A MUM died after flying to Poland for a cut-price £4,800 boob job and tummy tuck, an inquest heard.
Freda Heath, 58, collapsed just hours after the op suffering what is believed to have been a major stroke.
She died less than 24 hours later at Marciniak Hospital in Wroclaw, an inquest at Dover Coroner's Court was told.
Consultant pathologist Dr Matthias Koslowski, who performed a post mortem, said it was possible she suffered a reaction to the anaesthetic.
But when one of Mrs Heath's sons contacted the surgeon and asked him what went wrong, he was told: "Strokes just happen - people just have strokes."
The surgeon and clinic were not named. A friend of Mrs Heath, who did not want to be identified, said she had gone to Poland with a friend on a three-day trip following the death of her husband Ronald in 2009.
She said: "Freda was always the life and soul of the party, but was quite down after the death of her husband. She had been suffering from insomnia and had decided to go to Poland to have some surgery to raise her spirits a bit.
"For this to happen was just devastating for everyone who knew her."
Coroner Rachel Redman said the mum of three, a contract manager for a cleaning company from Ashford, Kent, signed consent forms which advised her the "risks of surgery included death".
She concluded that Mrs Heath - despite being in good health - suffered a respiratory arrest and brain haemorrhage which led to her death.
The coroner recorded a narrative verdict, which means the death has not been attributed to a named individual.
Mrs Heath's son Jon Tuttlebury, 30, said: "My mum had researched the clinic properly and the surgeon had the proper credentials. This surgery was for her to pick herself up, "I loved her to bits, she was a real gem in our family."
