A young French student trag!cally ended his life following a failed beard transplant in Turkey, his father revealed. Mathieu Vigier Latour, 24, traveled to Istanbul in March for a beard transplant procedure that cost significantly less than what it would in France.
The business school student proceeded with the €1,300 (£1,082) procedure, believing the clinic was accredited by the Turkish health ministry, according to his father, Jacques Vigier Latour.
Jacques explained to French media that the procedure went d!sastrously wrong, with the intended plan to move 4,000 grafts from the back of Mathieu’s head to his face not completed.
Instead, the clinician reportedly lost 1,000 grafts, and Jacques told local broadcaster BFM TV: “When it started to grow, it looked like a hedgehog, it was unmanageable.
He was suffering, in pain, experienced burns, and couldn’t sleep.” The beard appeared unnatural and oddly shaped, with hairs growing at unusual angles.
The student’s further research into the surgery revealed that the person who performed it was not a surgeon, but an estate agent.
Fortunately, the family found a specialist in Belgium working to correct the failed procedure, but the specialist concluded that the part of his scalp from which the grafts were taken could not fully recover.
Mathieu reacted poorly to this upsetting news, experiencing severe post-traumatic shock and body dysmorphic disorder. His father noted that Mathieu felt trapped in a “vicious circle” and unable to escape.
Sadly, just three months after the initial operation in Turkey, Mathieu took his life in his Paris student accommodation. Jacques aims to raise awareness of the risks of low-cost medical tourism by sharing his son’s story and said, “If this testimony could prevent this from happening again and alert everyone, I think that would be a tribute to Mathieu.”