Surgery in Mexico costs much less
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/fro...
BOAZ HERZOG
November 21, 2004
On the morning of Feb. 10, Dave Roubideaux climbed into a limo near the San Diego-Mexico border crossing. Fifteen minutes later, he was dropped off at
a plush Tijuana hotel.
The next morning, another limo whisked him cross-town to the Obesity Control Center. Roubideaux noticed that "everything was spotless" inside the
modern-looking glass and cinderblock building. Four hours later, after undergoing weight-loss surgery, he woke up in bed with a view of the ocean. He
felt bloated but well enough to go home the next day.
Roubideaux had paid $7,600 for a Mexican doctor to insert an adjustable, removable silicone band around his stomach, constricting the amount of food
allowed inside. The cost included the weight-loss surgery, all hospital costs, transportation from San Diego and a three-night stay in a five-star
hotel.
To pay out of pocket for the same surgery back home, he was quoted a price of $40,000 to $45,000.
"It didn't make economic sense," he said.
His insurer would have covered an intrusive operation called gastric bypass surgery. The procedure would have permanently rearranged his intestines
and stapled shut his stomach, leaving a small pouch that collects food. If he had wanted gastric bypass surgery in the states, his insurance
deductible would have set him back about $8,000, he said. But Roubideaux preferred a newer, less invasive operation called lap-band surgery, a
specialty of the Mexican clinic.
Plus, Roubideaux felt safe receiving medical care in Mexico, having vacationed in Baja over three decades. None of the 20 Obesity Control Center
customers he had solicited feedback from had a negative response. And he was comforted hearing that the clinic had performed more than 1,000 lap-band
surgeries in the past four years.
During that time span, Roubideaux had grown increasingly alarmed at his inability to move. Simple tasks such as going up a flight of stairs or grocery
shopping became a burden. He'd park in the lot and run out of breath by the time he entered the store.
His eating habits didn't help.
"I'm one of those people," Roubideaux said, "no matter what somebody put down in front of me, I'd eat the whole plate."
During college, the 6-foot-1 student weighed in at a "fairly thin" 200, he said. The pounds didn't begin to stack up until he found a desk job as
cofounder and vice president of a Los Angeles-based solar-electricity-panel maker.
By the time he turned 50, his weight had crept past 300 pounds. He also had developed diabetes and high blood pressure. The added weight turned him
off from exercising. He watched more TV instead.
He tried diets. Many of them. They worked -- at first. He'd lose 15 pounds. Then he'd catch a whiff of pizza in the cafeteria. And the diet would end.
"Food for me was like a drug," Roubideaux said. Year after year, "I'd get on a diet and blow it, then another diet and blow it, because I felt hungry
all the time. It was a vicious cycle. It's very depressing."
He ballooned past 340 pounds. A few more pounds, he said, and "literally, it was going to be hard to walk."
Since his surgery, he has lost nearly a pound a week, shedding almost 75 pounds. He swims, bicycles and goes on one- to two-mile walks daily.
Living, he said, has become enjoyable again.
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