horrific nhs surgery story

A girl I know via mutual friends managed to get her boobs corrected through the NHS, she has asymmetry like me and she is from the same town but has a different surgery and she managed to get referred. i'd always felt quite envious of this although i am genuinely pleased for her, but i was quite annoyed at the difference in surgeries, i cant even get past my GP to see a surgeon and my asymmetry is at least 2 cup sizes.
She went in a few weeks ago to have surgery which i didnt realise until i bumped into her sister yesterday who told me that she'd gone in had the surgery and was fine on the day although she had a bit of a temperature, the hospital discharged her the following day, she went home and was sick and had a high temp. her boob was also very swollen (she only had the small one corrected) and very painful. her sister took the cover off the stitches to check the boob and it was inflamed and looked infected so she wiped the puss away with cotton bud. she then decided to have a bath but the heat opened the wound fully and she was pouring with blood, after this the boob was entirely flat! they took her back to the hospital where they restitched the wound and offered to reoperate but she was in so much pain she doesnt think she wants to go through it again. i didnt understand how the boob ended up flat, im assuming theyve used a saline based implant maybe, but the whole thing sounds absolutely horrific. i feel terrible for her coz obviously im in the same shoes, but she would have been pinning her hopes on the NHS to rectify it, this must be a massive setback for her.
im not criticising the NHS as we are luckier than most countries to have the service and there are probably plenty of ladies who have had breast surgery via the NHS and are happy with their result, but hearing that has shocked me. I'm not sure whether it was surgeon error or because the hospital has not got a good reputation regarding infection rates, they regularly shut wards as a result of MRSA outbreaks.i'm honestly not posting this to scaremonger but i felt it had to be shared, particularly for those hoping to go down the NHS route, make sure you check the surgeon out regardless of being funded for the op, plus the hospital you are likely to have the operation in.

Ohh that sounds horrible :( poor girl, i hope shes recovering ok...
Obviously it can happen to any of us, but i think its a excellent point that you raised at the end though, even if you do go through the NHS, you should still check and research the surgeon to make sure your happy xx

yes it definitely made me think, especially as she only had the one breast corrected too, i can understand that funding is limited but you are restricted with NHS surgery as they will only offer you the solution to the problem, whether that is acceptable to you aesthetically is another issue as its not the same as improving the overall look by discussing options with a private surgeon. nevertheless, the actual infection and end result in this case is truly awful and i feel she's been very unfortunate to experience this. x

It sounds like the surgeon used an 'expander' these are used when the skin/muscle requires stretching before the implant is placed if the surgeon doesn't think the implant will fit.

From a lady who had expanders here I believe they can be quite painful. I'm unsure if infection would have taken so fast that pus was coming from the wound the following day, but I'm guessing this may have been leakage from the expander and the movements getting into the bah and the heat in there may well have caused the problem to progress as it did.

I'm sure this would be a risk with using tissue expanders, especially for the first one because they're taking the skin to its limits...or its very possible this could have been a heamatoma.

I'm so, so very sorry your friend had to endure this though and I really hope this hasn't put her off.

If you can, do pass us onto her and and we'll offer her any support she might need. If not... Do please give her a big hug from us. Xx

Omg that sounds awful. I hope the girl is ok and is recovery ok.
Im going down the nhs route but not been accepted or anything yet.
As for infections, as an nhs auxiliary nurse I know how easily infections can spread.

thanks cookie, i will definitely mention the forum for support, its been invaluable to me and im not even at consultation stage yet so im sure it'll help her. it sounds as if at the moment she's naturally afraid of further surgery but if they have offered to reoperate then i hope she thinks it through as she really wanted it done, plus it is notoriously difficult to get NHS funding so hoping she'll at least weigh her options up. x

Ohh poor poor girl I hope she's alright, what an awful downer for her xx

Poor girl x

How terrible :( I thought it was possible a Hermatoma too when I was reading, as It is unlikely for an infection to cause that reaction so quickly and from what I understand surgeons are unlikely to re-operate until you are clear from infection. I hope she is getting support from the NHS and she makes a speedy recovery. xx

That sounds awful. I hope she recovers and feels better soon. Sometimes I don't understand the whole NHS BA. One of my close friends got sizers in even though she probably had more breast tissue than me ( I had enough to get overs). She's had the sizers in for nearly two years now and she phones her GP regularly to try and get an appointment to get her implants in. She doesn't have any luck getting another appointment with a surgeon which I think is strange. Didn't know they stayed in for so long! Xx

Oh Ruthaay that doesn't sound good! It's the postcode lottery I suppose! Which I think they do a good job mostly but it's not fair when you hear of women which really need the surgery due to malformation and they don't get it! xx

Poor girl! X

This is so scary, she must have been so scared! Hope she's doing ok now x