From Vaseline injections into genitals to ears sewn to the neck, here are some of the worst plastic surgery mishaps

More Brits than ever are turning to cosmetic surgery to boost their looks.

But when it goes wrong, things can turn very ugly, as plastic-surgeon-to-the-stars Dr Vik Vijh knows only too well.

He’s come to the rescue of many victims of botched ops, including these…

Essex bank worker Belinda Draper, 57, opted to have a cheap facelift in Turkey in 2011. It turned out to be the biggest mistake of her life…

When mum-of-four Belinda jetted off for a sunshine break in September 2011, she couldn’t wait to hang out at a Turkish villa with a girlfriend.

Both were planning to have cosmetic surgery, then recuperate together by the pool, cocktail in hand. Belinda, then 52, had opted to have a facelift with a surgeon her friend had recommended.

"It was supposed to give me a boost," explains Belinda. "I was getting jowly and feeling low. I’d been through a difficult time with a bereavement and felt tired and worn out."

Belinda used all of her savings to pay for the £2,800 op, and was initially thrilled with the results. "At first I loved it – I had fresh, plumped-up skin."

But after about nine months, the scars in front of her ears became more and more noticeable, like giant pale stretch marks down the side of her face.

It turned out the surgeon had just pulled the skin taut and failed to tighten the underlying muscles and structure, which is normally done in a successful facelift. Over time, gravity had caused her skin to drop and pull.

"Basically, my ears had ended up being stitched onto the skin of my neck. I had a patchwork of scars that looked terrible. I was gutted."

To try to disguise the problem, Belinda always wore her hair down, but her confidence was shattered.

"I hated sitting next to anyone in case they looked at me from the side. On a windy day I’d panic my hair would get blown around and expose the mess. People did occasionally gasp, 'What’s that scarring?' and I’d have to admit I’d had a bad facelift. I felt so down."

Refusing to return to the surgeon who had caused the problem, Belinda instead went to a local salon where she tried 'skin needling’ – injections into the scar to try to boost collagen and encourage healing.

She even tried getting it tattooed the same colour as the rest of her face in a bid to camouflage it, but to no avail.

"I went to a different surgeon for advice," says Belinda, "but he said he couldn’t promise better results and it would cost £8,000, which I didn’t have. I thought I’d have to live like that for the rest of my life, and every time I looked in the mirror I felt terrible."

In the end, Dr Vijh came to Belinda’s rescue after she spotted an advert to appear on a TV show for free corrective surgery. "As soon as he said he could fix me, I was thrilled," she smiles.

In October 2014, Belinda underwent a complicated seven-hour operation. Dr Vijh needed to carry out another full face and neck lift – properly this time – to get rid of the scarring.

Once the swelling had subsided, Belinda could admire Dr Vijh’s skilled handiwork.

"Everything was so neat, the stitches were tiny," she says. "At last my ear lobes were back in the right place!"

In fact, Belinda is now so happy, she often has her hair up and even wears earrings, something she couldn’t do before.

"Finally people have stopped staring at me, and I can go out if it’s windy – it’s wonderful. I would advise anyone thinking about having plastic surgery to do their research. And if a deal seems too good to be true, it usually is."

Szilveszter, 24, from Bolton, suffered from a terribly botched penis enlargement...

Feeling self-conscious about the size of his penis, Szilveszter was convinced by a friend that it was common practice to insert hot Vaseline into his willy, which left it painful, lumpy and misshapen.

"I was talking to my friend about wanting to lose weight so my penis would look bigger when he replied, 'You don’t need to lose weight – I can help you.'"

After his friend gave him the injections, Szilveszter, a dad of one, was thrilled. But a few months later problems began.

"It was painful and bleeding. I went to my GP, but he said he couldn’t help me. Szilveszter was devastated. His willy was too sore and inflamed to get an erection.

"It hurt so much I had to stop having sex with my wife. It was the worst mistake of my life."

Szilveszter feared he and his wife would never be able to have more children, and that he’d end up losing his family. Once again, Dr Vijh came to the rescue. The surgeon was astounded by the damage that had been done.

"I’ve been doing plastic surgery for 20 years and I’ve never seen this," he says. "There were large, hard, tender lumps where the body had formed scar tissue around the petroleum jelly. The foreskin was 15 times as swollen as it should be."

It was the first time Dr Vijh had ever performed such a corrective op, which involved skinning the penis like a banana, removing the lumps, then stitching it back up.

Szilveszter was terrified, but, incredibly, the op was a success, and he’s regained his sex life.

"My wife is very happy and I am happy," he grins. "We both want another baby."

Alison, 43, a retail worker from Gloucestershire, needed 13 breast operations to correct a toxic boob job…

A straightforward breast augmentation turned into a six-year living hell for Alison. One of her implants hardened and needed to be taken out, then an infection caused the breast tissue to rot away, leaving her horribly disfigured.

"I hated the way I looked," says Alison. "I just wanted to feel like a normal woman again and have two boobs."

When Dr Vijh first saw her shockingly concave boob, he was appalled. "She had an imploded breast, it looked like a croissant."

The risks of corrective surgery are 10 times higher than normal surgery, yet painstakingly, over 13 operations, the skilled surgeon transferred stomach fat to her breast until there was enough to support a new implant.

Alison now feels reborn. "I’m over the moon, I feel so feminine," she smiles.

In fact, she’s so happy with her new curves she flashes them at her other half daily! "Everything is back to normal. It’s put a smile back on my face."

Extreme Beauty Disasters starts this Thursday, TLC, 8pm.