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A French man took his own life after his beard transplant in Turkey was botched by an estate agent posing as a surgeon, his father claims.
Mathieu Vigier Latour travelled to Istanbul in March for the transplant, which cost him €1,300 – a fifth of the price of having it in France.
But the treatment saw him lose 1,000 grafts of hair, while having 4,000 transferred from his head to his face.
Following the operation, the business student’s beard was left irregularly shaped, growing at an unnatural angle and leaving it ‘hedgehog’ like, his father said.
In addition, Mr Latour, 24, suffered burns after the procedure and was having trouble sleeping due to the discomfort.
Mathieu Vigier Latour after his botched hair transplant in Istanbul
The student, seen before the operation, took his own life after the botched procedure
The treatment left his beard irregularly shaped and growing at an unnatural angle
He later discovered that the man who performed his transplant was not in fact a qualified surgeon, but an estate agent, the Daily Telegraph reported.
As a result of his botched operation, Mr Latour fell into a ‘vicious cycle’ and suffered from dysmorphic disorder, a condition in which people obsess about defects in their appearance.
A Belgian specialist who was attempting to correct the procedure said his scalp would never recover in the patch where the grafts had been lost.
He ended up taking his own life three months after going to Turkey for the transplant.
Mr Latour’s father is now campaigning to improve awareness about the risks of seemingly inexpensive health tourism.
He said it would be ‘a tribute to Mathieu’ if his son’s shocking experience could help prevent similar tragedies from happening again.
- For support, call Samaritans for free on 116 123 or visit samaritans.org