Treatment in Tijuana? Alberta patient tells her story

Imagine having terrible back pain.

Imagine that the pain was so bad that you received major back surgery from Canada’s health care system.

But the surgery doesn’t work.

You then spend 13 years of your life with pain and discomfort.

The pain means that you cannot sleep through the night or even walk your dogs. Your back problems now affect your entire life.

The government tells you there’s nothing they can do … “here’s more painkillers.”

Thankfully for Tracy Skinner, she eventually found a way out of this nightmare.

She travelled down to Tijuana, Mexico where she was able to receive surgery to address her back problems. The next day her pain was gone. A year later, her pain is still gone and she has largely gotten her life back.

Including her travel costs, Tracy spent approximately $30,000 on her back surgery.

She told SecondStreet.org, “it’s a lot of money to pay, but you can’t put a dollar on your health. It was my last option.”

Including two procedures that her husband Lance received in Mexico, the Skinners have spent tens of thousands of dollars on health care abroad.

As part of SecondStreet.org’s investigation into medical tourism, we sat down with the Skinners to learn more about their experience.