Medical tourism poses extreme risks to patients

According to a recent study, almost 1.5 million Americans are expected to travel internationally in search of medical care. In a phenomenon referred to as medical tourism, many Americans are going abroad to undergo procedures that are either not offered in the United States or that are significantly cheaper outside of the country. Mexico, for example, offers procedures that are estimated to be 40%–65% cheaper than procedures in the United States. However, these less expensive surgeries have been proven to carry extreme risk for complications.

In October, Laura Avila went to the Rino Center, a clinic in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, for plastic surgery and returned to the United States on life support after suffering severe brain damage during the procedure. The Mexico hospital that treated Avila prior to her transfer to a U.S. hospital told the woman’s sister that the clinic had incorrectly administered the anesthesia to her spine, causing her brain to swell and her kidneys to fail, prompting her to go into cardiac arrest. After weeks spent in a U.S. Hospital with no improvements, Avila was moved to hospice care.

Diana Thomas also faced life-threatening complications earlier this year after traveling to Tijuana, Mexico for gastric sleeve surgery, which involves removing approximately 80% of a person’s stomach in order to assist with serious weight loss necessary for a person’s health. Because her husband’s insurance did not cover the costly procedure, Thomas sought out an online company, Weight Loss Agents, who connected her with Mario Almanza in Tijuana, a doctor who would perform the procedure at a steep discount. Six days after the surgery, a hole in Thomas’s gastric sleeve was discovered as well as an infection, both of which were life-threatening but ultimately not fatal.

Source: CBS News