A British grandmother died in Turkey last year after undergoing a tummy tuck and breast augmentation, and a coroner has been unable to determine exactly why.
Described by her husband as "full of life and joy," 47-year-old Caroline Baker from Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, travelled to Antalya with her daughter Kayden in July 2025 for the procedures.
Despite what Turkish doctors described as a successful surgery, she began gasping for air in recovery, suffered a cardiac arrest and died at 7 pm local time on 16 July 2025.
Winchester Coroner's Court heard on Wednesday that Kayden had grown anxious when the surgery, scheduled for four hours, ran longer.
She was eventually taken aside and told the worst. "They explained that the surgery had been successful, but after the surgery my mother became ill and began gasping for air when her heart stopped. They said they did everything they could for 47 minutes, but they were unable to get her heart beating again," Kayden said in a statement read to the court.
In his own statement, Baker's husband Graham paid tribute to the woman he had lost.
"My wife was a much-loved mother, wife and grandmother. She had known no illness or physical disabilities, but she had suffered from depression following the death of our daughter.
"She was full of life and joy. No words can seek to comprehend the pain we go through every single day," he said.
Turkish authorities recorded the cause of death as a heart attack, though the coroner heard this is not an accepted medical cause of death classification in England.
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A separate post-mortem carried out in the United Kingdom (UK) by Dr Adnan Al-Badri found no evidence of scarring to the heart or signs consistent with a heart attack, and no infection or sepsis from the surgical wounds.
He did, however, identify signs of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and fatty deposits in her lungs.
A toxicology report found drugs consistent with anaesthesia and her prescribed antidepressants in her system, though levels were not considered high enough to have contributed to her death.
Senior Coroner Christopher Wilkinson returned an open conclusion, citing insufficient evidence from the post-mortem and toxicology report, and a lack of cooperation from Turkish authorities despite efforts by both his office and the Foreign Office.
"It is more than likely that COPD or lung infection has caused extra pressure on her heart.
"But there is not enough evidence before me to further explain the medical cause of death or the extent the surgery contributed to it," he said, adding that it was "possible that she died from natural causes exacerbated by the effects of surgery."
Baker had previously travelled to Turkey for gastric sleeve surgery.
Antalya has reportedly become one of Europe's most popular destinations for medical tourism, with more than 196,000 British patients travelling to Turkey alone for treatment in 2024, drawn by procedures available at a fraction of UK prices.
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