Mexico Bariatric Center, Tijuana

[itsme18 3]

Ok, here’s my own experience with Mexico Bariatric Center, my surgeon, Mi hospital & City Suites Hotel....pros & cons. I hope this helps someone. If I help even 1 person it’s worth my time!

Pro - I’m home, healing well. No problems to report!

Pro- transportation from airport & back & forth to & from clinic was spot on. The drivers are awesome!

Pro - Jesus at hotel was awesome!

Cons - I had my sleeve on 1/9 by Dr. Christian Lopez Rodriguez with MBC. He seemed like a nice guy but since I only met him once as they were wheeling me into surgery it’s hard to judge! Yes, no consult or pre-op meeting with the surgeon or or a Dr! No one got to meet their Drs prior to surgery. And then like a ghost I never saw him again post surgery! His surgeries are back to back Mon-Sun, I can see where he’d have no time for small talk. When I say “surgeries” back to back. I know he performed at least 5 the day of my surgery!! Can you say “Conveyor belt?” One of the staff, wont call them out told me they do on average 60 surgeries per week!!!

Cons - when you arrive you arrive to a cattle call. 1st blood draw, fill out paperwork & consents, and give them $$. There’s no intros or warm & fuzzies, again “conveyer belt!” They leave you literally no time to think! Then back into the van like cattle & give your hotel room assignment. Jello, chicken broth, your time to be back in the lobby the next day for surgery then see ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya!!

CONS - the hospital nurses (not sure they’re even nurses, no one wore name tags!) they are worthless!! They bring your meds routine, IF they remember or don’t get you mixed up with another patient (they gave my acid reflux Med to my roommate, we BOTH tried to tell them I’m the one that asked for the med but they refused to listen & gave it to her even after saying “I don’t need it!!”) They then said their records show I already had it! Even my roommate argued with them that I hadn’t received it! (records are hand written on a piece of paper that all staff uses & has access too & writes on). I was asking for acid reflux meds not narcotics!! They never remembered our names they always had to ask. The desk usually has at least one staff member sitting behind it, mostly tending to their phones)! All nurse call buttons on beds are disabled so you have to get up & go find the staff if you need something! Most of the time you can find them laughing LOUDLY, flirting with each other, banging things, rough housing & eating, pizza seemed to be the popular choice, they ate at the nurses desks in front of patients. To get ice was a struggle! I couldn’t be more disgusted with the staff! It was just a big social scene for them! Sooo disrespectful! Quiet wasn’t part of their vocabulary. Actually none were fluent & most spoke ZERO English!!! There’s literally no technology to track patients or meds. I don’t know what they mean when they say “state of the art!”

Cons- I actually watched them mixing their own meds at the clinics nurses stations! And like I said I’m pretty sure they have no RN’s or pharmacists on staff. Even Drs are on call only! I don’t know what they were mixing but it was med bottles & they were using syringes to add whatever it was they were adding? I can’t imagine it was anything they used intravenously, hopefully it was like oral antibiotics or acid meds??? Be sure & do follow up blood work with your Dr at home!

Cons - the MI Hospital is not a hospital!!!! It’s a clinic. It’s fairly clean, bathrooms smell, rooms are small! No sheet changes even with a 2 night stay!!! Walking after surgery is a struggle because there’s literally no where to walk!! The lobby was most practical or you could take the (1) very small elevator to the 3rd floor it had a tad more room. The beds are very old & in critical need of some WD40, they’re very loud raising & lowering! The TV’s if you can find one with a remote that works has maybe 3-5 English channels, but more than the hotel!!

Cons - I paid for & was assured I’d have a private room, I asked April that specific question & she assured me I’d have a private room, don’t worry! Then day of surgery “so sorry we only have room with 2 beds left!” Hence the bunk mate!! Thank God we actually hit it off!!!

Cons - once we were herded back to the hotel I’d had enough, although I had already paid for the night at the hotel as part of the package I hit the road, returned to San Diego where I paid for another hotel for the last night! No refund of hotel since it was part of the package! Hotel is called City Suites, clean but no English channels. I couldn’t have handled another day of laying there doing nothing!!! We were warned by other patients that the “tour” is a joke it’s local trash stores! My choice to return early was accompanied by atleast 9 more patients, 8 in my van, one guy they literally dropped at the border & made him walk across 1-day post sleeve surgery because there was no time or driver to drive him over when he needed to go over!!!

Cons - watch your bill at the end!! They charged me $80 for extra meds?? Since you can’t possibly know what you were given or what the names of the meds were that they may or may not have given to you it’s impossible to argue it! Like the acid reflux meds that I never did receive! Almost everyone had extra med charges to pay! And if you want a ride back over the border you better pay up!

I’m sorry this is so scathing. And if your already paid up & scheduled with that practice at that “hospital” remember the pro were that I’m back home & having no real troubles! Just don’t expect good service, expect to feel like cattle & don’t expect an attentive nurse quite probable no nurse! I cannot refer & will actually encourage anyone I know to choose a diff practice! Possibly a nicer, cleaner city!! Demand to be in an actual hospital. Although I did & I was assured it was a hospital, guess ya can’t know til ya get there then it’s a little too late!!

[shedo82773 1,236]

WOW!! My hubby went to Jurez, Mexico and we found it not to be what we had beem told and even sent us a viedo which wasn't even close to what they advertised. I thought we had it bad, but I think you beat us out of all the GLORY of having our surgery in Mexico. Now I have heard good things about Bariatricpal WLS faculity. But Juarez not so much either. We had to pay $50.00 cash for his pain meds which they were just a joke. luckily he didn't need them because it would have been way sad to deal with pain. LOL I'm sorry you have had such a hard time also. But wait I forgot this one...my hubby had a cyst on his chest when he went in for his WLS. While he was out (night night time) someone had squeezed it until it looked infected!! We took him to a dermatoligist when we got home and they thought he had MERSA from the hospital. None of the nurses ever washed their hands or used hand santizer!! Scary stuff!! Luckily it wasn't MERSA just infected!! I say JUST but it was a huge deal!! Just glad everything turned out for us all. Again sorry for you and all that u went thru. Have a great day.

[itsme18 3]

Yep, this isn’t the 1st time I’ve had surgery in Mexico. I had a procedure in Monterrey several years ago & had nothing but good things to report. I was hoping this would be the same. Boy was I wrong!! Thanks for your reply!

[colapbander 0]

@itsme18 what time were you discharged from the hotel? Who did you hire to take you back to SD, how much was it?

Edited January 14, 2018 by colapbander
added more detail

[itsme18 3]

I was discharged after the 2nd day & we caught a ride from one of their drivers. There were 8 of us that chose not to use the last night hotel stay. They saved $$$ on all those rooms that were already paid for. Taxis won’t take you to the border. And if you don’t have a medical pass you’ll be stuck in the 2-3hr border crossing! Sucks!

[Overcomer2food 3]

On 1/14/2018 at 2:12 PM, itsme18 said:

I was discharged after the 2nd day & we caught a ride from one of their drivers. There were 8 of us that chose not to use the last night hotel stay. They saved $$$ on all those rooms that were already paid for. Taxis won’t take you to the border. And if you don’t have a medical pass you’ll be stuck in the 2-3hr border crossing! Sucks!

I’m so sorry sweetie! That was an awful experience. I almost used them and after reading on their website medical supplies I needed to bring (bandages and etc). They also come to the US for conferences and have great turnout from prior patients. But, I changed to a real hospital. I went through hospital Guadalajara and used Trinity Medical. Dr. Pasten was amazing and he met me before surgery.

I choose them because I never had to stay at a hotel and was able to leave on the 3rd day. I was picked up by my coordinator and his wife. We were on the 3rd floor of the hospital in the bariatric wing. The janitor was cleaning everyday. The nurses stayed on top of our meds and they would bring ice chips anytime we hit call button. During the day nurses spoke English and at night it was limited but an interpreter stayed in the lobby all night.

At least you are home and have no complications!

[Overcomer2food 3]

On 1/25/2018 at 10:17 PM, Overcomer2food said:

I’m so sorry sweetie! That was an awful experience. I almost used them and after reading on their website medical supplies I needed to bring (bandages and etc). They also come to the US for conferences and have great turnout from prior patients. But, I changed to a real hospital. I went through hospital Guadalajara and used Dr. Luis Pasten was amazing and he met me before surgery.

I choose them because I never had to stay at a hotel and was able to leave on the 3rd day. We were on the 3rd floor of the hospital in the bariatric wing. The janitor was cleaning everyday. The nurses stayed on top of our meds and they would bring ice chips anytime we hit call button. During the day nurses spoke English and at night it was limited but an interpreter stayed in the lobby all night.

At least you are home and have no complications!