Billed as a holiday with a freshen up, Sarah's breast augmentation after four pregnancies was something she wanted to do just for herself.

Instead it turned into a nightmare that has left here with a permanent reminder.

Her left breast is still hard in places and constricts painfully- complications from botched plastic surgery in Phuket, Thailand.

The surgery itself was traumatic enough - with Sarah waking up in the operating theatre. But what followed was worse.

"I looked up and I saw the light of the operating theatre and then this burning sensation went right through my body and then I scream and all I remember is the nurses running around screaming 'she's awake!' They rushed me in to a private room and they put a drug in the drip.

"It probably took five minutes or so but it seemed forever before the painkillers kicked in," she said.

Ten days after the procedure during her post-operation meeting her surgeon gave her the all-clear to fly home.

But three days after arriving in Australia she could not lift her arm and her left breast had swollen until it was four times the size of the right.

By the time Canberra plastic surgeon Tony Tonks operated on Sarah she had been bleeding for at least a week.

"Major bleeding, it was almost certainly arterial bleeding and it's a reflection of the technique, the breast was probably four times the size of the other breast," Dr Tonks said.

Dr Tonks worked for more than 2 hours to remove all the old grey blood and clots to save her breast.

The implant was sterilised and replaced.

Sarah doesn't regret getting the operation but wishes she had had it done in Australia.

"My story is a warning for other women, everything could go fine, but if something goes wrong you can't get help from the original surgeon. The whole thing ended up costing me $15,000 so I would have been better off having it in Australia and having it done properly," she said.

*Not her real name.