France Surgery

so what is France Surgery.
It seems to be the organisation which organises.
When you get on to the Medical Tourism site eventually you come across a list of countries from A to Z with a list of the medical procedures that they are prepared to do for foreigners. When I came to the country France there was a long list of procedures which included Total Knee Replacement. Regardless of the procedure you were interested in, you are instructed to get a hold of France Surgery, by email.

Almost within a day I received back a detailed response as to what would be required for one of their surgeons to replace my knee.  I wrote to say I was interested and so had to prepare and send to them a series of responses to their questions.

Among the information required by them was the copy of the MRI.  These days you get a CD of the MRI results, these are for you to keep.  The MRI  is a large file , almost like a series of thin sections of your knee, just sending the prepared report by the Radiologist , is not enough.  With the help of a friend I prepared my own website which was password protected so that the  french surgeons  could
read the MRI themselves.  I also had to send them the file of the X-ray.

The France Surgery, headed by a lady called Carine Hilaire, then forwarded this information along with the filled in questionnaire to a Clinique near the Pyrenees.  I did not want to be so far away from my daughter who lives in France but near Geneva Switzerland.   The information was then sent to a Clinique de Sauvegarde in Lyon , which is about 100 minutes away.   The medical personnel who reviewed the information agreed that a TKR was necessary.

On the internet one can almost research anything.  So the doctors were researched, the Clinique, its reputation, personal accounts by patients all were read by myself and my daughter.  There was an interesting newspaper article in french about the organisation France Surgery, which seems to headquarter itself in Toulouse.  

I telephoned the office and spoke to Carine, who spoke extremely clear english.  It was reassuring to hear her voice on the phone.  My daughter also rang to speak to her.  After all this we felt comfortable proceeding.


France Surgery provided me with the complete dossier of the physicians who would be responsible for the procedure.  including the dossier of anaethetists.  The fee includes besides  the surgery, all drugs, X-rays, and daily rehab, private room, english speaking nurses and doctors and much more .  They then will send to my daughters house a physiotherapist  to continue the rehabilitation.  I shall be six days in hospital.

What if it goes wrong, said my daughter.  

So I wrote to  France Surgery putting this very question.  The reply:  the surgeon is at the disposal of my own GP for at least a year.   The surgeon will give the best advice possible BUT If the worse comes to the worse they will redo the procedure with no charge to myself.   Heaven forfend such a thing will be necessary.

Eventually 4 dates were forwarded to me as possibilities for the procedure.    I chose the one most convenient to myself, November 18th 2013.  

The time as come to pay.  My daughter forwarded the first down payment as I had some credit with her. Then the bulk of the payment was needed… a sudden sinking of heart.. what if all this was a scam???? There are so many clever ways designed to relieve you of your hard earned cash… so last mite frantic phone call to daughter.. and we decided.. no this is definitely legitimate.

One can pay by Pay Pal  or bank transfer.  Unfortunately the euro has strengthened since the end of the summer so the price has gone up, but roughly , depending on the exchange,  it came to about 15,000 canadian dollars.   This price was slightly less than the round figure France Surgery had originally sent me, and reflected the price required from Clinique de Sauvegarde.