This past weekend I ended up in a five star hotel/hospital Angeles in Juarez. A friend was having the lap band surgery and she had come upon the information on the internet after several years of research.
Travelling to another country to have surgery is known as "medical tourism" I actually felt like a tourist. The hospital arranges everything. Your pickup at the airport, your hotel after surgery and anything else you need. I would call them medical travel agents!
How is this possible? Well when you can pay 70 dollars for an MRI like I did in Argentina a few years ago compared to 1200 dollars in the USA. You do the math. The lap band surgery in Mexico is 50 to 60 percent cheaper than in the United States. The doctors who performed this apparently simple and quick surgery.( It takes 45 minutes,) usually work in both countries.
My opinion is that the doctors and the hospital were first class. The nursing staff didn't speak that much English but they did a decent job.
Did you know that hundreds of Americans visit Mexico for lap band surgery every month?
A lap band surgery in Houston is around 16,000, while in Mexico it cost 8,000.
My friend was walking 2 hours after surgery and her biggest complaint was pain, but they had that under control every two hours as well.
My view is that eventually this surgery needs to be covered by our insurance companies. Good luck though. If our medical system continues to be in the profit business. Watch out. Business is Business here or Mexico and right now, many Americans are choosing to go down the border for a quick fix to their obesity problem and businessmen will benefit from that. (The hospital where we stayed is apparently a business venture of Carlos Slim, the second richest man in the planet.)
I say quick fix because in reality, having this surgery is no cake walk. It takes little time, it is reversible and it has worked wonders for thousands of people, however, You can only drink liquids for at least two weeks and you will be eating very small portions for the rest of your life.
If I were obese I would probably do it, but it did make me think twice about portion control. For some reason, this weekend I felt I had to eat a lot less than I usually do.
While I was in Juarez I also asked about the women dissappearing. Since 1993, nearly 300 women have been murderd by what authorities say are serial killers. One was killed while we were there. They usually work in assembly plants, or maquilas. Most are discovered mutilated with evidence of sexual abuse. I heard all kinds of comments from the Mexicans living in Juarez. Some were upset Ciudad Juarez gets a very bad rap for these murders. Others were angry the women were not protected because the funds the corporations were giving to the government for security, "dissappeared" as well. Frankly, I don't know who is responsible for this but as long as humans are not seen as important as the almighty dollar or peso. The human race will continue to commit these atrocities.
As medical tourists however, we felt safe driving directly from the airport to the hospital which is only 20 minutes away from El Paso. Our driver told us. How many women were killed in your city since 1993? I couldn't answer but no city has a monopoly on safety I replied. The fact is I am glad people around the world are concerned about the Juarez women. The only way to stop these crimes is to keep the pressure on the authorities.
1 comment:
Great work.
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