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Tummy Tuck Mexico
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Question: My girlfriend is planning gastric bypass surgery (laparoscopically)
with a doctor in Monterrey, Mexico. (We're paying for this out of
pocket, and stand to pay $10,000 instead of $20,000 this way.) I'm
skeptical about going to a Mexican doctor, though, as I'm wondering if
safety regulations and such will be as good as back in the U.S.
Searching for info on this doctor hasn't turned up much aside from his
own Website.
Does anyone have any experience with Mexican doctors in general, or
better yet, Dr. Rodriguez specifically? Any resources I can go to and
check out his background? I'm trusting my girlfriend's life to this
guy, so I want to do my homework.
Answer: Back when I was planning to undergo gastric bypass, I spent a lot of
time at obesityhelp.com. That site is an excellent resource for all
aspects of gastric bypass, told by the people who have have been
through and are going through the experience. There people on that
site who have had the surgery in Mexico and probably at the clinic you
list. Go there and research.
however, obesityhelp.com is very much a rah-rah gastric bypass
site. While there is token attention paid to the mryiad potential
negatives of gastric bypass (be sure to read the Weight Loss Memorial
Section, which will terrify you), sometimes serious questions about
the dangers of this surgery are discouraged.
I was shouted down and driven off that site (I was asked not to post
anymore by the site managers) because I asked some very pointed
questions about the safety of having gastric bypass surgery in Mexico.
Believe me, I completely understand why people want to have this
surgery in Mexico. Many health insurance companies refuse to pay for
the surgery, even with doctor recommendations, and $10,000 appears to
be a bargain.
Here are just a few things to consider:
What will the clinic do if your girlfriend develops complications,
which happens in as many as 25 percent of gastric bypass surgeries?
How close is the nearest trauma hospital? How would your girlfriend
get to such a hospital? Who would pay for it? What if she develops
life-threatening complications and has to be MedEvac'd to the U.S.?
Who would pay for that?
Finally, I know most people considering gastric bypass (I was one, as
recently as nine months ago) don't want to hear that eating less and
exercising more can work, even if they've tried and failed a hundred
times.
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