Surgery Abroad
With all the possible advantages that medical travel can offer, people were hesitant to make maximum use of it. Various misconceptions such as the anxiety about the standard or quality of treatment abroad always held them back. But more and more patients are realizing that the surgeries done in ultramodern facilities abroad by well trained and accredited staff can provide results which can be better than those of their own home medical care teams. Some of these institutions are well recognized for their highly specialized fields of care.
Other concerns about medical travel are that some medical insurance may not cover the cost of additional treatments and surgery which may become necessary. There are ethical issues such as the size of your carbon footprint and leaving poorer patients with lesser options.
Cost of medical care keeps skyrocketing due to increased cost of medical insurance brought about by a generation of sue happy patients. Therefore a good portion of the cost of healthcare is not directly related to the immediate care that the patient is receiving. In the countries which provide medical tourism the prevalence of malpractice legal suits are much less than in the western world. This is one of the main reasons why medical travel is so much cheaper. This comes with the disadvantage of not having a much tried and tested system of judicial recourse if things go wrong. Researching before trying out a package of medical tourism is doubly important as some institutions are run by medically non- or partially trained individuals.
Some of the medical packages offered by hospitals abroad do not provide for adequate post operative follow up. This improves their turn around rate and profits. It is doubly important to choose a package with good medical follow up because air-travel immediately after surgery can be dangerous due to medical complications which can occur such as blood clots and pulmonary embolism which may have fatal consequences. Other less serious complications of flying back immediately are swelling and infections. (Not a good idea to come back home with an infection caused by germs your own doctors are not very familiar with!)
One disadvantage of staying back after the surgery is that too much of fun(and sun) can lead to its own set of problems. Drinking and not resting adequately can lead to heamatomas, infection and scarring. It also increases the time of exposure to local pathogens (on which you have minimal immunity) at a time your immune defenses are not very strong.
Though surgery abroad makes sense in every imaginable way, it is not a decision that should be done without going thorough research, unless you are dealing with a good medical tourist company. If you manage your potential risk by researching the available package, you are bound to have a rewarding and healthy experience.