News Media Reports of Patient Deaths Following ‘Medical Tourism’ for Cosmetic Surgery and Bariatric Surgery

Abstract

Contemporary scholarship examining clinical outcomes in medical travel for cosmetic surgery identifies cases in which patients traveled abroad for medical procedures and subsequently returned home with infections and other surgical complications. Though there are peer-reviewed articles identifying patient deaths in cases where patients traveled abroad for commercial kidney transplantation or stem cell injections, no scholarly publications document deaths of patients who traveled abroad for cosmetic surgery or bariatric surgery. Drawing upon news media reports extending from 1993 to 2011, this article identifies and describes twenty-six reported cases of deaths of individuals who traveled abroad for cosmetic surgery or bariatric surgery. Over half of the reported deaths occurred in two countries. Analysis of these news reports cannot be used to make causal claims about why the patients died. In addition, cases identified in news media accounts do not provide a basis for establishing the relative risk of traveling abroad for care instead of seeking elective cosmetic surgery at domestic health care facilities. Acknowledging these limitations, the case reports suggest the possibility that contemporary peer-reviewed scholarship is underreporting patient mortality in medical travel. The paper makes a strong case for promoting normative analyses and empirical studies of medical travel. In particular, the paper argues that empirically informed ethical analysis of 'medical tourism' will benefit from rigorous studies tracking global flows of medical travelers and the clinical outcomes they experience. The paper contains practical recommendations intended to promote debate concerning how to promote patient safety and quality of care in medical travel.

Participation in Medical Tourism versus Physical Activity of Patients after Liposuction: What are the Concerns about Health and Quality of Life?

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Plastic Surgery Overseas: How Much Should a Physician Risk in the Pursuit of Higher-Quality Continuity of Care?

“…There is some debate about the severity of the risks of injury and malpractice in seeking surgical treatment abroad [2]. However, risks do exist, as they do with all surgeries, and injuries and malpractice do happen.…”

Cross-Sectional Analysis of Attitudes Towards Bariatric Surgery Tourism of Patients Attending a Weight Management Program: A Qualitative Study

“…5 There have been reported cases of post-operative complications from suboptimal follow-up and interrupted transition of care. 2,3,5,6 Furthermore, questions have arisen regarding the lack of evaluation protocols to assess the competence of foreign surgeons, whether an ensured continuity of care exists, and if foreign hospitals utilize devices or techniques that are unfamiliar to one's regional counterpart. 3,7 If any complications arise, the regional physicians would carry the burden of being responsible for a correctional intervention of an unfamiliar procedure.…”