Westerners seek cheap medical care in Asia

Newcomer to medical market
India is a diverse country accustomed to huge disparities, and although public health standards have risen as the economy has boomed, many poor people can’t afford basic medicine, let alone private hospitals. There is no national health system, and government hospitals are overcrowded and underequipped. A recent outbreak of encephalitis killed more than 700 people in small towns and villages of north India.

“It’s always the poor who suffer whether in India or America,” said Sushant Mishra, a health worker in a northern Bombay shantytown. “We saw the poor blacks suffering during the Katrina hurricane. They didn’t have access to food, water or even regular medical facilities in the richest country in the world. Life’s the same everywhere.”

India is still a relative newcomer to the international medical market, attracting 150,000 foreign patients last year, compared with Singapore’s 200,000 and Thailand’s 600,000.

But India’s numbers are increasing. In Jaslok, one of Bombay’s top private hospitals, three Americans were recovering from orthopedic surgery in June alone.

Texas-born businessman Robert Carson, 46, says he pulled out of hip replacement surgery the evening before it was scheduled in a Bangkok hospital.

A TV program about a new treatment — hip resurfacing — convinced him the procedure was less invasive and promised more mobility since the bone was shaved and not cut as in a traditional hip replacement. The procedure is not offered in Thailand. Three days later he was in Bombay and being operated on by Dr. Ameet Pispati, a British-trained pioneer of the procedure.

“I’d come back in a minute even if costs were equal to the U.S.,” he said. “I would come because of the personal care.”

He had found his American doctors stingy with information, whereas “the doctor here was very communicative. He told me what could go wrong and what he’s done before,” said Carson. “And it’s not because I’m a foreigner; other Indians also received equal personal care.”

Many doctors give their patients their home and cell-phone numbers and encourage them to call with questions.

Shorter waits
The absence of long waiting lists also draws patients.

“I could have had total hip replacement done in the States for nothing because I have a health plan. But I found it worth it to come here. I didn’t want to stand in line,” said Gordon Deboo, a retired NASA research scientist.

Deboo, 73, from Walnut Creek, Calif., was thrilled that his wife could stay in the hospital room at no extra cost.

In some cases, entire families travel with the patient.

“My daughter and son-in-law came with us. They didn’t trust us,” said Edna Harsha, a 59-year-old school bus driver from Lakeville, Minn., recuperating from hip surgery with her husband by her side.

She lay in a hospital room with a commanding view of the Arabian Sea, looking at photographs of Bombay’s sights taken by her family.

Infertility treatments
Couples from the United States, Ireland and Southeast Asia also head to India for infertility treatment — with some women bringing frozen sperm in liquid nitrogen containers.

Dr. Firuza Parikh, a leading infertility specialist, said she generally asks women to plan to stay for two IVF cycles, or two months. They stay in hotels or rent apartments.

“The husbands usually come for a shorter period and we freeze the sperm,” she said.

In vitro fertilization can cost $20,000 in the United States and $15,000 in Europe. In India it costs about $2,500.

Thayer, the retired farmer, has a suggestion for India: to anchor a cruise ship in international waters off Los Angeles — “One deck for orthopedic surgery, one deck for cardiology. We need a change in America, we need cheaper medical treatment. We need a big hospital ship from India.”

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