Best and worst foreign countries to get sick in...

[recycled sixtie]

I would be interested in your experiences and what you have learned from being sick in foreign countries. Motion and others who do extensive foreign travel are encouraged to chime in.

Which countries have you been sick enough in to justify seeing a doctor or go to emergency dept.?

Did your travel health insurance cover it? Any hassle from your ins. co paying up?
Was the level of care adequate?

To be perfectly honest the US is the one country I least want to get sick in due to the cost of seeing a doc or going to emergency. The quality of care is no doubt excellent.

Cheers, Guy

[vash]

i was in Thailand.

girl we were with got really sick. flu-like, with a very wet violent cough. sucked for her. wife and i convinced her to go see a doctor. we found one, and just sat down. they looked her over, prescribed some meds and sent us on our way. she had an infection or something.

i honestly dont remember her paying for anything. maybe the meds from the pharmacy down the street. she was better a few days later..just in time to cross to border into cambodia. by motorized canoe.

the doctor's office was tiny. dimly lit..very third world.

at the pharmacy..i bought a tube of ointment for some vicious bug bites i got while on the beach. my ankles were raw and bleeding. a few bucks for some non FDA, crazy strength mystery ointment and i was golden. i still have a half tube that i brought back.

[JavaBrewer]

1983 my high school friend and I decided to backpack through Europe. We started the trip with a planned week visit to England and stayed with friends of my Dad. On the plane there my leg started to throb at the spot where I had (for years) a cyst nodule the size of a dime. Three or 4 days later my leg was swelling, turning yellow, and smelled rotten. I had emergency surgery to clean and pack the gaping hole in left in my leg. A couple additional visits to clean and repack and they sent me off with a bag full of dressing and antibiotics. Did not cost me a penny.

[Nostril Cheese]

From personal experience, Costa Rica has surprisingly good medical care.

[recycled sixtie]

Originally Posted by JavaBrewer

1983 my high school friend and I decided to backpack through Europe. We started the trip with a planned week visit to England and stayed with friends of my Dad. On the plane there my leg started to throb at the spot where I had (for years) a cyst nodule the size of a dime. Three or 4 days later my leg was swelling, turning yellow, and smelled rotten. I had emergency surgery to clean and pack the gaping hole in left in my leg. A couple additional visits to clean and repack and they sent me off with a bag full of dressing and antibiotics. Did not cost me a penny.

You were very fortunate that it was not a worse outcome. And yes I used to go over to the UK and get my teeth fixed for free(I was borne there) but I don't know if that is the case now.

In the 1960's I fell down a concrete dyke in Holland and scraped my arm. It got infected and I paid quite a bit to get it treated by a doctor. Most recent was in Ireland and got an ambulance to the Emergency Dept. of a local hospital. Only charged the equivalent of about $150 US for admission and spent 6 hours in emerge....

[Moses]

Most developed countries do a great job with routine stuff; trauma, broken bones, appendicitis, etc. I worked in the NHS in London for a year. Great care for routine stuff, but DO NOT get an expensive illness.

Take a look at any cutting edge, expensive, life saving technology. Bone marrow transplant for example. How many done in Canada per capita? The UK? Sweden? New Guinea? It's a pretty sensitive measure of care, IMO. I'm not worried about a broken bone in any part of the civilized world.

[David]

I fell down some stairs in Japan about 10 years ago. Had X-rays taken to tell me I broke one of the the little rib lets in my back. I think it was a little over a hundred dollars.

[dewolf]

Was in Hong Kong two and a bit years ago and had a nasty A-Fib attack the day after arriving. Hotel got me a taxi to hospital because the driver would get me there quicker than an ambulance. Had an EKG, x-ray and given meds to calm it down. Cost AU$150.00. Oh, and everybody at the hospital spoke and wrote perfect English.

[HardDrive]

I got sick in Cuba, and was surprised at the excellent care. Very professional doctors, drugs and treatment were very effective. This was 1995-ish.

[URY914]

We were in the Cayman Islands and there was a traffic accident outside our condo. It took about 45 minutes for first aid to show up. They were driving a over twenty year old former US firetruck. They looked like the three stooges in slow motion.

[vash]

ITALY!!

my aunt fell and broke her knee or something..she had to stay in the hospital. in italy, they offer great care to your sickness or injury..but all the extra stuff like FOOD is on you and your family. so if you get jacked up in Italy, dont do it solo. you need someone to handle your stuff like food.

my aunt had to hire someone. good thing she is rich as the almighty and even got a private ambulance plane to bring her home..

she wants me to go with her to re-do that trip..but that would mean i need to travel with her..no thank you..i'd rather scale back on my choice of hotels.

[jcommin]

Originally Posted by URY914

We were in the Cayman Islands and there was a traffic accident outside our condo. It took about 45 minutes for first aid to show up. They were driving a over twenty year old former US firetruck. They looked like the three stooges in slow motion.

Son got sick in the Bahamas - about the same experience, not very good.

[Scott R]

Stepped on a scorpion in Mexico, Dr. came to me and gave me a shot and some pills, paid him some cash and he left.

When I was in school in Bournemouth I needed a CAT scan, local Dr. told me to fly back to NYC to avoid the wait.

[patssle]

I got a pretty bad respiratory infection my 3rd day in Norway. 2 doctor visits and 2 different prescriptions later I was out less than $50 without ever using my insurance that they never asked for.

A wonderful country and an example of what a 21st century modern progressive country should be.

[Evans, Marv]

When my former wife & I were traveling in Europe in the mid '70's. she developed a fever and abdominal pains. We went to two Spanish doctors, on of which gave her crushed charcoal to take for a few days. As she was getting worse I told her we needed to fly back to England thinking we'd fly back to Boston from there. Took her to a hospital outside of London, because she was feeling really bad. They diagnosed a bad abdominal infection so was admitted immediately. She ended up having to be operated on and stayed in the hospital for three weeks. At that time I didn't pay attention to the fact they had socialized medicine and tried to find out how/who/where to pay for it and wondered why everybody seemed puzzled. Didn't cost anything & the care was really good.

[Tishabet]

I had a helicopter ride and a short hospital stay in Switzerland, excellent care but not an experience I would wish to repeat.

My wife spent all of her first pregnancy from conception (thank you very much) up to week 33 in Malaysia before we moved back to the US, prenatal standard of care there was great... more tests standard than US, way more ultrasounds than US, frequency of visits more than US... really quite good.

[jyl]

Traveling with six month old daughter in Italy. She had a 105 F fever. Took her to ER. Treated, they handed me a slip of paper, I took it to a machine, stuck it in, paid about $25.

Another time she was sick in Spain. We asked some ambulance drivers where the hospital was. They said to get in, drive us to the hospital, no charge. She was treated, I forget if it cost anything but it wasn't more than $20.

She didn't need any significant procedure or tests or drugs, either time. We were just worried parents.

At neither hospital did the doctors speak English. But I speak French and it turned out that the Spanish and Italian doctors did too, after a fashion. Not sure why. I asked, and they said something about working with Medecins Sans Frontiers (Doctors Without Borders, French aid group).

[dewolf]

Doctors Without Borders, fantastic organization and people.

[MBAtarga]

On a trip to the Virgin Islands (St. Croix) my wife and I rented a scooter for a day. The owner of the shop (American that had relocated there after a vacation visit) told us IF we were in an accident, go to the hospital and get pain meds - and the first flight out to a hospital in the continental US. (Non-life threatening injuries of course.)

[911SauCy]

Spent a week in Turks and Caicos last year.

Nobody got sick but in conversation this subject arose. The locals offered advice of driving yourself to the Hospital...as the average ambulance wait is 2-4hours? Nuts