How To Guide

Two examples below

Ken Snowden

Ken Snowden of CA, US, has been competing and coaching in endurance sports. However, his career was badly affected when he was in a bicycle accident which broke his hip. He had it surgically repaired, but it degenerated into advanced osteoarthritis. He suffered for two years and was in pain. His insurance coverage was minimal so he decided to research other options.

He zeroed in on Dr. Vijay Bose at Apollo Hospital in Chennai in India. He had the hip resurfacing surgery very successfully and was without pain in 10 hours. Just two and a half weeks later he was back on his bike. The surgery cost him 20 percent of what it would have back home.

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Steve Berg

Steve Berg of Pioneertown, CA had such severe hip pain that he used to take 16 ibuprofens a day. X-rays revealed that he had severe osteoarthritis. The only long term solution was hip replacement. However, it would cost him $60,000 since he did not have medical insurance.

He found hip resurfacing would also… Read More

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Vicky Bingham

Vicky Bingham, 64, of Sudbourne, UK, was having pain in the knees and was advised knee surgery. However, she found out that she had to wait eight months for the surgery. It would cost £12,000 – £14,000 if she had it done privately.

She did not want to wait as she was in pain; neither did she want to spend so much money. After doing her research she went to the Clinique Sainte Isabelle in Abbeville, France. She was very happy with her experience, the standard of medical care and the hospital. Besides it cost her less than half than in the UK. She says that she will go back when she needs hip surgery.

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Mrs JM

Mrs JM, 70 of Teignmouth, Devon, had difficult walking because of pain in her knees. When she finally got a diagnosis, she was told she required knee replacement surgery, for which there was a waiting list of 10 months. Alternatively, she could spend £10,300 and get it done privately.

She decided to go to Belgium… Read More

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Cheryl Newman

Cheryl Newman, in her fifties, wanted to get breast reduction surgery done. She could qualify for NHS only if the surgeon could remove 500 gm. of fatty tissue from each breast, but that was not possible in her case. Privately done, the surgery would cost between £5,000 and £7,000.

She did a lot of research on the net, not only on the type of surgeries available, but the places as well, where she would like to go. She was considering South Africa, Thailand, India and other countries. Finally somebody told her to consult an expert who would guide her better.

She met Wendy Lewis who is a consultant and was guided by her to go to Barcelona in Spain. She had her reduction surgery at the Instituto Javier de Benito of Plastic and Aesthetic Surgery by Dr Javier de Benito. However, she did find that she was expecting a little more redcution and a little less cost – the surgery set her back by €11,000, excluding airfare and accommodation.

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Angela Butterly

Angela… Read More

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Danielle Davis

Danielle Davis, a student from Kent, UK, wanted to have breast augmentation done, but could not afford the rates to get the surgery done. She was recommended Thailand as a medical tourism destination.

She communicated with a plastic surgeon in Phuket and decided to go there. She had the breast augmentation surgery done as well some liposuction from her thighs so that she would look better. The whole thing cost her only £1,400. She spent three nights relaxing before the surgery, spent three nights in the hospital and the nine days more at the retreat.

She had the stitches removed and was happy with the results. She was planning on working as a dancer in Ibiza.

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Laura and Sarah

Laura and Sarah of Perth in Scotland, sister, both wanted to have breast augmentation done. Laura found out that it would cost £6,000 where she lived. The sisters consulted with an adviser who suggested Tunisia for the surgeries.

Both sisters went to Tunisia for the augmentation procedures and it cost them £2,200. They… Read More

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Jeff Pledger

Jeff Pledger lost his sight on September 14, 1984 at the age of 27. Prior to that, he had been having headaches, vomiting and finally landed up in hospital. He had all kinds of tests. One day, while watching television he went to sleep and nobody realized that he had gone into a coma. He was given 24 hours to live because his spinal tap showed something seriously wrong.

He woke up five days later, blind. He had optic atrophy and the ophthalmologist said he would probably be totally blind. At 27 that was shattering news for Jeff.

He leant Braille and studied for two years at Westchester Community College and later at Stern School of Business at New York University. He began work for Bell Atlantic as an executive and is now at Verizon as a financial analyst.

Meanwhile he also got married, had a daughter and also got a guide dog. He is an advocate for vision loss and runs marathons.

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Jeremiah Taylor

Jeremiah Taylor, 52, was having back problems… Read More

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Emily Heltman

Emily Heltman enjoyed music, dance and traveling with her family. During a routine physical exam, when she was 12, Emily was diagnosed with scoliosis.  Her X-rays revealed a severe “S” curve in her spine. The first line of treatment for this kind of scoliosis is using a brace, but Emily’s case was more advanced.

Her doctor advised surgery. Two rods were surgically inserted down her spine. Two days after the surgery, which immediately added 1 ½ inches to her height, she was walking and a year later was able to return to all her physical activities.

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Rachel Briggs

Rachel Briggs was a physically active gymnast who was diagnosed with scoliosis when she was 12. The orthopedic specialist who she was referred to diagnosed her with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. In two years the curvature increased from 11 degrees to 28 degrees.

She was advised a brace. She wears a hard plastic brace which helps prevent the curvature from worsening. ‘My life is much less spontaneous now that I have to wear the brace.… Read More

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Julia Abrantes

Julia Abrantes was the victim of a romance scam. She fell in love with a man she met online and was all set to meet him. She went to John F. Kennedy airport to meet him as he was coming from out of town.

She waited six hours for this person, who did not turn up. ‘I was devastated,’ she said. ‘He wound up winning my heart.’ She not only lost her heart to him, but he also relieved her of a lot of money.

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Patrish Giocolo

Patrish Giocolo met a man from California who had traveled to Ghana to build roads or so he said. She was careful, however. ‘I did an Internet search, and sure enough, they were accepting bids in Ghana for building roads.’ So she thought he was legitimate.

A month later, they started chatting on the phone. Soon the requests for money started. She sent him a pair of workboots, then $500, then another $150. Then she was told that he had been in an accident and… Read More

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Aaron Clark

Aaron Clark of south Texas wanted to have his vision corrected. As it a cosmetic procedure, medical insurance does not cover it. So he decided to go to Monterrey in Mexico for his lasik eye surgery.

He went to the eye care clinic at Hospital San Jose and had the surgery done by Dr. Jesus Vidaurri. He was happy with the care and treatment he got. He went with his mother and sister who had other cosmetic procedures done. Prices are 60 percent lower than in the States.

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Adrienne

Adrienne had a vision of minus 6.5 along with astigmatism. She decided to have lasik surgery done in Bucaramanga in Colombia by Dr. Virgillio Galvis. Soon after the surgery, though she could see, her vision was somewhat blurred.

The blurriness was gone the following day and she was happy with her surgery. The cost of the surgery which is less than $1,500 includes follow up visits and further surgery if required after a few months. She was told not to wear contact lenses… Read More

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Linda

Linda was 18 and already had a son when she got involved with her boss at work. They were dating for 2 ½ months when she found that she was pregnant. He fired her and kept her at home, after she told him she did not want to have the baby. He started beating her every day and the beating did not stop even after her daughter was born.

Two years later she became pregnant again, and asked her father for help, but he refused. She had twins and started saving for tubal ligation and had it done. However, she still got pregnant again and had a baby. She waited till the baby was 1 ½ and then left with her oldest son, since she figured she could not take care of four children.

Later she got involved with two other men consecutively and both beat her up. Finally after 6 ½ years with the last of the men, he was actually about to kill her when she managed to escape and call the police and… Read More

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Sebastian

Sebastian who lives in London and whose wife is Asian found out that his wife had ovarian failure and so could not conceive naturally. Since they wanted to have a child of mixed race, they found it a big problem because egg donors are scarce in the UK.

After due research, they narrowed their option to Thailand. They went there and met Dr. Wiwat, who had arranged for them to meet four prospective donors. They selected one for the egg donation.

They returned home and came back after six weeks. Three embryos were implanted and then they were back home. Two weeks later, his wife tested positive. Though two of the embryos had ‘taken’, eventually only one survived. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

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Penny

Penny and her husband, Lloyd had been trying to have a baby for five years. As they were unsuccessful, they decided to try donor eggs and IVF. However, Penny learnt that waiting time was three years and it would cost at least £7,000. They then decided… Read More

Matt Hogan

Matt Hogan of New York, NY got a video purportedly from a friend in high school. When he clicked on the link, it launched a YouTube look alike site.  After it started to load he noticed the URL was not YouTube but www.yuotube.com.

Immediately the virus software on his PC sent up a warning box saying that there was malicious software trying to gain access. But it was too late and he had to run a scan of his PC. He learnt the name of the virus and where it was but he was unable to do anything about it.  He had to manually remove it and then his IE browser was disabled because the virus was attached to the proxy that let hi PC connect to the internet.

‘What’s worse is that by clicking the link, the virus then had access to my Facebook address book and sent out a few different messages to people in my address book. Luckily I was able to put a warning in my status on Facebook telling people not to open… Read More

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Karen and Chris

Karen and Chris had gone for a holiday to Prague when they were conned by a Prague taxi driver. ‘On our second night there we negotiated a price of 300 with the taxi driver; he drove us back to our apartment. My partner gave the taxi driver 500 CZK, and he saw very clearly the taxi driver produce a wad of notes put the 500 in with the wad of notes and produce a 50 and stated to my partner, that is what you gave me. My partner said ‘no way we gave you 500 and I just saw what you did’ the driver denied, with that my partner said call the police then because I am not moving out of this taxi until the police arrive.’

The driver walked back and got Chris out the cab and started hitting him. When Karen went to help him, he hit her too. She fell down and had blood flowing from her split lip. She got into a nearby pub and asked for help. When people… Read More

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Katie

For Katie it is a daily struggle. When she was a child she was overweight and then she managed to lose 50 pounds on her own. She found people treated her differently when she was 120 pounds than when she was 170 pounds. She still had a poor body image and sagging skin.

When she went to college, she got into a relationship and quite surprisingly found herself pregnant. As she had PCOD, she thought it would be difficult to get pregnant. During the course of her pregnancy she put on 50 pounds. She had an easy delivery when she gave birth to her son. For the past five years her weight has varied between 115 and 125 pounds which is fine for her 5’4” height.

However, she still has a poor body image and thinks she does not look good, though she actually does. And she is about to be married to the father of her son.

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Holly

When Holly was was just 13 years old age started taking piano lessons across the… Read More

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Harry Bell

Harry Bell was an active sportsman from Liverpool till his back laid him low. He gave up sports and opened a retail outlet and found it difficult to sit and stand for more than two hours at a time. When he went to local doctors he was told that his symptoms were not bad enough for surgery.

He checked out for surgery abroad and found the price in Spain (£12,000) expensive the price in Mumbai (£7,000) affordable, but the distance too much. He finally zeroed in on the Dubrovnik Hospital in Croatia where Israeli doctors conducted the surgeries. The minimally invasive surgery meant that and two of his vertebrae that were out alignment were secured by four screws and two dynamic rods.

Harry went back home, fit and find and now aims to be on the veterans’ professional golf tour by the time he is fifty.

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Christine Hilton

Christine Hilton actually broke her back 27years ago and had to have lumbar spinal fusion at that time. While she led a normal life… Read More

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Jeff Clarke

Jeff Clarke, 37, of Canada was suffering from severe chronic back pain and he did not know what to do. He waited for three years for doctors to help him out, but to no avail. Finally, He saw a television advertisement offering surgery abroad at affordable rates.

He opted to go to Apollo Hospital in Chennai, India. Investigations showed that he had two damaged discs. He underwent surgery to correct the problem. A week later he was feeling much better and said that while earlier he was always bent over with pain in the back, now he is straight up.

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Ronald

Ronald from Toronto, Canada, suffered from low back ache which became chronic. It was due to disc degeneration. Being an otherwise active person with a keen interest in golf, he was upset. He went to doctors who advised him that he needed artificial disc replacement.

However, the cost put him off. He surfed the net and came across a site in India, which offered the surgery at a fraction of the… Read More

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Jon Herring

Jon Herring had a broken tooth, needed a root canal and an implant. He also needed to have a few fillings replaced as well two gaps in his smile. However, it would have cost him at least $18,000 if done in the US because these procedures were not covered by insurance.

He decided to go to Costa Rica for a vacation and to get his teeth fixed. He got all the work done in seven hours and then went for a ten day vacation. After coming back he went for another follow up appointment. His entire cost, including travel and medical and holiday expenses, was only $6,000.

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Jim Paggi

Jim Paggi, 56, wanted to get his teeth fixed. He consulted many dentists in the Bay Area of the US and found out that all the work he needed would cost him $60,000. He had some work which was covered by dental insurance in the US, but all the work was not covered – in fact, cosmetic dentistry rarely is.

Paggi then decided… Read More

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Peter  Simon

Peter Simon of Ireland started experiencing hair loss when he was only sixteen. Four years later he had a very visible receding hairline and found it difficult to establish a relationship. He was embarrassed and decided to go to a doctor who examined him and advised hair transplant. That would have cost him more than £1,500.

He searched for options abroad and decided to have his hair transplant surgery in India. He went through an agency which took care of all the formalities and spent four day in India getting the transplant done. It cost him around £386 only and was happy with the results. Shortly thereafter, he met a girl and got married.

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Shane Smith

Shane Smith of Devon suffered from male pattern baldness which went from thinning hair till it reached a point where the top of his head was completely bald. He was upset with his looks and wanted to have a full head of hair.

He found a doctor in Athens who was a specialist in this line… Read More

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Myra Lovett

Myra Lovett, 61, of Essex, needed a lot of dental work done. Though she searched for an NHS dentist, she could not find one. She decided to go to Budapest, Hungary, primarily because their initial consultation was in London.

In Hungary she had six root-canal treatments, two implants, 24 crowns and 23 bridges – all at a cost of £7,400. In the UK it would have cost her not less than £21,000. She was happy with the work done and the care she received. She also got all the treatment done more quickly than it would have been possible back home.

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Stephen Hayes

Stephen Hayes, 62, from Cheshire needed a lot of dental work which he could not afford. In fact he was afraid he might lose his teeth. All the work he needed was not available to him on NHS and he could not afford the £25,000, a private dentist had quoted him.

He even had gingivitis which developed into peridontitis – his gums were also receding. He knew he needed… Read More

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Lanusse Martins

Everybody’s experience with any cosmetic procedure is not positive. There are many people who have had extremely bad jobs done on them and often times if the cosmetic procedures are done in a foreign country they may not even have recourse to legal remedies.

Unfortunately botched plastic surgery can even be fatal. Lanusse Martins, 27, a television journalist doing work for various Brazilian news programs, went in for a liposuction at a private clinic.

During the course of the operation, a surgical instrument pierced her, caused immense bleeding. She went into shock and died despite the doctors’ attempts to resuscitate her for over an hour.

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Solange Magnano

Just last year in another case, Solange Magnano, 37, a former Miss Argentina and model, running her own modeling agency was having a gluteoplasty (a butt lift). The liquid injected into her hips traveled to her lungs and brain.

From the private clinic she was rushed to a hospital in respiratory distress but it was too late. Her condition worsened and she was critical for… Read More

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Edward and Julia

Edward and Julia had gone to several doctors in New York and spent $30,000 in their quest to have a baby. They did not meet with any success and it was expensive, too. They researched on the internet and decided to meet Dr. Demián Glujovsky in Argentina in person after he responded to an email.

They went to Buenos Aires and met him. He asked for some tests and was able to pinpoint the problem. They stayed there till the IVF (in vitro fertilization) was complete. They went back home and were ecstatic when Julia found she was pregnant. She carried the pregnancy to term and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

She plans to go back when she wants to have another child.

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Jaunita and Eric

Juanita and Eric had been trying to have a baby for years. They had four years of infertility treatments in the US and Canada, but with no success. They then decided to explore other options.

They sent an email to Dr. Demián Glujovsky… Read More