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What about going out of the country for cheap surgery?
There are instances in life in which it pays to be thrifty. Surgery is not one of them. The biggest reason not to seek cheap surgery out of the country is that you are missing the most important part of your treatment—the aftercare. The aftercare determines 99 percent of the success of the adjustable gastric band. The operation is only 1 percent of the equation. Weight loss surgery is only a tool. Patients are most successful when they have the operation as part of an extensive follow-up program which includes adjustments, support groups and ready access to the support staff in their surgeon’s office.
Another important reason to avoid cheap surgery include the dangers of infection. Most countries outside the U.S. do not have the same strict standards for sterilizing surgical instruments. This is also true for standards for surgeon training, certification, licensing and the handling of controlled substances such as narcotic drugs. Many patients do not get their pain medications in other countries because they cannot communicate with the hospital staff; there are reports of the staff stealing the narcotic drugs and giving patients intravenous salt solution instead. You are putting yourself at an unnecessarily high risk for infection and other problems if you go outside the country for cheap surgery. When you get back, it can be very difficult to find someone to take care of you, and many patients end up spending more money overall than if they had just stayed in the U.S. to have surgery. Surgical complications rates are higher in other countries and these complications can be very expensive to correct.
If a surgical complication occurs in the U.S., the surgeon’s liability insurance will typically cover expenses incurred by the complication. Most surgeons outside the U.S. do not have liability insurance. Even if they did, it would be nearly impossible to find an attorney who would represent an international case. Even if you could find one who did it, litigation would be very costly to pursue. If American surgeons could operate without liability insurance, we could offer lower prices as well.