Missing Person?

[vsginnj 415]

Due to the HIPAA law I legally cannot discuss what has occurred to the patients that have been treated at our facility. I would hope for your own privacy you would understand that. All I am saying is do your homework. I'm not trying to upset anyone about their decision. Just fully know who you are trusting your life to. I fully stand behind bariatric surgery and I am very passionate about how it changes lives. Just do research and know there may also be a program within your area that can help you reach your weight loss goals even as a self pay patient. Im not the only person on here praising the well educated and trained staff at My Bariatric Solutions and Dr. Stowers excellent results and wonderful success stories.

What ? Let me guess every time you say DR stowers wou get five bucks? I did some research, like you suggested, my conclusion is you work at my bariatric solutions and you are mexican! I think you are full of stinky stuff!!!

[Pinky Green 260]

I'm not going to Mexico for my surgery but I wouldn't hesitate to if I needed it. Here is info I found while researching because my boyfriend wants us to drive to his mother's house in Honduras instead of flying.

http://www.mexicomike.com/safety/safety-UsStateDepartment.html

As noted most of the Americans who were killed in Mexico recently were actually living there and many of them were involved in the drug trade. As a rule of thumb, if you aren't involved in illegal activity and you don't go around acting like Thurston Howell III (if you are too young to remember him just think of someone rich who flashes their money around) you probably will be just fine.

I live in Houston, and there are parts of Houston I would be a little hesitant to go with lots of money at night with an old car. In Mexico and in the United States - most people who get murdered either get murdered by someone they know, or they are at the wrong place at the wrong time and probably doing things they shouldn't be doing.

[TheNewSusie 471]

Crime happens in every city/country daily, trust me! I'm from the land where my people (Palestinians) fight and get killed each day. I now reside in Houston where there are so many cultures and ethnicities and depending where you go , the samethings are happening here that happen everywhere. Yes their maybe be horror stories but that's everywhere u go. My friend who had it done here in the US had complications and a leak when I who went to the best doctor (just my opinion, dont jump on me) who's done more surgeries than any doctor I know or researched, I know I can always go back to my doctor for follow up and blood work at no charge. Luckily , I'm not too far from where I went and would go back in a heart beat! I dislike when people say they've done research when they didn't! Don't judge others and what they choose. Yeah I could've went to Dallas four hours away instead of my doctor , five hours away but this was my decision. I had the opportunity to meet my doctor in person before surgery also, so before u jump on people, u do ur research. It took me 2 years to save my money and not one regret. Ignorance.

[Butterthebean 8,146]

Due to the HIPAA law I legally cannot discuss what has occurred to the patients that have been treated at our facility. I would hope for your own privacy you would understand that. All I am saying is do your homework. I'm not trying to upset anyone about their decision. Just fully know who you are trusting your life to. I fully stand behind bariatric surgery and I am very passionate about how it changes lives. Just do research and know there may also be a program within your area that can help you reach your weight loss goals even as a self pay patient. Im not the only person on here praising the well educated and trained staff at My Bariatric Solutions and Dr. Stowers excellent results and wonderful success stories.

I call B.S.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

I know lots of people who have had medical and dental procedures done outside the USA. There are very skilled and experienced surgeons in Mexico! I think just like anything else there is "variation" in experience and quality. I think anybody is wise to ask alot of questions before embarking - whether your surgeon is in the USA or Mexico.

The point someone made about a SoCal surgeon who is dealing with a lot of "complications" - well, for all we know that is from one or two bad apples, does not taint the whole idea.

Do your research! Pick a surgeon who has a track record of GREAT outcomes - why settle for less? I happily found one in my backyard and had insurance that would cover it. If I hadn't, I would have considered Mexico but only the best of em - but that is my feeling regardless of the country. I understand that money is very tight, but i would go into debt a few thousand bucks more to pay for a top rated surgeon over one that is "not" top rated because my very health is on the line.

[BizTraveller 101]

I really heitate to post this, but i am a pasionate believer in facts and truth.

I am not aware of any security issues related to medical tourists in Mexico. However, the security situation in Mexico is very serious and you should not dismiss it lightly.

Here is the under-reported reality:

In the 6 year Mexican Drug War, an estimated 47,500 people have been killed. Informed sources suggest the real number icould be twice that.

They were not all drug dealers.

In the 10-year war in Afghanistan, about 3,000 US and Coalition soldiers have been killed.

This year in Syria about 17,000 have been killed. That is about he same number as killed in Mexico during 2011.

Don't ask me why this is not front page news every night. I cannot explain it. This is a full-scale war by any definition ( and an unspeakable tragedy).

As a medical tourist, you should not be at risk, but you have to realize you are going to a country that us in a full-scale war. I still travel to Mexico, but I do so understanding the reality. Do not go take a vacation in the countryside during your Pre-op. Do not go walking around at night. Do get your operation done.

Obesity is far more dangerous than any war zone on earth.

You are safer skinny in Dafur than you are fat in Peoria. If you are on this forum, you have already taken chances with your life that exceed the risk of a trip to Mexico. The vast majority of people come home unscathed from the worst war zones. Almost everybody with a BMI over 40 dies early or ends up crippled.

Sent from my iPad using VST

[NDN_RN 527]

I am having my surgery done in the US at a well regarded hospital. I am lucky, I have insurance, otherwise, I wouldn't even be able to afford a Mx surgery.My surgeon said the surgeons in Mexico are competent and the facilities are adequate. What did concern him was the lack of follow up. He found a lot of non US wls pt were trying to follow up with his group, which really bogged the schedule down, so they limit it to emergency complications. how do you Follow up, if you had surgery in Mexico. just curious.

Just Do It!!!

[zack515 10]

Everyone who has entered Mexico has never been seen or heard from again!

[muffintop 62]

Is this an advert?

Sure looks like it!

I don't buy the HIPPA line' date=' you can share facts and research without compromising privacy. Either you have info to substantiate your assertion or you don't.[/quote']

Seriously she is all over the board posing as someone looking for surgery, then someone having surgery. What she is, is a running banner for This company. She should be banned honestly she isn't here providing help or I formation as an active member. Feel free to see all of her posts in the last day in which she joined ( which was yesterday)

[TheNewSusie 471]

Everyone who has entered Mexico has never been seen or heard from again!

Then why am I still alive ??!!!!

[LaDwana 2]

this is such great information. thanks you guys. its makes things a lot easier knowing that people that already had there surgerys in mexico.

[CowgirlJane 14,259]

The follow up issue is probably a big deal for some practices. When I was banded, i believe one of the root cause issues for me is that after I moved home from Germany I couldn't find a band doctor to "take me in". Eventually, pretty much gave up.

[The Real Tijuana 1]

About a million people from the United States have gone to Mexico and never came back. They are, for the most part, alive and well. They are ex-patriots who have come to live here permanently.

The HIPAA comment raised a red flag for me, too, because of its negative implications. Mexico had HIPAA before the U.S. did and we began exchanging secured electronic patient records about ten years sooner.

Because Mexico is so often dismissed by the AMA and the U.S. media, we have been holding ourselves to higher standards than our counterparts north of the border do. For customer satisfaction, we conform to ISO9000 methodology. For the patient's peace of mind (third-party verification of credentials and financial indemnification against post-op complications), we are starting to be certified by IBMS. You don't see clinics in the U.S. doing this -- they just hire on more sales and marketing people instead.

I hope that's enough to allay your fears. I hope I don't have to debunk the so-called drug war, too.

[Butterthebean 8,146]

..... I hope I don't have to debunk the so-called drug war, too.

Please do...I'd love to hear this. Seriously (no sarcasm).

[The Real Tijuana 1]

I apologize for straying so far from the subject of bariatric surgery. I do so to respond to a polite request and in the interest of fairness to an underappreciated medical-tourism destination.

Ever since the Reagans declared their War on Drugs, the various cartels have been contributing a lot of soft money to Mexican presidents. Until Vicente Fox, the presidents used to divide up the territories and keep peace between the groups. With Fox, the cartels suddenly had two political parties that wanted their soft money and that allowed them to play favorites. Calderón tried to capitalize on this confusion.

Calderón partnered with “El Chapo” Guzmán in an attempt to consolidate all the drug cartels. That would have given Calderón’s party, the PAN, a monopoly on all the narco soft money which in turn would have broken the PRI’s back. (Cliffs Notes: PAN = Republicans, PRI = Democrats.) The army was sent against Guzmán’s PRI-leaning competitors one after another, failing each time.

Calderón first sent his army after the Arellano-Félix Cartel here in Tijuana. Our mayor at the time, the only PRI politician in the state, is a member of that cartel and Calderón was keen to make an example of him. He failed to consider that the Arellano-Félix Cartel has also contributed to our PAN politicians. For three years, our news programs seemed like Gilbert and Sullivan being staged by Tim Burton.

Then Calderón threw in the towel with us and sent his army to Juárez. No luck there either, so they went on to Monterrey. And boy was that a mistake.

Now, the really odd part is that, during the three years when Calderón’s army was tooling around Tijuana in their pick-up trucks, all the mayhem they were causing showed up only on television and in the newspapers. Rarely did we know people who actually witnessed any of this violence. I don’t want to sound like a Holocaust Denier or anything, it’s just that a lot of our news reports didn’t ring true. For example, one night the Sinaloa cartel was supposed to have shot up the police station two blocks from where I lived, hundreds of AK-47 rounds, and yet no one in the neighborhood heard anything and the station showed no signs of attack.

Apologists for Tijuana have liked to point out that even during the height of the violence, our murder index never came close to those of Detroit or New Orleans. Which is probably true. It’s easy to think ill of Tijuana. It’s like the Hell’s Angels say, “people only remember the bad things we do.”