Turkey Hair Transplant Deaths: What Is Known About the 2025 Cases, and What Is Not

Two British men died in Istanbul in 2025 around hair transplants. A Turkey hair transplant death is not the usual outcome, but nobody publishes a count that would let anyone say how unusual it is, and that is the first thing a patient should know. Martyn Latchman, 38, had gone out for a second transplant in July. Mentor Rama had a transplant and, the next day, dental treatment; he died on 11 November. This page sets out what has been reported about each, what has not been established, and what you can check before you book.

Nothing here says that a clinic or a doctor was at fault. In neither British case have we found a published cause of death.

What has been reported about a Turkey hair transplant death, and what has not been established?

The reported facts are thin, and the order matters. For each of the two British cases, what can be said is this: a man travelled to Istanbul for cosmetic treatment, became ill, was taken to hospital and died there; police opened an investigation; an autopsy was carried out and the body was returned home. That is the whole of it.

What has not been published, in anything we found, is the cause of death in either case, the result of either police investigation, any charge, or any finding by a court or a regulator. Where reports disagree, as they do on the timing of the first man's illness, we say so rather than choose.

Two things follow for you as a reader. First, a headline that links a death to a clinic is a statement about timing and place, not a finding about cause. A man can die after a procedure for reasons that have nothing to do with it, and he can also die because of it; only the investigation can say which. Second, a clinic's own account is an account. It may be accurate, and it is still the account of the party with the most to lose. The same goes for a press report built on a single source.

We have left the clinics unnamed. Outlets differ on some details of the November case, including where each treatment took place, and in the July case the clinic has responded and disputes part of the early reporting. Naming a business in a fear article, before anything is established, helps nobody make a better decision.

July 2025: a British man dies in Istanbul around his second hair transplant

Martyn Latchman was 38. He had had a first hair transplant in Istanbul in July 2024, reported as successful, and went back for a second, scheduled for 28 July 2025. The clinic was a private one in the Beşiktaş district.

The accounts diverge on what happened next. The clinic's account, as reported, is that he completed pre-operative checks (blood tests, a chest X-ray and an ECG, reportedly with an anaesthetist involved) and was cleared; that he became unwell during the preparation, before the procedure began; that he was transferred the same day to a university hospital and given intensive care; and that he died that evening. The clinic says that claims he died during the operation are incorrect, and that it has given all relevant medical documentation to the authorities.

Early reporting told it differently. A UK radio station's website reported on 31 July that he had undergone a hair transplant lasting about five hours, fell ill afterwards and was taken to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. It also reported that police had interviewed clinic staff, including the surgeon, an anaesthetist and nurses, and that the Foreign Office was supporting the family. Local media were reported to say that his body was repatriated after an autopsy.

These two versions cannot both be right, and we cannot tell you which is. The difference is not cosmetic: whether a man falls ill before a procedure or after it points an investigation at different questions. What both versions share is a private clinic, a transfer to a hospital, and a death that day or soon after. Some reports mentioned the possibility of a charge of reckless homicide; we found no report that anyone has been charged, and no report of a cause of death.

For a patient, this case does not teach a verdict. It points to the questions worth putting in writing: what was checked before sedation, who was responsible for monitoring, where the nearest intensive care was, and how long a transfer took. We come back to each below.

November 2025: hair transplant, then dental treatment the next day

Mentor Rama was a British citizen who, in the Turkish press report we read, had arrived in Istanbul the week before for cosmetic treatment. He had a hair transplant at a private clinic and stayed at a hotel in the Şişli district. The next day he had dental treatment at a separate clinic. After returning to the hotel he felt unwell; emergency services were called, he was taken to a nearby hospital, and he died on 11 November 2025.

Police opened an investigation and his body was sent to the Council of Forensic Medicine in Istanbul for an autopsy to determine the cause of death. After the examination the remains were handed to the family and taken home. The report gives no cause of death, no statement from the family, the clinics or the police, and no word on a charge. We found no later report that fills those gaps.

Two procedures on consecutive days is the detail that readers fasten on, and it deserves care. We do not know whether it had any bearing. A death after two treatments could be linked to either, to both, to neither, or to a condition the man already had. What the pattern does show is a package: a transplant at one business, dental work at another, a hotel between them, and no single team responsible for the whole of the person's condition across the two days. That is a feature of how many treatment trips are arranged, and it is worth asking about before you accept one.

Deaths in Turkey's own courts: the Bağcılar indictment and Trabzon

These are not only foreigners' stories. Turkish patients have died around hair transplants too, and prosecutors there treat such deaths as potential crimes. Two cases show what that looks like, and one of them shows that the outcome can be an acquittal.

Bağcılar, Istanbul, autumn 2021. A man who had travelled from Italy fell ill during a hair transplant at a private hospital in the Bağcılar district and died. In October 2021 the Bakırköy prosecutor's office indicted four people: the hospital's chief physician, a doctor and two anaesthesia technicians, for causing death through negligence, and asked for between two and six years in prison for each.

The indictment is worth reading for what it said, because it shows what prosecutors look at. It described the man as having had a heart attack before the procedure began, being resuscitated and given a stent, and dying despite that. It said no record showed which anaesthetic agents were used or how, and that camera footage showed the technicians had given the local anaesthetic and taken the hair roots themselves, with the doctor entering the room shortly before the heart attack. The forensic medicine report, however, put the cause of death at acute coronary syndrome and found no causal link between the missing paperwork and the death.

The court agreed. On 27 January 2022 the Bakırköy criminal court of first instance acquitted all four defendants, finding no fault on their part. So this is a case where a man died after falling ill during a hair transplant, prosecutors thought a crime had been committed, and a court concluded that it had not. It does not tell you the operation was blameless in every respect, and it does not tell you it was the cause. It tells you that heart disease, which a patient may not know about, is part of the picture, and that who actually does each step is something investigators ask about.

Trabzon, January 2026. A 46-year-old man collapsed on 8 January 2026 at a private hair transplant and aesthetic clinic in the Ortahisar district of Trabzon. An ambulance took him to a university hospital, where he died. The chief public prosecutor opened an investigation straight away, investigators searched the premises, an autopsy was carried out and the body was sent to the forensic medicine institute to establish the cause. Reports did not give a cause, and we found no later report. The clinic was not named in the report we read.

What these two cases share with the British ones is the sequence: collapse, emergency transfer, death at a hospital, an investigation that takes time. They also show that the Turkish system does investigate. What it has not yet shown, in the 2025 British cases, is an outcome.

What did UK surgeons say about the risks?

After the July death, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) issued a statement on 1 August 2025. Its president called the death heartbreaking and described it as another tragic death linked to cosmetic tourism, and said the priority is that patients are informed and supported wherever they have treatment. A vice-president of the British Association of Hair Restoration Surgery (BAHRS), who is also a BAAPS member, said hair transplant surgery is not without risks and that patients should research carefully, pointing to BAHRS guidance on choosing a clinic and on travelling abroad.

Two points about those statements. They are the views of professional bodies whose members practise in the UK, and they were made after press reports, not after a finding about cause. And they do not say hair transplants in Turkey are worse than elsewhere; they say no hair transplant is free of risk.

The same bodies, with the plastic surgery body BAPRAS and the Turkish Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons, issued joint minimum standards for UK patients considering a hair transplant in Turkey on 13 December 2023. As published, the standards say:

• You should have a consultation with the doctor who will perform the surgery, who makes the recommendations on method, number of grafts and hairline design.
• The surgical steps are performed by a doctor rather than a technician, and you should be told at the first consultation whether a technician will make the incisions or implant the hair.
• You should be given two weeks to consider the recommendation and the consent form before paying for any part of the surgery.
• The doctor who performed the operation should review your progress and the final result, and the clinic should have a clear complaints process.
• The clinic should have systems to deal with complications, during and outside working hours.

Those standards do not mention anaesthesia, sedation or the clinical setting, so they are a starting point and not the whole list. The next sections add the rest.

How many British deaths does the Foreign Office record?

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office says on its Turkey health advice that it is aware of seven British nationals who died in Turkey in 2025 following medical procedures. It also says some British nationals have had complications and needed further treatment or surgery.

Read that figure carefully. It covers every kind of procedure; the same advice names cosmetic surgery, dental procedures and cardiac surgery as the most common treatments people seek. It does not say how many were hair transplants. It does not say whether the deaths were caused by the procedure, and we cannot tell whether the two men above are among the seven. It is a count of deaths of British nationals after treatment, not a death rate, because it has no denominator: how many British people were treated is not stated.

The advice to patients is plain. Discuss your plans with your UK doctor, dentist or clinician before going ahead, and do your own research, because private companies have a financial interest in booking your treatment. The Foreign Office does not endorse any practitioner or facility.

Can you die from a hair transplant in Turkey?

Yes, in the sense that deaths have been reported in Turkey, and we have no basis for saying that it cannot happen anywhere that hair transplants are done. No study we opened counts hair transplant deaths in Turkey or in the UK, so we will not give you a rate, and you should distrust anyone who does, in either direction.

What the NHS says about the operation is useful here. A hair transplant is usually done under local anaesthetic with sedation, so you are awake but feel no pain, and it is normally a day-case procedure. The risks it lists include bleeding, infection and an allergic reaction to the anaesthetic, and it says the surgeon should be able to treat these quickly. That last clause is the one that matters. A complication that is treated within minutes is a different event from one that is not, and "quickly" depends on who is in the room, what equipment they have and how near the next level of care is.

Add two things the cases above bring out. People can have a heart or other condition they have not been told about, and sedation and a long day in a chair are things a body has to cope with. And the person who gives and watches the sedation is a different role from the person who does the surgery. If you cannot say who holds that role at your clinic, you have found your first question.

How can you lower the risk: sedation, hospital setting, emergency care, one procedure at a time?

None of the following can promise an outcome, and none of it would necessarily have changed what happened to the men above. It is what the cases make worth asking, and a clinic that answers clearly in writing is giving you something to rely on.

Sedation and anaesthesia. Ask who will give the sedation, whether that is a doctor trained in anaesthesia, who watches your breathing and heart rate during the procedure and afterwards, and whether that person does anything else at the same time. Ask what the plan is if you react badly. The surgeon doing the operation cannot also be the person watching you.

The hospital setting. Ask whether the procedure takes place in a hospital or in a clinic or an outpatient centre, and what is on the premises: resuscitation equipment, oxygen, a defibrillator, staff trained to use them. In the July 2025 case as the clinic described it, and in the Trabzon case, the patient was taken to a different hospital. That is not unusual for a day clinic, and it is the reason to ask how far the nearest emergency department and intensive care unit are, how long a transfer takes at the hours you will be there, and who decides to make it.

Emergency access. Ask what happens if something goes wrong at night, after you have left. The joint UK and Turkish standards say a clinic should have systems for complications during and outside working hours; ask to see what that means in practice, and get a mobile number that is answered, in a language you speak. Ask what insurance the clinic holds. The NHS advises that travel insurance does not normally cover things going wrong in surgery, so check your own cover and ask the clinic what its own covers. A Turkish regulation in force since 26 April 2025 requires authorised facilities to hold complication insurance for surgical procedures carried out in an operating theatre, and it does not say what such a policy pays for, so ask.

Pre-operative tests and your own history. Ask what tests are done before sedation, who reads them, and what result would stop the operation. Tell the clinic about every condition and medicine, including heart problems, and ask your own GP before you travel. A form you sign at the desk is not the same as being examined. The NHS advises asking providers about their qualifications, experience and how many of their operations have had complications.

One procedure at a time. Be wary of a package that puts a transplant and dental work, or any second procedure, on consecutive days, run by different businesses with no single doctor responsible for you across both. We do not know that this mattered in November 2025. Asking is still reasonable: what does each team know about the other treatment, who has your whole medical history, and could the second be done on a later trip, or at home?

Time to decide. The joint standards say you should have two weeks between the recommendation and paying for any part of the surgery. Pressure to pay within days is the opposite of that.

What should you check before you book a hair transplant in Turkey?

Six checks. The first is the only one you can do without the clinic; the rest are written answers from it.

1. Is the facility authorised, and is it the one that will treat you?

"The register" is the Ministry of Health list of facilities authorised to treat patients who travel to Turkey for care. Search it with Clinimora's register search. An entry records the facility's official name, authorisation number, type (hospital, clinic or another type), address, the doctors recorded against it and a website where one is on file. It does not record which treatments the facility performs, whether it has intensive care, who is on duty on a given day, or complaints. A match means authorised, not proven. The name on the register should be the name on your contract and invoice; see how to check whether a clinic is authorised.

2. Who is the doctor, and who does each step?

Ask for the full name and registration details of the doctor who will do the operation, and compare the name with the doctors recorded on the facility's register entry. A name that is missing is a question to put to the clinic, not a disqualification, since entries can be out of date. Ask in writing which steps, if any, are done by technicians. How to check a doctor in Turkey shows how.

3. Who gives and monitors the sedation?

Name, role and qualification of the person responsible for sedation and monitoring, separate from the surgeon, and what equipment and staff are in the room.

4. Where do you go if it goes wrong?

The type of facility, the distance to an emergency department and intensive care, the transfer arrangement, and the out-of-hours contact. The insurance the clinic holds, and what it covers.

5. What tests are done first, and are procedures stacked?

The pre-operative checks, who reviews them, what stops the operation, and whether a second procedure is booked on the next day with another provider. Your own doctor told, before you pay.

6. What are you paying for, and when?

An itemised price, clinical costs separate from travel costs, the deposit terms, and two weeks to consider the plan and the consent form before you pay for any part. Keep the messages. If it goes wrong afterwards, the written promises are your evidence; our guide to your rights as an international patient covers what you can reasonably expect, and the hair transplant guide covers the choice of provider.

Copyable checklist

1. Authorisation: facility found on the register; legal name matches contract and invoice; facility type noted
2. Doctor: full name and registration details asked for; compared with the register entry; steps done by technicians stated in writing
3. Sedation: named person responsible, separate from the surgeon; monitoring and equipment described
4. Emergency: nearest hospital and intensive care, transfer arrangement, out-of-hours number that is answered, clinic's insurance
5. Health and timing: pre-operative tests and who reads them; my own doctor told; no procedure stacked on the next day without one responsible doctor
6. Money and time: itemised quote; deposit terms; two weeks to decide before paying

What can a Clinimora investigation tell you, and what can it not?

The register tells you whether a facility is authorised. It does not tell you what the clinic's own paperwork shows, whether the doctors recorded against it are the ones who will treat you, or whether the claims in its marketing and its quote hold together with the documents. A Clinic Investigation takes one named clinic and builds a dossier on those questions: the company behind it, its authorisation, its facility type, the doctors on record and the promises it makes about who operates, who sedates and where. Findings and their limits are stated.

What it cannot do is assess a clinic's clinical quality or predict how your operation will go. Nor can it say that any clinic is free of risk; no document can. It can show you, before you pay, whether what the clinic tells you matches what it is on paper, and it gives you the specific questions the answers leave open. Clinics cannot pay Clinimora for anything. See how Clinimora works and the Research Pass.