Going abroad for surgery?

[Acrossthewall]

I don’t even know why I’m posting because I KNOW I’m being unreasonable and I know it’s a silly idea. I think I’m just so fed up and exhausted and need to get it off my chest (even though I know it’s silly!)

I need a procedure done on my heart- not an operation as such, it’s an ablation. I’ve had it before and need it again. I would rather not get it done on the nhs for personal reasons I’d rather not go too much into, I had an awful experience before and even if I did want it done on the nhs again, the waiting time right now is 18+ months for my case

I’m looking at going privately for it and came across someone online who went abroad to get it done and I’ve since gone down a rabbithole of looking at Europe/turkey etc. It’s so much more reasonably priced than the uk, and the doctors seem to be extremely highly qualified and the reviews are excellent, but I know it’s so risky going abroad for something like this and I’ve heard so many horror stories I know it would be a silly idea. I think I’m just so fed up of being unwell and it’s clouding my judgement because in some ways I just think, screw it, lots of people go abroad for it and it’s fine, but then the rational part of me says don’t be ridiculous, what if it goes badly etc.

can anyone please offer me a bit of outside perspective? It would be a really foolish idea wouldn’t it?

I don't know about Eastern Europe but Turkey is a ridiculous idea please dont do this

entirely up to you. But please don’t expect the NHS to put it right if anything goes wrong.

I know, it’s totally ridiculous and I’m definitely not going to do it

i think I was just so fed up and frustrated with everything it was clouding my judgement when I was looking at it because normally I’d never have even entertained the thought of it. It’s ridiculous I know though, I don’t even know why I posted tbh I think I just needed someone else to say it was ridiculous too! Thanks

Having personally had 3 ablations and been one of the 1 in a million where it went wrong (and I will now have a pacemaker for the rest of my life) this are my thoughts

The accuracy of the ablation is very very closely linked to the technical skills of the interventional cardiologist AND the equipment that they are using as they have to map the areas of rogue electrical activity to with fractions of a mm and then ablate those same tiny areas at the exact correct fraction of a time between beats without getting any of the surrounding tissues at all. I am guessing you are not able to properly judge either of these things.

The surgery that went wrong for me was with one of the best cardiology teams and in the most modern facilities in the country (in the US) and it still went wrong. I then spent days in the hospital and they had to insert a pacemaker which i now rely on to stay alive.

I have every sympathy for you waiting for the surgery, but I would be looking at what you could do to have it done privately in the UK rather than travel abroad.

My sister went abroad to a EU country for surgery, cosmetic though not medical. She paid just under half what she would have done in the UK, was kept in hospital for a week to ensure no complications, had a private room which was spotlessly clean, excellent food and was very well cared for post-op. If she had had it done as a private patient in the UK, she would have been cared for on the private ward of our local - and very unpleasant - hospital and discharged after 24 hours. She doesn’t regret it at all.

On the other hand, a colleague had surgery in Turkey and came home quite unwell resulting in being admitted to hospital a couple of days after getting home and two months off work.

If you do choose to go abroad, do your homework.

Have you lost your mind? This isn’t hair extensions or teeth. What if something goes wrong? What if you have a complication and have to be in the hospital. What if you come home and have issues and the NHS doesnt have your records.

I sympathise if you have had a bad experience with previous procedures OP, having stuff done on your heart is very stressful ( pacemaker owner here) and you do need to have faith in your drs. So before committing to having the procedure somewhere abroad where you will be going in pretty blind, and where getting any redress if things go wrong again would be impossible, I would spend sometime investigating if you can have the procedure done with another team in the UK. Speak to your GP, find out if you can self refer to another cardiac team in another NHS Trust, or even another cardiac team within your own NHS Trust.

I had emergency surgery in Thailand, covered by my travel insurance. It was absolutely excellent. I am so glad it happened there and not in the UK.
There are companies that organise packages for elective surgery. Private hospitals in Thailand are state of the art and much less expensive than UK.
Avoid Turkey.

DH has had 2 in Dubai, if you want a recommendation for an electrocardiologist there.

Honestly I haven’t lost my mind, I’m not actually going to do it, it was just a fleeting thought fuelled by my complete and utter frustration and how fed up I am of feeling so unwell

think I just needed it reiterated to me that it was a crazy idea tbh

im going to investigate getting it done privately in the uk. I’ve had it done before so I know what to expect it’s just gutting how much it costs but I’ll look into finance options etc