Liposuction and Plastic Surgery Information - Doctors warn on overseas cosmetic surgery

Doctors warn on overseas cosmetic surgery

Saturday, 16 September 2006

The growing popularity of overseas cosmetic surgery is posing a danger to patient health, while at the same time placing an unfair burden on the UK’s publicly-funded National Health System, experts warn. Patients considering traveling overseas for cosmetic surgery are lured by a combination of lower costs, discretion and privacy and the opportunity to recover from surgery in an exotic location.

But instead of being greeted on their return by admiring family and friends, there is instead the prospect of returning to a waiting ambulance and months of complicated treatment to reverse the damage that can occur.

While the sales literature for overseas clinics promises idyllic settings and almost miraculous outcomes, prospective patients should be aware that the licensing conditions for cosmetic surgery facilities abroad differ vastly from those in their home country. There is a consequent danger that customers will focus on the promised outcome and the apparent cost-saving, than analyzing the medical facilities and surgical competence of the team conducting the procedure. One London based surgeon commented, “In the UK, it is almost a given that any licensed facility will meet certain standards of medical care and proficiency, but this is not necessarily the case for clinics in other countries.”

Apart from encountering a lax licensing regime, patients also run the risk that language barriers and a commercial focus by the clinic will affect the patient’s outcome, at the risk of the patient’s health. “A UK surgeon will take the time to conduct a thorough consultation before any surgery is contemplated. We need to take time to examine the patient’s anticipated outcome, their medical history and discuss in detail, the nature of the operation and the likely after effects, including scarring and the recovery process. With overseas clinics, the process is rushed and the patient may not have a full grasp of the risks and likely outcomes.”

While all surgery carries a degree of risk to the patient, the impact of any post-operative complications that occur overseas are likely to be far greater on the patient when these occur overseas. Possible complications from cosmetic surgery include tissue necrosis, seepage, hair loss, scarring, partial paralysis and failed implants. If these occur in an overseas setting, the patient is doubly disadvantaged; not only do they lack the support network of family and friends that they would have at home, but their legal redress against the facility may be less than adequate to make good the damage.

In the event that complications do arise, most travel insurance policies will not cover the costs of repatriation or restorative surgery, since travelling for the purpose of surgery or medical treatment is a disclaimer on all but specialist policies. Given that the local health care system in the overseas destination will not cover ongoing medical treatment, the cost will eventually fall on the UK taxpayer. “It’s grossly unfair and an abuse of the system.” said one NHS surgeon, “People travel overseas for cosmetic surgery at knock down prices and then expect us to pick up the pieces if it all goes wrong.”

In 2005, Kay Creegan, 42 from Limerick in the Irish Republic, responded to an advert in a newspaper for the services of Michael Sachs, a Manhattan based practitioner who had described himself as a “surgeon to the stars”. What she didn’t know was that Sachs was one of the most sued doctors in New York, with 33 malpractice suits lodged against him in the previous decade. Creegan decided to travel to New York for a rhinoplasty (nose job) procedure, but did so in secret, without telling family or friends. Following the procedure on March 15, Creegan went into cardiac arrest and died two days later, on St Patrick’s day.

However, it’s not just patients seeking to travel abroad that are facing risks. In a new twist on the risks of cut-price overseas surgery, Massachusetts prosecutors have charged a Brazilian surgeon with manslaughter, following the death on July 30th of a 24 year old Brazilian woman, on whom he allegedly performed cut price liposuction in the basement of an apartment block in Framingham, MA. Authorities allege that the surgeon, Luiz Carlos Ribeiro, regularly traveled to the US on a short-stay work visa, performing cut-price cosmetic surgery in makeshift conditions for members of the local Brazilian community. Ribeiro has pleaded not guilty.

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