A Brit won't let her boyfriend see her naked after a ruptured breast implant left her "deformed".
Sandy, 52, from Nottinghamshire, feared she would die after pus started leaking out of her breast earlier this year.
She was told she could face a three-month wait to remove the implant after she was referred to hospital.
However, the operation was brought forward when her skin became so badly infected it started to die, leaving her implant "hanging out of her breast".
Sandy is now left with half a breast and cannot even have reconstructive surgery on the NHS.
She told The Mirror: "I won't let my boyfriend see me naked now.
"I'm left with scars across my body. I've got the bottom part of my breast missing. It's deformed."
Sandy first went to her GP in June after she started feeling unwell and noticed swelling in her breast.
She underwent an ultrasound and a mammogram at Nottinghamshire's King's Mill Hospital and discovered one of her implants had ruptured.
At a check-up appointment a few days later she claims a surgeon at the hospital told her the rupture was not behind her illness.
She added: "He said any illness you are feeling isn't related to your breast. He said a ruptured implant shouldn't make you ill.
"He said I could stay as I was and live with it, have it removed on the NHS or go private.
"I burst out crying. I was crying because he was saying there was nothing wrong with me... that I wasn't feeling ill because of my breast.
"I said how long will I have to wait to have it removed and he said it could be three months, although I hadn't been accepted for surgery yet.
"When I went home I thought I can't live like this, I'm going to die."
Sandy contacted three private clinics to see if they could remove her implants, however she never heard back from any of them.
Within the next few days black holes opened up in her breast and started to leak pus.
She said: "I had to go and stand in the bath as it was pouring out. I was petrified."
Sandy was fitted with a bag to collect the fluid when she returned to hospital.
However, she added: "I still didn't even know if I was on the list for surgery.
"This was at the beginning of July. When I went back a week later I was told I had been accepted to have the implant removed but I was on a waiting list."
Sandy then started noticing that her skin was "almost dissolving".
"It was dying as I had skin necrosis. That's when they rushed me in and gave me a surgery date of August 2," she said.
"Within that week I lost so much breast tissue because my breast was opening up so quickly.
"The implant was hanging out of my breast, I had a sanitary towel over it. I think it was trying to leave my body."
The infection eventually resulted in Sandy losing half her breast.
Surgeons finally removed both of her implants on August 2.
However, pus once again started oozing out of her breast following the operation.
She returned to the hospital and a surgeon removed a large dissolvable bandage left inside her boob.
Sandy believes her body was "rejecting" the bandage.
Although she is now in good health, she has been left self-conscious about how her boobs look.
She claims the hospital told her there is no chance of her receiving reconstructive surgery on the NHS.
"I asked the hospital if I could have reconstructive surgery and they said no," Sandy said.
"In their view it's cosmetic."
Sandy originally had her implants fitted privately at The Park Hospital in Nottingham in 2008.
She boosted her bra size from an AA cup to a B cup because she felt "flat-chested".
However, she is now warning others of the dangers of implants and urged people to take ruptures seriously.
She said: "If you have a ruptured implant, get it out."
Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which runs King's Mill Hospital, has been approached for comment.