Valley company to offer transplant tours to Mexico

TEMPE, AZ - A Tempe-based company, already leading trips to Mexico for surgeries such as hip replacement and gastric bypass, plans to add transplants as an option for patients.

MedToGo International has offered medical tourism trips to Mexico since 2001 and recently began coordinating with Mexican hospitals to bring patients there for kidney and bone marrow transplants.

"We'rw working with only the highest credentialed doctors (in Mexico)," said Dr. Curtis Page, one of the founders of MedToGo International.  "Doctors trained in the U.S. at some of the best transplant facilities in the country."

Typically, medical care in Mexico costs 80 percent less than here in the United States, according to Dr. Page.

"I would highly recommend it," said MedToGo patient Joe Romero who had his ACL surgically repaired in Mecixo.  "I can honestly say I'd do it again."

The addition of transplants to the services MedToGo provides comes after the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System stopped paying for several types of transplants.

As a result, two patients, including 37-year-old Mark Price, were denied transplants and later died

MedToGo plans to begin offering transplant tours to Mexico in approximately three months.