Warning: Alarming Content Mathieu Vigier Latour, 24, was left with patchy facial hair and ‘unmanageable’ facial hair after a cheap procedure in Istanbul – ultimately leaving him suffering from severe body dysmorphic disorder.
Matthew traveled to Türkiye for a beard transplant (Image: Enterprise News & Pictures)
A young man’s life ended tragically in Türkiye after a failed beard transplant by an estate agent disguised as a surgeon.
Mathieu Vigier Latour travelled to Istanbul in March last year for what he thought was a legitimate €1,300 (£1,130) procedure. Jacques, his father, says the clinic’s official seal of approval from the Turkish Health Ministry reassured his son.
If the same procedure had taken place at his home in France, the student would have had to pay up to five times more. However, the cheap and quick solution was no less than a nightmare for the 24-year-old.
During the operation, 4,000 grafts were removed from Matthew’s skull and then transplanted to his face. But somehow the surgeon lost an astonishing 1,000 grafts.
The result was a hedgehog-like patch of hair that was “unmanageable,”, his father later said. The beard looked uneven and poorly mapped and the hair grew at strange angles.
What was worse, Matthew was burnt and could not sleep because of the pain. Feeling suspicious, she looked up the apparent surgeon and surprisingly discovered that he was actually an estate agent.
Matthew struggled to sleep due to the effects of the procedure (Image: Family Handout)
Mathieu Vigier Latour after his facial surgery (Image: Enterprise News & Pictures)
Devastated, her family struggled to find a specialist in Belgium to repair the damage. But it was too late and the specialist confirmed that parts of Matthew’s skull – where the grafts had been placed – would never heal.
Sadly, the mental trauma took its toll on him and he suffered from post-traumatic shock and severe body dysmorphic disorder. This caused Matthew to become obsessed with imperfections in his appearance.
“He found himself trapped in a destructive cycle,” expressed his father. Sadly, just three months after this failed operation, Mathieu took his life in his Paris student flat.
Last year, his father spoke out in hopes of highlighting the deadly dangers of cheap medical tourism. He said, “If sharing our story can prevent this from happening again, it would be a true tribute to Matthew.”
involving hair transplants in Turkey,
Elsewhere, in a separate tragic case involving hair transplants in Turkey, a 36-year-old Briton named Mentor Rama flew to Istanbul for a hair and dental procedure on November 11 last year. However, when he returned to his hotel room after the procedure, he started feeling unwell.
Emergency services were alerted shortly afterwards and Mentor was taken to a nearby hospital, where he died. A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office spokesperson told The Mirror at the time: “We are supporting the family of a British man who died in Turkey and are in contact with local authorities.”
“My heart is heavier than ever,” a post shared on a family member’s public Facebook page said. The message, translated from Albanian to English, reads: “Your passing has left a void that nothing in this world can fill. I never thought I would have to write such words for you. You were our light, the smile that gave us strength, that lifted us up every time we fell.”
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