Bookimed: excellent. Dr. Yonus Yaseen: Excellent.
Medicana International Patient Team: Excellent. Medicana Hospital: Clean, professional and beautiful. Doctor/ operating surgeon: Experienced. Surgical Outcomes: Poor. Before considering international medical care please ask yourself are you able to follow up in case of treatment or surgical complications or poor outcomes?? I am a board certified family physician of 22 years. Unfortunately, due to several unavoidable personal and family circumstances as well as The Covid Pandemic, I was unable to practice medicine a few years. This was compounded by gradual loss of vision in both eyes to a point where I was unable to drive, read, work or perform simple activities of daily living. I had already launched my virtual medical practice; however, I was unable to clearly examine patients virtually nor transcribe efficiently. Unable to afford multi-thousand dollar corrective surgeries here in The USA, I looked into seeking medical care abroad. Bookimed had great reviews. I am the last person who does on-line shopping or any other type of consumerism. Desperate, I filled out a simple questionnaire re my complaint and the services I sought. I was simply curious to see what the reply might be and nothing else. To my utter surprise, within a matter of few hours, I received a reply from Bookimed via WhatsApp. I was contacted by Dr Yonus Yaseen, a practicing physician in UK and a Bookimed liaison. Within a matter of a couple of days I was matched with the appropriate hospital, surgeon and the hospital's team for international patient affairs. My family, friends and physician colleagues had numerous doubts regarding the legitimacy of this entire operation esp given the ease with which all my questions were answered by Dr Yonus and the efficiency with which the entire travel agenda was arranged from the minute I walked out of the Istanbul airport to the time I was ready to depart from the same airport 10 days later. Dr. Yonus Yaseen was extremely polite, kind and courteous over the phone. He was able to answer all my questions, Alleviate my concerns and return my calls and texts as often as I contacted him without any hesitancy or frustration. I was matched with The Medicana Hospital in Istanbul with Dr. Cem Mesci (ophthalmologist/ surgeon). I found my international patient contacts at The Medicana, Istanbul to be most professional and extremely knowledgeable. I was met with a driver at the airport, driven to my hotel, The Holiday Inn followed by daily pick ups and drop offs from & to the hotel and the hospital without any problems or difficulties. Duygu was my contact at The International Patient Center, Medicana. Her supervisor was Fehime Yusuf. Both were super intelligent delightful young ladies. I was assigned a young translator, Ahsen Acar. She was nothing but a super delightful, energetic, intelligent, extremely courteous young student working as a translator. Her proficiency over The English language was excellent. Within a matter of 5 days I had my Left followed by Right eye Cataract surgeries with minimal complications. My almost blind left eye recovered with normal vision and no complications within a matter of a couple of days. Unfortunately, my Right eye surgery was delayed. I waited almost an entire day in the hospital room before the surgery. it took place towards the end of the day, took longer time to operate and was accompanied with some discomfort (I normally have a high pain threshold). Upon removal of the patch a day later, I found my right eye vision to be blurry with a floating lens sensation, pain and pressure behind the eye ball and peripheral rainbow colored flashing lights. I extended my stay an a few days in order to follow up with the surgeon before I returned home to Chicago. I was reassured by the surgeon that the discomfort, flashing peripheral halos, the rainbow lights and the blurry vision will improve with time. I should continue with the eye drops. After a few months of seeing no improvement but actual worsening of vision I contacted The Int Patient Contact at The Medicana Hosp who placed me in touch with Dr. Cem Mesci. He was kind enough to communicate with me a couple of times via WhatsApp texts and once via a few minutes of FaceTime call. I expressed to him my concerns and inability to drive or see my patients due to the blurry right eye vision and the same flashy peripheral lights (R eye) along with 'floaters'. Although it had been 4 months since the surgery, Dr Mesci encouraged me to give it another couple of months for the neuroadaptation pathways to take effect and discouraged me from wearing prescription glasses. I was willing to wait having no other options. Unable to afford another trip back to Istanbul, i waited for my right eye vision to improve. Unfortunately, it has only worsened. I am unable to move forward freely due to this vision issue. I would say this would be the greatest, very troubling and most concerning issue if anyone is seeking medical care abroad.... would you be able to follow up for any complications you encounter? Would you be able to afford another trip back? Feeling vulnerable and helpless is not good; however, I am not sure what other options I have. These are the consequences of the choices I, myself, have made. At the time I had no other choice. I have contacted The Medicana International Patient team again with my concerns. Awaiting their reply. Outside this issue, The Bookimed platform itself is excellent. I was and still remain quite impressed with them; particularly, Dr, Yonus Yaseen. He made this entire process very comfortable and easy for me. Highly recommend Dr. Yonus and Bookimed team. thank you.
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