Medical tourism is not without risks

We in the U.S. know instinctively (and with a ton of empirical evidence) that health care in the U.S. is more expensive that in many foreign lands. And the stats from the U.S. National Institutes of Health show us medical error deaths are the third leading cause of death in the U.S. with 251,000 attributed to Medical Error Mortality.

Sadly, only 10 percent of medical errors are reported in the U.S. The NIH goes on to describe how the mortality rate is higher than some countries (UK, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand all named)

That said, the U.S. Academy of Medicine looking at a global picture puts the average at 1 out of 10 patients will “develop an adverse event” during hospitalization. The same presentation from the Academy noted that “European data consistently show that medical errors and health-care related adverse events occur in 8% - 12% of hospitalizations.”

Therefore it should not be a surprise that when travelers leave the U.S. for medical procedures abroad, there is at minimum a 1 in 10 chance that something will go wrong.

Tijuana saving $$$ risking life

This is exactly what happened to a woman who traveled to Tijuana, Mexico to undergo “gastric sleeve” surgery from the U.S., because the surgery cost $50,000 where she lived (Idaho) and was $5,000 in Tijuana. Days after her surgery, according to Fox13-News, she fell ill and placed herself under the medical care of the hospital in Idaho, where a large abscess was found in her abdomen. After weeks in an Idaho hospital, she was transferred to the University of Utah hospital.

The woman told media, “They ended up finding that I had a leak which was caused, from what I understand- the doctor that did my surgery in Mexico had sewn the bottom of my pouch too tight,”

BUT … she also was to discover that the doctor who did her surgery in Tijuana, was not a gastroenterologist.

He he was a dentist.

The American Medical Association in a study on the ethics surrounding medical tourism notes that many countries require that “tourists” waive their right to sue the medical provider. An excerpt from the 2018 piece concerning Medical Tourism:

However, many countries that are popular destinations for medical tourism have much less robust medical malpractice law and protections than exist in the United States. Thailand and India are two prime examples. Hospitals in Bangkok require that patients waive their rights to sue doctors, and Thailand as a whole places significant limitations on medical malpractice awards and offers no compensation for pain and suffering. India also offers limited awards and no damages for pain and suffering, and India’s court system has significant delays and an extremely low plaintiff success rate of about 5 percent.

Scott Schweikart, JD, MBE

The International Journal for Quality Healthcare created a general profile for Mexico, which noted, “Malpractice was identified in a third of the complaints, and lack of skill was the main reason for malpractice. Surgical patients were the most frequently affected. The other two-thirds of the complaints were related to lack of communication between patients and physicians. These results suggest potential points of intervention to decrease the risk and the conflict.”

Proceeding for the procedure, prepare

Bottom line, do your homework before you seek medical treatment abroad. Make sure you have a primary course of action fully plumbed out and a backup as well should things go sideways. We recommend that medical evacuation insurance be obtained, so that in the event your situation becomes complicated or elongated, you can activate your evacuation benefits and be medically transported.

In addition, review the advice provided in “Travel - Medical and Health Risk Information” guidance we have provided.

---