Pensioner chooses India for knee surgery

14-Feb-2008

An 80-year-old knee replacement patient has revealed how he decided to seek treatment abroad after he lost a leg in a previous operation on the NHS.

Ken Austin admitted that the operation had been a complicated procedure, but said he simply could not face having his other knee operated on in the UK.

Instead, he took advice from a friend and took a 10,000 mile round trip to Chennai for medical tourism in India, where he was able to avoid a waiting time for treatment and was successfully treated for just £5,000.

Mr Austin told the Daily Mail: "I'd heard of people going to India for surgery so I started asking around and found out a friend, who lives in Greece, had been to India for surgery without the wait of the NHS and the cost of going private.

"He said he had such a great experience that I decided that is what I would do."

India has become particularly popular with overseas patients as a result of its modern clinics equipped with state-of-the-art technology and staffed by highly skilled doctors.

The former foster carer was treated by a UK-trained consultant orthopaedic surgeon and said he is "delighted" with the result.

"I am completely fine now and on my way home did a detour and visited my friend in Greece to show off my new knee. I'm off to Cuba too this year," the pensioner added.