kotler: traveling for cosmetic surgery there’s a fascinating subject. the question is what are the risks of traveling 8 000 miles say to south africa or down to costa rica and having cosmetic surgery and is it a good deal? well dollars and cents wise it is a good deal but remember you have to factor in the air fare and all those other issues. but let’s just say that the total expenditure is less and it may well be. uhm it’s not the craziest thing in the world frankly for some people. and by some people i mean those who are a little more adventuresome. here’s why. first of all you do combine it with a vacation but you better take the vacation part of it first because you don’t want to be bouncing around on a safari truck after you’ve had your tummy tuck. but secondly the real issue is what if there is a problem and who presides over the post-operative care because you know the care of the patient doesn’t end at the end of the operation or even a week or ten days later. because after all there are wounds that have to mature sometimes they heal better in one person than another and who’s going to preside over that so the issue is who is going to give the post-operative care. that’s the best scenario problem. but the worst scenario problem is what if i get a complication or infection and now i’m 3 000 miles or 10 000 miles away from home it’s costing me x amount of money because my health insurance doesn’t even cover this medical problem that i have because i’m in a foreign country i don’t have any family here. is that likely? most of the time not frankly. i will tell you that the south african surgeons are very good. we’ve seen excellent work coming up from costa rica but we’ve also seen some very substandard work coming up from costa rica. for example i could tell you the same thing about mexico i could tell you that i’ve seen people come back who have had very nice work done and we’ve had other people that walked into this office without an appointment having a massive abdominal infection because the doctor that operated on them across the border is gone is missing doesn’t respond to phone calls and they walked into this building because they know we have a lot of cosmetic surgeons in this building and they need help. so for those who are adventuresome who tend to worry less it’s probably okay. pick your country pick your doctor well. the more advanced countries i think offer you a little more sophistication and safety. the exchange rate is indeed very favorable with some other countries like south africa and quite frankly south africa has been promoting this. they want the business. they want people to get on an airplane and come to south africa and have surgery because they want like many countries they want those american dollars. and for some people it would be very good but for others i think it isn’t good. again you can ask the same questions by the way the questions that i suggest people ask about board certification which by the way there are many board certified specialists. i should say board certified by american boards practicing in other countries. that is the world wide standard of excellence by the way. american board certification is it and many doctors come here from other countries to study to pass the boards so they can go home and say i am an american board certified specialist so there are running good practices outside the united states.
it’s cheaper but is it safe to have my surgery performed overseas?