On our recent trip to Provo, my wife was walking along the Grace Bay when she felt a pain in her stomach. Knew right away it was her appendix, since she had the same thing in April before our trip to St. Martin. Doctor in the first instance treated her with antibiotics as it is done in Europe. This time I took her to the Medical Center who in turn told me to go to the hospital. Doctor Burgess operated and removed the appendix on her birthday. Nurses sang Happy Birthday to her before she went into the operating room. Not a pleasant vacation since she missed half of it with 3 days in the hospital and a few more in our room at Ocean Club. The hospital staff were great! Loved to talk with them about where they came from and about family histories. Very friendly! The rooms are large in the General Ward, but they don't have TV and don't supply you with anything such as wash cloth, towel, soap, shampoo, etc. I was expected to bring then in to her. Luckily we purchased travel insurance before we left for the island. Just thought I should let you know that the island does have good medical facilities and we trusted all the medical staff we encountered. My wife no longer has her appendix or her gall bladder, both having been removed in the past half year. Not to many more organs that will give her trouble on our next trip to SXM.

Huh. So sorry that happened. I guess she should have just had it removed in SXM??? Glad she is ok though.

Carol,
you be crazy to have surgery in SXM if you don't have to.

Irina---the lady had a very serious episode while on SXM, Not saying SXM is the place for a voluntary surgery, for sure.

Carol,
This is a thread about Turks and Caicos right?
She went to a Dr. in Provo.
That's how I'm reading this.........

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Agreed, this is a thread about T & C. But this same lady had an incident with her appendix while in SXM this year. At that time, the doctor decided not to remove it. I was just commenting that perhaps they should have gone ahead and removed it then, to save her this additional pain and inconvenience.

Carol, Actually, my wife had appendicitis three days before we left for SXM this past April. She had her gall bladder removed a few months before that and the doctor was positive he could treat the appendicitis with antibiotics since her white blood cell count was almost normal after a night of antibiotics in the hospital in Lancaster, PA. He was worried that two operations would be risky as far as blood clots in flight are concerned, so he opted to treat her with the medicine. Told her that he has treated it with medicine for many years and has only had a few who had to ever have the appendix removed at a later date. She opted for the medicine and was fine during our 3 weeks in SXM in April-May. Little did she know that she would be one of those few! Sorry if I mislead you in my first post. Wasn't my intent. I just finished a three-part story about her ordeal in Turks and Caicos on my blog which you can reach in link below.

Sorry, no, you are fine, just sorry that your wife had to deal with all these issues...

Hey,
I had to fly back to States to have my gallbladder taken out.
I went to that French Radiologist in Bellevue and he told me he went to Paris to get his taken out!
Cheers
irina

I don't think there is any comparison with the quality of care in the USA compared to the Caribbean Islands. That said, the hospitals and surgeon there should be able to deal with uncomplicated appendicitis and cholecystectomy. But if I had appendicitis a few days before a rip, I would have it out surgically in the USA and then decide about the trip.

Deepcut (surgeon)