Medical Tourism and Healthbase Help Canadian Bid Goodbye to her Chronic Back Pain

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 29, 2007 – When Canadian neurosurgeons refused to do spine surgery on Jill Misangyi, her life was given back to her by Healthbase and Indian specialist doctors.

48-year old Jill Misangyi of Ontario, Canada bypassed the never-ending wait lists in her country to get a spine surgery abroad through Healthbase , a Boston-based medical tourism provider, to relieve herself of her 16-year old back pain. She is back at her job as a registered nurse just 5 weeks after her spinal decompression surgery overseas. She shares memories of her life changing experience at the Indian hospital.

“It was a wonderful experience. I've got my life back. The medical team – the doctors, the nurses and everybody right down to the housekeeping staff, is just wonderful. They make you feel very warm,” says Jill of her surgical team in India.

Unhappy with the medicare system and the long waitlist in Canada, Jill says, “I had many MRIs over the past 2 years and they [the medicare] always said it wasn't bad enough to operate on. It got to the point where it was so bad that my pain medication had increased so much that it was affecting my work life.” Many private neurosurgeons whom she consulted would also not do the surgery on her. “They thought I was drug-dependent and too high a risk for them,” adds Jill.

Unable to endure the pain anymore, she contacted Healthbase who arranged her surgery at a world-class hospital in India. She received a spinal decompression surgery with fusion and instrumentation last July. It cost her less than $12,000 for the surgery, round-trip air tickets for her and her companion, hospital stay, hotel stay, and other related expenses. The same spinal procedure in Canada is estimated at $40,000 just for the surgery.

According to Jill, “There are a lot of people in Canada suffering with back pain and it’s very hard to get surgery there. Waiting lists just to see specialists are 6 months to a couple of years, and another couple of years before or if they will do the surgery on you.” She advocates medical tourism and says, “I would most definitely recommend it highly to anybody.”

Healthbase’s medical tourism offers a fast and affordable way to receiving high quality health care.