Avoid hazards of medical treatment abroad.

[Johnboy60]

Orla Buckley was less than a week into her study abroad program in Spain when things went sour.

Days after arriving in Seville in May 2003, Buckley, then 19, was walking home from a class during a Scotland vs. Portugal soccer match being played in the city. When Scotland scored, an exuberant fan outside the stadium picked Buckley up by the legs, jumped in celebration and fell -- on Buckley.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/traveltips/02/28/medical.care.abroad/index.html

 

[Steezie]

Something tells me this is to scare people away from going outside the US for medical help, to curb medical tourism

 

[SallyNow]

I have a feeling that if this sort of thing was printed about an American hospital there would shouts of "anti-Americanism"

It's sad that this happened. But the article seems like more a way to excuse the fact that millions of Americans have little or no health coverage at all than a warning of hospitals abroad.

It's almost laughable that the article quotes a doctor listing countries with excellent medical care who only says they are "reasonably comparable" to American care, instead of just using the words "equal to American care".

Not to mention that the focus is on Americans who go abroad and get medical treatment. What about the standard of living and care of residents of developing countries?

There should be a huge focus on helping developing countries develop solid health-care foundations. But somehow, those articles rarely get sensationalised.

 

[TexasSky]

I don't.

A dear friend of ours was a vacation when they began to have "stomach problems." They sought medical help, were misdiagnosed and died when their appendix ruptured. When this happened, a nurse on the same tour kept trying to tell the doctors in the country they were all visiting that she knew exactly what was wrong. Later the family learned that the doctors there were uncomfortable with any surgical procedure.

One day a group of us were sitting around chit-chatting about that kind of thing. I work with a LOT of world-travelers. They all had stories about having to return to the United States for the even most simple medical treatments, not because they wouldn't be seen overseas, but because when they were seen the attitude was more, "Buck up, and take it like a man," than, "Let's see how we can heal you."

 

[SallyNow]

I don't.

A dear friend of ours was a vacation when they began to have "stomach problems." They sought medical help, were misdiagnosed and died when their appendix ruptured. When this happened, a nurse on the same tour kept trying to tell the doctors in the country they were all visiting that she knew exactly what was wrong. Later the family learned that the doctors there were uncomfortable with any surgical procedure.

One day a group of us were sitting around chit-chatting about that kind of thing. I work with a LOT of world-travelers. They all had stories about having to return to the United States for the even most simple medical treatments, not because they wouldn't be seen overseas, but because when they were seen the attitude was more, "Buck up, and take it like a man," than, "Let's see how we can heal you."

The people I know who have gotten treatment in non-North American countries rate it as being excellent. But they were talking about Western European countries, Australia/NZ, Japan, and other countries with universal health coverage and world-class medical technology.

The USA has good public hospitals... but some countries have much better public hospitals. And sadly, many have worse, which was the case in the article.

It's the tone of the article that makes me think this is about distracting Americans from the fact that millions of them lack medical coverage, and the fact that many Americans have to go abroad to get certain kinds of treatments because they can't afford them in the USA.

The article cares not one bit for those who live in the nations with poor medical care, nor the fact that many Americans choose to have treatment abroad because, in some situations, the care is better than what they would recieve in the USA. And some people come to the USA because there is a cutting-edge treatment available in the USA not available in their country.

In other words... I'm not trying to bash the USA, but just put the article in perspective.