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Beware of Medical Tourism in Thailand

Beware of Medical Tourism in Thailand

See below letter I have sent to the US Embassy:

To the American Embassy, Bangkok, Thailand, U.S. Citizen's Services:

As an individual, my circumstances, and/or opinion may not be of any significance. But, I feel compelled to help guard my fellow Americans from the harmful experiences I was forced to endure as a medical tourist to Thailand from the United States.

Over a year ago, I dropped by the United States Embassy in Bangkok, to pick up a copy of the list of Attorneys that it compiles for Americans in Thailand seeking legal assistance. My reasons for doing so, had to do with me attempting to file a medical malpractice complaint against a Thai plastic surgeon that had badly scarred, mutilated, and disfigured my face. Please see the following brief description of this experience:

As an American, I have been scared, mutilated, and disfigured by offshore plastic surgery in Thailand. I traveled to Thailand for plastic-reconstructive surgery because it was too expensive in the United States, and American insurance companies would not cover the cost of the procedure because they viewed it as an elective surgery. Before going to Thailand, I did months of research on Thai doctors and hospitals in my price range, and thought I had made the right decision until after the surgery, when Dr. Kamol Panritum of the MtF Easthetic Surgery Center, took off the bandages from my face.

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of my Thailand nightmare. After the doctor refused to refund my money, or pay to have the damage he had done to my face fixed by another doctor, or do the surgery over again himself; I attempted to report the doctor to government and professional medical associations to no avail. I was completely ignored by the Thailand Medical Council, the Thailand College of Surgeons, and the Medical Association of Thailand. I wrote a formal complaint to the hospital were the surgery was performed (Piavate Hospital of Bangkok) and it was ignored.

Even the attorney I attempted to hire, just gave me a run around for several weeks promising to take action against the doctor and never doing so. He initially was very eager to take my case, but shortly after doing so, he not only lost interest in the case, but became an apologist for the doctor. This appeared to have everything to do with me being a foreigner, attempting to take legal action against a wealthy and influential Thai plastic surgeon.

I later discovered that there are extremely few successful medical malpractice cases against medical doctors in Thailand that result in a cash award. Currently, there are only about 60 outstanding medical malpractice case on file with the Medical Council of Thailand for the entire country, and this number of cases is being pointed to by Thai Medical Council authorities as being unacceptably large.

It appears that if something goes wrong with a medical procedure in Thailand, and your are a foreigner, you have few, if any options of redress, and are completely at the mercy of the doctor. Thai attorneys will gladly take your case; and certainly your money, but what is uncertain, is if they will do anything more than take your money. These attorneys certainly must be aware of how few of these cases ever succeed, but there are many attorneys in Thailand that claim they do medical malpractice work.

Medical tourism is rapidly becoming more popular in America, and more Americans are traveling to Thailand to seek potentially dangerous, and risky medical procedures. I, as an American medical tourist to Thailand, am one of many Americans that have chosen this option, and the numbers are growing very rapidly. It seems to me, that the American Embassy should take a more proactive posture, in guarding, protecting, and informing its people of the very real dangers in seeking complicated medical procedure in Thailand, and of the truth about the practical limits to legal redress, if something goes wrong.

If the United States Embassy can publish alerts, warnings, and advice on teaching English in Thailand on its website, it certainly could do a better job addressing the dangers of Medical Tourism in Thailand. Further, the Thai government should be made aware of the increase concern that the United States government has about the exposure of its citizens to the dangers and limitations of Thai medical practice, and the limits of the legal system in Thailand to redress issues of medical malpractice. Americans are being harmed at ever increasing numbers.

If you have any information concerning private and government organizations in Thailand that I should contact in my attempt to hold this doctor accountable for the damage he has done to my face and life, I would much appreciate it. Please respond to this E-mail as soon as possible, by writing me at: HeatherTascal@yahoo.com. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Heather Tascal