The Other Side Of Medical Tourism - A Surgeons Nightmare
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Guest post by Samuel Bledsoe MD
There is an element of a gamble inherent in the medical tourism industry as it currently exists.
An interesting thing happened to me at work the other day. It was Friday afternoon, and I received a call from a primary care doctor. The phone call began with, “I’m really sorry about this, but I have a surgeon’s nightmare in my office.”
This is not a good way to begin a conversation.
He began to tell me about the patient. This particular woman had a Lap Band placed several years ago. For one reason or another, she decided that she would like this converted to a different procedure. She drove by my hospital to get to the airport, hopped on a plane and flew over hundreds of other well-qualified bariatric surgeons in order to reach a surgeon in Mexico where she had her Lap Band removed. She then returned 6 months later and had a sleeve gastrectomy. This is where things go bad.
