to carry out her procedure. When Dr Hoeyberghs opted to sedate Nanette rather than use a general anaesthetic, she accepted his judgment. In the UK, sedation is mostly used only for very minor procedures. Even more unusually and without Nanette being aware of it, Dr Hoeyberghs preferred to administer the sedation himself. The unfortunate result was that Nanette woke up in the middle of her operation.
Afterwards, bleeding and in pain, Nanette was dispatched to a hotel to recover, but she had to return later that day to have her opening wound stitched up for a second time. Back in the UK her GP advised her to revisit Dr Hoeyberghs, who pulled out her implants there and then. Nanette has been left with bad scars and refused to undergo any more surgery with Dr Hoeyberghs. She wants to stress the importance of vetting of surgeons, clinics and the quality of the aftercare when signing up for cosmetic surgery abroad, as well as in the UK.
Nanette has since had successful revision surgery in the UK.
EXCLUSIVE - Nanette's follow-up video is available to watch now. She talks about the result of her complaint to the General Medical Council and what life is like now. You can watch it here.
