Posted on 04/01/2006 8:56:23 AM PST by CarrotAndStick
A Briton who was told by the National Health Service (NHS) that he was too overweight to undergo a life-changing operation has returned home satisfied after undergoing the surgery in India.
David Rogers, 62, from Abbeydale, Worcestershire, was told by the NHS that he was too overweight for the double hip and knee replacements that he desperately needed. Weighing almost 140 kg, he was told that he was about 37 kg too heavy for the surgery.
A satisfied Rogers remarked that he had been "thrown on the scrap heap by the NHS".
He reduced his weight to about 115 kg but could not go further to shed 12 more kg that was required for the surgery as his joints had made him immobile.
"I was in so much pain I couldn't lie in bed at night and had to sleep sitting in a chair. It was a vicious cycle because I couldn't do any exercise, so I struggled to lose any more weight," Rogers told the local media.
His wife saw a television programme about Britons flying to India for medical treatment and further investigations led her to a website that offers people access to top-class medical treatment in India.
The London-based manager of the website put the couple on to one Dr Nagaraj who was visiting London.
Rogers said: "I couldn't believe it - a surgeon actually came to my house, all the way from India. He put me at ease straight away and asked when I could go over for the operations."
Two weeks later, Rogers flew out to the Deepak Hospital, Dr Nagaraj's family hospital in Bangalore, for the first phase of major surgery - to reconstruct the knee and hip on the right side, at a cost of 10,000 pounds.
"I can't speak more highly of the nurses and surgeons there. The treatment I received was first class," said Rogers.
After two lengthy, complicated operations, he recuperated at a nearby retreat, and returned to Redditch recently.
"I can't believe the difference it has made to my life. I would recommend treatment over there to anyone," said Rogers, who is preparing for a return trip to India next January for work on the other hip and knee.
Yes, medical tourism from countries with bad medical systems to other countries can be viable when service is much better or prices are more affordable.
More than that, the NHS, being a socialist entity, gave up on the patient. This is the crux of the reason socialist systems fail- they give up easy.
Don't know about that...the guy was suffering in the first place. How "good" can it be to keep him that way?
I know a guy who goes to Mexico when he needs basic treatment. When you don't have insurance and common procedures cost several hundred dollars here it begins to make it worth the risk.
I agree.
English medical journals are already speculating that the NHS can no longer economically afford to take care of many aging sick, and others such as premature infants.
It is claimed that some 200,000+ beds could be freed up if these patients were not treated (i.e., they were sent to the great beyond).
And that means better health care and more stuff left over for the younger, healthier crowd. (Another unplanned result of the acceptance of abortion on demand for the sake of the convenience of the mother)
So it's no surprise that the NHS didn't want to take on the case of an obese man whose quality of life probably didn't meet the standards required to permit him to continue to live. . .
It's good medicine to refuse treatment? How about letting the patient decide if he wants to go ahead with treatment in light of statistics?
You're statement should have been it's only good socialist medicine to refuse treatment.
Clearly hip and knee replacement will work less well on an obese patient.
But the basic problem with socialist medicine is that it has to go by the book. Otherwise, of course, an unlimited number of people would want unlimited free treatment. So they do a kind of triage, and tell patients they are too heavy for knee surgery, or too old for by-pass surgery, and so forth.
In a free enterprise medical system, you can say, "Well, I know the odds are less favorable, but I want it anyway, and I'm willing to pay for it." That's the difference.
It's not that knee surgery is completely useless for someone who's too fat, it's just that the odds are not quite as good. But the line certainly isn't absolute. It would only be absolute by Hypocratic principles if the danger to the patient were greater than the possible benefits, in which case it would be unethical to proceed. In this case, it's simply a matter of triage, bureaucratic regulations, and cost savings.
There is quite a thriving business for dental work across the US border in Tiujana. I know many folks who get dental work done much cheaper, and just as good, by dentists who set up shop in Mexico.
I'm sure there are bad dentists who do that, but many are good. I know several San Diego residents who go to Mexico for their dental work. Cheaper and just as good.
Yes, I think we will also see more medical tourism from the U.S. because our prices are out of line with those of many other countries where good medical service is available on a cash basis.
I worked at UVa as a physical therapist many years back. We had a surgeon who specialized in doing the riskier joint replacements - Jehovah's Witnesses, obese, elderly. His failure rate was higher than the guys that took the safe route but he also changed the lives of a lot of folk.
The obesity is a double-edged sword. It's hard to lose the weight if you can't exercise, and bum hips make it virtually impossible to exercise.
How many pounds is 140 kg?
My husband has seen Mexican dental work (he's a dentist) and in general it's a POS. You get what you pay for. You also don't have many regulations and the regulations are "negotiable" depending on who you bribe. Several of his friends have had folk go to Mexican dentists because they didn't want to pay US rates - guess what? Now they've not only spent for the trip to Mexico but they now have to pay US prices to get the lousy stuff fixed.
140 kilograms = 308.647167 pounds
308 pounds
Thanks!
If your over 65 your not getting open heart surgery, kidney dialysis or pacemakers in GB.
Why can't the Brits just speak english? ; )
I don't know but I would imagine that there are dentists of the same caliber as your husband in Mexico. I've had some poor dental work performed by Yankee dentists that caused me to change who I went to for my dental work.
My grandson, who is a sales rep for DePuy...a Johnson & Johnson company, told me that surgons hated to replace joints in seriously obese patients because it was a nightmare cutting through all the fat.
Yes and the quality is rising quickly in these developing nations. For a lot of people the choice is either go to foreign clinics or have nothing. Either their commie system won't do anything.. or in our system of malpractice, limited supply, regulations and so on they simply can't afford it.
There probably are some of good caliber there - and agreed there are some bad ones (especially in the NE) here. However, how does the average Joe Schmoe determine quality and which to choose? If your odds of getting a good guy in Mexico are say 1 in 10 but your chances here are 9 in 10, is it worth the money you save?
If you are retired, then you are of no further use to the State. If you are no longer of use, then it is not in the interests of the State to keep you alive
308 Pounds, huh? How many dollars is that?
When picking somebody to do work, you get good people and bad people. There is no substitute for getting references from satisfied customers, preferrably people you know
I can see US practitioners opening offices in Mexico, where they would be immune from US malpractice laws and regulations, and in exchange offering lower fees in exchange for that.
I know lots of false teeth are done in Mexico for dentists in Tuscon who charge full American dollar.
Anyway, 140kg = 140,000 grams;
140,000 grams / 454 grams per pound = 308 pounds
The consequence is that in Southern Illinois ALL the babies are born in hospitals in Indiana. Up in the Chicago area heart and other surgeons are rapidly relocating their activities to Gary, Indiana.
Small Indiana towns that would ordinarily not be able to justify the expense of a hospital, have new hospitals, and so on.
Again, you do not need to go to Mexico to check out this phenomenon.
My son had an emergency appendectomy in the US, using laparoscopic surgery, which involved a total hospital stay of about 36 hours. The total charge was quite close to this.
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