[unclebilly]

My 74 year old father is in Thailand. He goes once per year and has dental and minor medical work done. He has been to the RAMM (sp?) hospital in Chang Mai in the past.

Before he left, he struggled for 6 months with inflammation and was prescribed 50 mg/day Prednazone which totally screwed with his body. He has been coming off of this and was put onto something else by a rheumatoid arthritis doctor. For the first time, his CRP is down to 0.3 which is acceptable. It was around 230 at its peak. He also had issues with one of his eyes from the Prednazone.

Before he left last week, he was cleared to go by his family doctor (and old washed up veterinarian), the RA specialist, and his eye doctor.

He is in Bangkok now and has been to the Bumrungrad hospital for a full check up. They did a thorough nerve assessment and want to do carpal tunnel surgery on his arm (he had the other one done about 8 years ago). They also told him he might not have rheumatoid arthritis (telling him what he wants to hear like any good businessman would do - the doctors at Bumrungrad are on commission).

The cost is $6130 Canadian which he wants us to loan him for this procedure.

He is totally confident in the hospital. The alternative is he comes back to Canada at the end of his holiday and IF his doctor thinks he needs this surgery, he gets on a 6-12 month wait list.

His only symptom is a slight loss of feeling in his 'pinky' finger, there is no muscle loss or appreciable strength loss yet.

What is the downside to having this done? Do they normally put you under for this procedure?

I am worried about 2 things:

1. Bumrungrad appears to have got caught harvesting organs from patients (there is a famous case of an american 23 year old who was allegedly killed for his organs). Being 74 years old, I cant imagine my dad's organs being of much use.

2. Infection. What are the odds of potentially lethal infection?

What are your thoughts? I don't think I can talk him out of this.