A Yorkshire woman’s belly button exploded on a plane after a botched tummy tuck operation, according to a report.

Patricia Jackson, of Bridlington, was given £22,000 in compensation over the incident.

She had lost weight and underwent the operation to remove excess skin. The surgeon told her that her belly button was removed and there was too little skin left over to make a new one.

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However, five years after the operation when she was flying home after a trip to Portugal, she discovered it had been sewn up inside her and had been gradually coming apart.

Her stomach burst during the flight and she was taken to hospital after it landed, the Metro newspaper reported.

The 68-year-old’s lawyer, Jeanette Aspinall, said: “Mrs Jackson had the operation to gain confidence and instead was subject to years of pain and embarrassment.

“This case highlights how easy it is for an everyday cosmetic surgery procedure to go wrong.

“While Mrs Jackson is happy with the final result of the case after years of anger, she is now understandably fearful of undergoing any further surgery. She is now keen to put this incident behind her and highlight the problems of not receiving the proper aftercare.”

Mrs Jackson, a former care home manager, said initially the operation appeared to have been a success.

“For the first year after the operation, everything was fine and I went to work as normal. But I was due for a yearly check-up and the surgeon was concerned about the scarring because it looked quite bad,” she said.

She added that she was “angry” because she felt neglected by the surgeon and “it wasn’t fair”.

The surgeon settled the case out of court three years after the incident. He declined to comment on the case.