A great-great-grandfather flew a 10,000 mile round trip for knee surgery because he did not trust the NHS after he lost a leg when they bungled a previous operation. Battling Ken Austin, 80, refused to go through the NHS again after a knee replacement on his right leg ended up with him losing the limb completely because the surgeons had mistakenly severed an artery.
When faced with a similar operation on his other leg, the pensioner from Halifax, West Yorkshire, decided to spend his savings on flying to India for the procedure instead.
Mr Austin, who has just returned from the trip, said: “It’s a sad case that you pay all your taxes and then don’t get the service. I realise it was a tricky operation I had, but I did not trust them.”
He added: “It is strange to think that I have gone to a poor country for an operation.”
2 responses so far ↓
John Paul Adriaans // March 11, 2008 at 3:30 am |
My son Francois is unfortunate to have developed post traumatic arthrtits in his left knee at the age of 34 years. After consulting many doctors here in the Netheralands and Belgium, we could not find anybody willing to operate and provide a satisfactory solution.
This doctor A.K.Venkatachalam in Chennai has agreed to do a total knee replacement. Very soon my son will be having a Ceramic or Oxinium total knee replacement in India.
drakvenkat // June 19, 2008 at 2:17 pm |
My friend Shawn Shelton working in Iraq has scrappy knees. He has located a doctor Dr.A.K.Venkatachalam in Chennai, India willing to offer him a Oxinium knee. I am pleasantly surprised at the price. The prosthesis is billed at 9600 $ in the US but is available in India at only 2500 US $. Presently my friend is liasing with his insurance company to permit him to have this surgery in India with DR.Venkatachalam of http://www.kneeindia.com