Warning Signs After Surgery: When to Get Help Straight Away

Call an ambulance immediately — 112 in Turkey and Germany, 999 in the UK:

• Chest pain, especially sharp pain when you breathe in
• Sudden breathlessness, or coughing up blood
• Bleeding that won't stop
• Confusion, or feeling very unwell with a fever and chills

See a doctor the same day:

• Pain, swelling or tenderness in one calf or leg — this can be a blood clot
• Redness spreading out from the wound, increasing swelling, or skin around the wound that feels hot
• Green or yellow discharge (pus) from the wound, or a wound that opens
• A fever, or feeling generally unwell

Why this matters after travelling home

Both surgery and long journeys raise the risk of blood clots, and a clot can form in the weeks after an operation, not only in the first days. Keep moving as soon as your surgeon allows, follow the advice on compression stockings, and stay alert to the signs above. Wound infections can also appear any time from two or three days after surgery until the wound has healed.

What to do

Get help first. Then let us know: we'll contact your treating surgeon and coordinate with your doctor at home.

General information, not medical advice. Your surgeon's instructions for your own recovery come first.