Every surgery carries risk, and cosmetic surgery is no exception. When a complication appears, the clinic’s first move is almost always the same: this was a known risk, you signed for it, nothing went wrong. Sometimes that is true. Often it is not. This page explains when a complication becomes a lawsuit under Turkish law, how the tired complication defence is actually tested, and how Oran Partners helps foreign patients turn cosmetic surgery fails into a claim that stands up.
A Complication Is Not Automatically Malpractice
Let us be clear from the start, because it cuts both ways. A genuine, well-managed complication that the patient was properly warned about is usually not negligence. Bleeding, some infections, delayed healing, and certain aesthetic shortfalls can occur even when the surgeon does everything right. A claim needs more than a bad outcome.
But the reverse is just as true. Calling something a complication does not make it one. A poor result dressed up as an unavoidable risk, when it actually came from rushed work or a technical error, is exactly the kind of case that succeeds. The label the clinic uses does not decide the claim. The facts do.
The Real Line: The Risk, Or The Care?
The question a court asks is simple to state and decisive in practice: did this complication flow from a risk inherent in a properly performed procedure, or from care that fell below the standard a competent surgeon would have met? Under the medical treatment framework, the surgeon owes the attention and skill of a prudent, experienced practitioner in the field (Code of Obligations, Article 471). Where a complication traces back to a departure from that standard, in the planning, the technique, or the aftercare, it stops being an accepted risk and becomes a cosmetic surgery error you can act on. Independent medical review is usually what separates the two, whether the procedure was an eyelid lift or anything else.
The Consent Question: Were You Actually Warned?
This is where many complication cases are won. A risk you were never told about cannot be waved away as a risk you accepted. Turkish law is specific: before an intervention you must be informed of the probable complications and of the risks of refusing treatment (Patient Rights Regulation, Article 15), and your consent only covers what you were genuinely informed and enlightened about, with any procedure staying within the limits of that consent (Article 31).
Two patterns break the complication defence open. If the specific complication you suffered was not disclosed, the consent did not cover it. And if the form was signed on the morning of surgery, or written only in Turkish for a patient who could not read it, it does not show real understanding at all. A signature is not the same as informed consent, and courts treat the difference seriously.
Who Has To Prove What?
Foreign patients are often surprised by this, and it matters enormously. In a claim built on the treatment contract, the burden does not sit entirely on you. The Code of Obligations provides that where an obligation is not performed at all or not performed duly, the debtor must compensate the resulting loss unless it proves that no fault is attributable to it (Article 112). In practice, once you show that the care was defective and that harm followed, the clinic has to prove it was not at fault, rather than you having to prove every step of what went wrong inside an operating room you never saw. That shift is one reason a well-prepared complication claim is stronger than patients expect. The same logic runs through body procedures such as a thread lift malpractice.
When The Complication Was Handled Badly
There is a second front, and it is often the strongest. Even a complication that began innocently can ground a claim if it was then managed negligently. Turkish law requires personnel to show the medical care the patient’s condition requires (Patient Rights Regulation, Article 14). An infection ignored until it spread, warning signs dismissed, a patient sent home or flown out before a problem was controlled, follow-up that simply stopped once the fee was paid, these are failures of management, and they are actionable in their own right regardless of how the complication first arose. Poor aftercare and abandoned follow-up sit at the centre of many claims, including those involving an arm lift malpractice.
What A Complication Claim Is Worth
Compensation follows the harm the complication caused, not a set tariff. The measurable side covers the cost of putting things right, the corrective surgery and the treatment of the complication itself, together with lost income and any lasting effect on your capacity to work, which the Code of Obligations groups under bodily-harm losses (Article 54). Alongside that sits compensation for the pain, the scarring, and the reduced quality of life a serious complication leaves behind, awarded as non-pecuniary damage (Article 56). The more the complication has cost you, medically and personally, the more the claim reflects.
Do Not Let The Evidence Fade
The applicable deadline depends on how the claim is framed, but the more immediate risk is evidence. The proof that decides a complication case, the consent form, the operation and anaesthesia notes, the photographs taken before and after, and the record of how the complication was managed, becomes harder to obtain the longer you wait, and clinics are not always eager to hand it over. Getting the file secured early does more for a claim than almost anything else. This is general information rather than advice on your own situation, which should be checked rather than assumed.
How We Build Your Malpractice Claim?
If a complication after cosmetic surgery in Turkey has left you worse off, the strength of a claim depends on the records, the consent process, how the complication was handled, and how quickly the evidence is locked down. We test the clinic’s complication defence against independent medical review, put the burden where the law places it, identify every responsible party and their insurers, and pursue the claim on your behalf so you do not have to run it from abroad alone. As Oran Partners, we stand by you throughout this process. Contact us for a review of your case.
Frequently Asked Questions
The clinic says my problem was just a known complication. Is my case over?
No. Calling something a complication does not end the matter. The questions are whether it came from substandard care, whether you were properly warned about it, and whether it was managed correctly.
I signed a consent form. Does that stop me suing?
Not on its own. Consent only covers risks you were genuinely informed about. An undisclosed complication, or a form you could not read, does not protect the clinic.
Do I have to prove exactly what the surgeon did wrong?
Not entirely. In a contract-based claim, once you show defective care and resulting harm, the clinic has to prove it was not at fault.
Can foreign patients bring a complication claim in Turkey?
Yes. The same rights and remedies apply regardless of nationality, and a lawyer can act for you so you do not have to manage the case from abroad alone.
