Originally published August 20 2005
Canadians travel south of the border for weight loss surgery
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
An increasing number of Canadians are traveling to the United States to get weight loss surgery since qualified surgeons in Canada are in short supply. Around 1,100 weight loss surgeries were performed in Canada in 2003 compared to 120,000 in the United States.
More than 800 miles from her Ontario home, Gayle Rehel lay teary and anxious in a Detroit hospital awaiting a surgery that promises to end her decades-long struggle with obesity.
"I want to be around to enjoy my grandchildren," said Rehel, who wants to drop 125 pounds from her 294-pound frame, in part to relieve symptoms from diabetes, high blood pressure and chronic pain.
The influx is being driven by vast differences between the neighboring countries' health care systems.
In Canada, all patients have national medical coverage but care is in short supply.
In the United States, doctors race to provide the newest technology and procedures but millions lack the means to pay.
Southeast Michigan alone has as many bariatric surgeons -- about two dozen -- as all of Canada.
Rather than sit on a waiting list for years, patients such as Rehel are willing to travel hundreds of miles for U.S. health care.
Billboards on the Canadian side on the Windsor Tunnel tout the ease and convenience of health care in Michigan.
Canadian patients come to the United States with either cash or insurance to cover the $25,000 bariatric procedure, which is a major money maker for hospitals.
Harper Hospital, for example, credited its specialty bariatrics program with helping return the hospital to profitability after losing about $12 million in 2002.
The basic idea is to cut or section off the stomach into a pouch, essentially a smaller stomach, and attach it to the small intestine.
Dr. Michael Woods, who performed Rehel's operation, said about one of every 10 patients he sees a week is from Canada.
Operating on Thursday at Harper, Woods pointed to scar tissue from a previous weight reduction Rehel had in the 1980s.
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