Student takes own life after Turkey beard transplant by ‘estate agent posing as a surgeon’

The beard 'looked like a hedgehog' when it started growing

Mathieu Vigier Latour, 24, travelled to Istanbul in March for the procedure which had cost him €1,300 (£1,082) to book. This is about a fifth of the price it would have cost in France, the Telegraph reports.

According to his father Jacques Vigier Latour, the student had been told the clinic carried the stamp of approval from the Turkish health ministry.

But the procedure went horribly wrong. The operation involved 4,000 grafts being removed from the back of Vigier Latour Jnr's head and transferred to his face. However, the clinician lost 1,000 of the grafts during the procedure.

His dad told French broadcaster BFM TV that the beard "looked like a hedgehog" when it started to grow out, as hairs started to grow at unnatural angles.

“He was suffering, he wasn’t doing well," Vigier Latour Snr said. "He was in pain, suffered from burns, and he couldn’t sleep.”

When his son looked into the surgery and who had carried out the procedure, he found out they were not a surgeon but an estate agent.

The family found a specialist in Belgium to correct the botched surgery, but he concluded the part of his scalp where the grafts had been taken from would not recover.

This caused Vigier Latour Jnr to fall into deep post-traumatic shock and body dysmorphia. His father described it as a "vicious cycle" that his son "couldn't get out" of.

Three months after the procedure, Vigier Latour Jnr took his own life at his student accommodation in Paris.

Vigier Latour Snr said he hoped that opening up about his son's death will make more people aware of the danger's of low-cost medical tourism.

“If this testimony could prevent this from happening again and alert everyone, I think that would be a tribute to Mathieu,” he said.

If you've been affected by any of the issues in this article, or anyone you know is struggling with mental health or suicidal thoughts, you can get help and advice at the following places:

• Samaritans - 116 123
• Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) - 0800 58 58 58, or use webchat
• Shout Crisis Text Line – Text "SHOUT" to 85258
• NHS - 111