A 20-year-old British woman, Morgan Ribeiro from Croydon, south London, died on January 13, 2024, days after undergoing a gastric sleeve operation in Istanbul, Turkey. The inquest into her death at South London Coroner's Court has been repeatedly delayed because the surgeon who performed the procedure, Dr. Serkan Bayil, has failed to respond to the coroner's requests for information, according to the court proceedings. the case highlights the dangers of medical tourism and the legal vacuum that can leave families without answers when complications arise abroad.

The £2,500 gamble that turned fatal

Morgan Ribeiro travelled to Istanbul on January 5, 2024, for a gastric sleeve operation that cost £2,500 — a fraction of the £8,000 to £10,000 such procedures typically cost in the United Kingdom, according to the inquest. She paid for the surgery using her trust fund. The operation was performed by Dr. Serkan Bayil at the Medevita private hospital in Istanbul, a clinic associated with the Apera Health Group. Just three days after surgery, Dr. Bayil cleared Morgan to fly home, but during her flight to London Gatwick with her partner Jamie Brewster, she became critically ill. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Belgrade, Serbia, where Morgan was taken to intensive care. She died on January 13, 2024.

A perforated intestine and a contested autopsy

A post-mortem examination conducted in Serbia determined the cause of death as "diffuse inflammation of the retroperitoneum" resulting from a "rupture of the intestinal wall." This finding, reported at the inquest, strongly suggests that Morgan's small intestine was perforated during the gastric sleeve procedure, allowing intestinal contents to leak into her abdominal cavity and cause a severe infection leading to sepsis. Dr. Bayil has previously contested this conclusion, claiming that Morgan died from an embolism on the flight — a theory contradicted by the Serbian autopsy results, the coroner noted.

Why a Turkish surgeon's silence stalls the inquest

Assistant Coroner Laura Stephenson has described a frustrating, months-long effort to contact Dr. Bayil.. Since December 2023, multiple letters and emails were sent to Dr. Bayil at the Apera Health Group clinic's address, informing him of his status as an "interested person" in the inquest and seeking his account of the surgery. The coroner's team is uncertain whether the correspondence reached Dr. Bayil or if he remains affiliated with the clinic. The proceedings have been delayed multiple times, including an adjournment from October 2024 to gather more information. At the most recent hearing, last-minute attempts to reach the doctor failed, prompting Stephenson to set a new hearing date of August 28, 2025, stating she would reach a conclusion by then, with or without the surgeon's participation . "If there's a safety issue here on which action can be taken to prevent future deaths, then I want all the information possible," Stephenson said. "It's hard to get that without the surgeon or clinic's perspective."

Morgan Ribeiro's father: "I'll wait as long as it takes"

Morgan's father, Richard Ribeiro, who attended the court hearings alone and tearfully, told the coroner when asked whether he preferred the court to proceed with the available information or to continue pursuing missing details from Turkey: "I have waited two years for this. I'll wait as long as it takes. I want to know whether it was malpractice or not." Both of Morgan's parents, including her mother Erin Gibson, have publicly advocated for stricter regulations on surgeries performed abroad to prevent similar tragedies, according to the inquest report.

The unregulated gap in medical tourism for weight-loss surgery

This case underscores a broader, well-documented pattern: patients from the UK and other countries travelling to lower-cost destinations like Turkey for bariatric procedures, only to face severe complications and limited recourse when things go wrong. The UK's National Health Service has warned about the risks of medical tourism for weight-loss surgery, but the practice continues because of the significant cost savings. The inquest into Morgan Ribeiro's death is not just one family's quest for answers — it is a test of how far legal and medical authorities can reach across borders to ensure accountability. Without Dr. Bayil's cooperation, the coroner may have to issue a verdict based solely on the Serbian autopsy and Morgan's medical history, leaving questions about the exact surgical technique and any errors unanswered .