Helen Watson traveled from New Zealand to Turkey for a cheaper weight-loss operation. She is now recovering at home and says her attempts to get her money back have gone unanswered.
Her case, reported by RNZ, shows how a medical-travel decision can become two separate problems: finding treatment for complications and pursuing a complaint across borders.
A lower price, followed by further surgery
Watson had gastric sleeve surgery at a Medicana Health Group clinic in Istanbul in September 2025. RNZ reported that she paid about NZ$10,000 for treatment, flights and accommodation, compared with an estimated NZ$20,000 for private surgery at home.
She developed sepsis after returning to New Zealand and later underwent a six-hour corrective operation. Her New Zealand surgeon, Alexandra Gordon, told RNZ that Watson could not have prevented the gastric sleeve leak.
Medicana had previously denied that the operation went wrong and declined to comment for RNZ’s latest report. Watson says she has not received a refund.
“I’m doing the best I can,” she told RNZ.
The account does not establish a complication rate for Turkish surgery. It describes one patient’s experience and a dispute in which the provider has contested her account.
The price of pursuing a complaint
A refund request is different from a finding of negligence. It is also different from an agreement to pay for further treatment. Patients may need answers to all three questions, but a hospital’s response to one doesn’t settle the others.
For someone recovering in New Zealand, distance adds practical work: collecting records, explaining what happened to another medical team and finding out which complaints process applies.
New Zealand’s SafeTravel guidance advises checking both hospital and practitioner credentials, including their malpractice insurance. It says basic travel policies rarely cover medical tourism and recommends checking cover for the specific procedure, complications and medical evacuation.
Buying a policy is only useful if the planned treatment and relevant costs fall within its terms. A routine holiday policy should not be assumed to cover a trip arranged for surgery.
Aftercare needs a named provider
SafeTravel also urges patients to discuss overseas treatment with their health practitioner at home and account for extra accommodation and care if recovery takes longer than expected.
That planning needs to happen before a flight is booked. A written arrangement can identify the clinician responsible for follow-up, the records they will receive and how urgent concerns will be handled.
The CDC notes that surgery and air travel both increase blood-clot risk. A return ticket is therefore a clinical planning issue as well as a travel expense.
For hospitals and booking companies, Watson’s dispute raises a concrete service question: after the patient has gone home, who answers the complaint, and within what time? Hospitals can make that answer explicit in the treatment contract, with response deadlines and a route for escalating an unresolved complaint.