Surgeries
abroad are an explosive subject for many plastic surgeons in Germany. Cheap
competition from Eastern Europe is a threat, especially coming from the new
EU-states. The German public receives information that the adventures abroad
result much more frequently in serious complications. The colleagues abroad
have not yet achieved the same level of perfection in aesthetic surgery,
there is no legal protection (third party insurance) for physicians, and
finally there is the language problem.
The „Deutsche
Ärzteblatt“ (German doctors‘ paper) reported on a woman from Russia who went
for cosmetic surgery in Munich. The operation was fatal for the patient.
According to investigations, the tragic end was caused by the anaesthetist.
The surgeon spoke Russian and was able to talk to the patient, the
anaesthetist was not.
Preceeding
the operation, the Russian patient had signed a contract of agreement which
was written in German. There should have been a translator because she did
not speak German but there was not. The patient signed the contract without
understanding it – she must have truly trusted the quality of German medical
care.
The
anaesthetist received a suspended sentence by the local court. She had to
pay a fee of 1000 Euro for having failed to inform the patient. Even if we
live in a medical high-tech state, we must warn our patients about language
problems that can even occur within the German borders. We should not
forget: everybody is a foreigner – almost everywhere in the world.
