The ultimate in outsourcing. Welcome to
India, where you can visit the Taj Mahal and get a new knee, all for under $10,000, airfare included. Of course, it's not just for Canadians whose health care system, while free, sometimes necessitates lengthy waits for important surgical procedures.
The uninsured in the US and other nations are a potential market as well. And there's potential for medical tourism destinations
in the US as well.
posted by greatgefilte
on Jun 17, 2006 -
38 comments
Surgical Eyes - source of info about complications and their treatment from Lasik and other vision correction surgeries.
posted by Gyan
on Jan 31, 2005 -
35 comments
Woman Performs Caesarean On Herself to Save Baby
Its thought to be the first case where both mother and child survived a self performed caesarean.
From the article, "...a mother's instinct to save her child can move a woman to perform extraordinary acts but said it would not have been necessary if adequate medical care had been available."
Contrast that story with the recent news:
Chico Student Allegedly Kills Newborn and then leaves the body in a plastic bag in her dormroom.
An avoidable situation given California's
Safe Haven Law that allows new mothers to safely surrender their newborns within three days of birth with no questions asked, no names taken and no repercusions, assuming the child isn't abused or neglected.
And she wouldn't be held on a million dollars bail awaiting trial for murder.
posted by fenriq
on Apr 6, 2004 -
9 comments
Baby's 'second head' to be removed by surgery "This parasitic formation is fed by and drains off the blood supply system of [baby’s] head."
"This is medical history,"... The condition, known formally as Cranio Pagus Parasiticus, is extremely rare, with only seven other cases ever reported.
posted by dfowler
on Feb 6, 2004 -
43 comments
They fixed my boo-boo. (warning - graphic pix)
Did you ever see this picture? It makes the email forwarding rounds ever so often, and is a fixture in the pro-life community. Taken in 1999, it shows a tiny hand touching the finger of one of the doctors involved in a spina bifida corrective operation. At the time, the fetus was 21 weeks old. Late last month, Samuel Armas (the boy the fetus became) testified briefly before a subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee examining scientific and medical advances in prenatal surgery.
[more inside]
posted by Irontom
on Oct 8, 2003 -
22 comments
They’re a little like
Operation. Today students can practice all sorts of skills on surgical models like
TraumaMan®, the
Hillway Man, or
Geri, the Geriatric, who comes complete with wrinkles. There’s
spinal surgery,
gall bladder surgery,
ultrasound/amniocentesis,
suturing, and
casualty kits. Some of them give me the I’m-a-silly-git giggles and naming a company Limbs & Things doesn't help. There’s the
head with all sorts of
things wrong with it, including
“Extraneous Lumps”. The
toe with refills is pretty nifty, but
disturbingly life-like. There are
strap-ons and
table-top models.
(Possibly NSFW) Some could make interesting
conversation pieces.
(Also poss. NSFW)
In addition, Somso, maker of the “dial-a-prostate” model above, also makes interesting non-interactive models like this
fandex of a head, a
larynx with tongue, or a
fingertip. They also have
neat models of
animals,
fungi, and
flowers.
posted by lobakgo
on Jul 23, 2003 -
7 comments
Beauty and the Labor Market "
Plastic surgery has become one of those things--like reading the tabloids and watching The Home Shopping Network--that Americans like doing and love ridiculing others for doing. Depending on whose numbers you believe, more than seven million of us went under the knife last year"...I had no idea... "
In cold, hard economic terms, being attractive helps you get ahead." ...Now I get it, now I understand.
posted by Voyageman
on Mar 26, 2002 -
10 comments
Conjoined twins separated. But while that operation is always challenging, this one was particularly bad. The girls were
joined at the top of the head, and their brains were merged -- and shared common blood vessels. It took
eight-eight hours of surgery to separate them, most of which was spent rerouting blood vessels. Both girls survived the operation. This is only the sixth time this operation has been attempted and only the second time that it has succeeded. (Vertical craniopagus is, mercifully, exceedingly rare.)
The operation was only possible at all because the surgeons have spent the last four months practicing it with virtual-reality software on computers (presumably using models based on MRI). Anyone have any idea what software package they used?
posted by Steven Den Beste
on Apr 10, 2001 -
14 comments
