Worrying trend of cheap weight-loss surgery
Summary of story from The Independent, January 22, 2012
Leading British surgeons have warned against what they regard as a worrying trend of women going abroad for weight-loss surgery.
Medical procedures such as gastric band operations have become an increasingly popular option in the UK, and thousands of British women are now being enticed to attend private clinics abroad because of the bargain prices they offer.
In Syria, for example, gastric bands are being fitted for as little as £2,000, compared to £6,500 or £7,000 in the UK.
“We see travel agencies brokering surgery for their clients with surgeons they have never met,” said Catherine Foss, executive director of the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
“The patients have no assurance that their surgeon is properly trained or qualified to perform the procedure they will undergo.”
Ahmed R Ahmed, a top weight-loss surgeon at a private hospital in west London, believes as many as 10 per cent of the women who go overseas return with serious complications.
“It appears that some patients who pay privately abroad are not getting high-quality surgery and certainly they’re not getting any follow-up,” he said.
“The key thing is the follow-up. If you don’t have that, patients can get malnourished and deficient in vitamins.
“There is also a strong chance their weight might not go down as much as it should.”
Whether they go abroad or not, what’s even more worrying is the ongoing trend of women of all ages constantly feeling shitty enough about their bodies to feel they need consmetic surgery at all.
Just to redress the balance on this a little – here’s a great post from Hannah McQuarrie about the impact of running on her body image. I love the sense she expresses of her body as powerful and strong – made me think about how much more common it is for women to talk about our bodies as objects rather than our actual experiences of them.
http://redheadontherun.wordpress.com/2012/01/23/making-the-body-beautiful/