Korean Job Discussion Forums

[sokocanuck21]

Of course I know that Korea is likely not an optimal place to have someone cut you open, but I'm wondering if anyone has had it done here. I don't mean plastic surgery, I mean like knee or ankle surgery.

Like is it ok? How much does it usually cost (ballparked of course)?

Would a public school typically give you leave to go home and get it done?

Are there ways insurance won't cover you? (Ie. if you got hurt playing sports, car accident, etc)

thanks.

[youtuber]

I had surgery. Only because I had to wait much too long in Canada to get it.

I wouldn't recommend having surgery in Korea.

Side-effects are common, the food is different, the hospitals are different, ect ect. It is not a good place to recover. And hobbling around without a car is tough too.

The cost varies of course. For two knee surgeries, I paid about $8000US. The costs can quickly escalate. My doc even tried to change the price on me after we had agreed on a price.

Don't count on your school giving you an extended sick leave. You are here to teach, and every day you are not teaching, they are losing money (ie paying a sub). I had complications, and had to go back home as a result.

You should sort out the cost before the surgery. Find the exact cost to the penny. Your NHI insurance will cover some of the cost, but you may still have to pay thousands out of your own pocket, depending on the surgery and any complications.

In short, don't have surgery in Korea, if you can avoid it. But don't avoid it to the detriment of your health.

If I had to do it all over, I would have waited in Canada.

[CentralCali]

I had surgery last year for a severely broken foot. The doctor and nurses did a superb job for the month (well, 3 1/2 weeks) I was in the hospital and also for the follow-up. And my school didn't mess with my pay--I'm with the public school system.

[crescent]

I have no personal experience but a friend had surgery here, and I sat with him in the emergency room, as well slept in the room after the surgery.

Yeungnam University Hospital. it was a parade of horrors, that emergency room. My friend had an auto accident. He had a broken jaw and 4 fractures in his vertibrae.

While waiting for surgery (14 hours), I saw doctors treating a head wound while letting blood and solution ooze into a regular, half full, big black garbage bag, housed precariously in a dirty industrial garbage bin. The bag was too big for the bin, and it eventually fell over. Red liquid spilled over the floor, which was then tracked around the emergency room by other family members attending to their own situations.
3 people almost hit the deck. One was an ajuma wheeling an huge pressurized Oxygen canister, following behind her husband who was being pushed by two other family members who seemed determined to smack every other bed in the room. It was at least an hour before someone came around with a mop.
People were going to the supply shelves and just helping themselves to gauze, bandages, and bottles of liquid i assume were disinfectant.

When the emergency doctor attempted to reposition my friend who was writhing down the bed in pain, the doctor thought nothing of pulling him back up by the head. Hello, broken neck.

3 failed MRIs later, they started prepping him for surgery. That's when i started noticing the dried blood on the walls, and the lower parts of the beds.
There were no attendants to help my friend take a leak, or empty his bed pan. I and others in the same position had to trek through the emergency room with full bed pans and dump them in the public washroom.

When it was over, the bill came to 11,000,000won.


The second experiences comes from a girlfriend who was an ICU nurse at a small hospital. She was so upset with the Korean system, that she was studying every chance she got to get her papers to work in America, Canada, Oz, anywhere with a decent medical system.
She told me the worst thing she ever had to work through was one evening when a patient went into cardiac arrest and the 2 on staff doctors had quietly left the hospital.
They weren't answering their cells, and the next on call doctor wouldn't either. She went through 1 more doctor before succeeding in getting help.
The patient died. The doctors were not sued, nor were they even QUESTIONED.
Business as usual. End of story.

[sokocanuck21]

Done and done. waiting it is.
Thanks for the advice.

[youtuber]

^Yup, for elective surgery, home is best.

[ThingsComeAround]

Holy crap
I wanted to have surgery for a deviated septum (nasal blockage).
Reading this is now making me think twice!
The doctor recommended Yonsei for the surgery. Seemed too big, and the doctor was an @$$. I don't care if he did speak English. Be polite, damnit!

Anyway, the Head teacher recommended I use a local hospital in Ilsan. Close, smaller, but much dirtier. i'll have to research how much this procedure costs home and consider the risks..

[Mithrae]

Never had surgery done here, but I was in hospital for a week once here. The nurses were fine, but (in good Korean style) the doctors are puffed up on their authority. But the worst thing was all of the other patients in the room, snorting, hacking, slurping up their food, talking loudly on their cell phones. It gets worse. As Korean hospitals provide only minimal services for patients, their families basically camp out at their bedside. All of them talking loudly, hacking, bumping into your bed, etc. So your room will likely resemble a noisy camp ground. Not a good atmosphere for recuperating. I eventually switched to a semi-private room (not covered by insurance) with only one ajoshi as a roommate. Even this was unbearable given his lack of basic manners.

I had no problem with the service I received, but being surrounded by noisy, inconsiderate Koreans when you're sick (and not able to escape) is not a recipe for a rapid recovery.

[runthegauntlet]

[Mr. Pink]

In Canada you get what you pay for. All you people knocking Korea, have you had surgery in Canada? I have and it was a nightmare. The doctor was old and the only one for that hospital. How he stayed a doctor for so long, I have no idea. He didn't do the job as he was supposed to, as I still have the same problem. The nurses at the hospital were also incompetent. They messed up giving me shots and IVs. The sad part was I wasn't at a university or teaching hospital. These were people who were supposed to be "professionals".

I am sure there are some really crappy places in Korea, but there are also really good ones.

[crossmr]

I was about to enter a long waiting list in Canada for ankle surgery. A couple years ago the cartilage started going in it. I get random pain attacks when walking. Most times its fine, but out of the blue its like someone jabbed a knife in it. They can be so sudden and painful that it has almost knocked me down a few times. I almost fell down the stairs once. Other times I can be pain free for a few weeks. A few months before I left canada and after 2 years of tests the ankle specialist told me it wasn't inconveniencing him enough to operate.

I'm just waiting for a good time and I'll likely have it done here on my own schedule.

[riverboy]

My son was born with a condition known as hypospadias. It required a very delicate surgery in a very delicate area. So we took him to Severense Hospital. The doctor there is a pioneer in the field. The proceedure he developed is the first of its kind anywhere.

Hypospadias usually takes several operations to correct, but he did it with one operation, no complication -other than a long wait for the little fella to come out of general anesthesia.

[Chaucer]

To explain the above, perhaps, it depends a lot on the hospital--go to an SNU hospital (there are at least two), Samsung Medical Center, or the new Konkuk hospital, and things are pretty good. Others, possibly the horror stories of above.

[red_devil]

[xCustomx]

I had hernia surgery this year and it everything was great. I was quoted 1.5 million won for the surgery and a 4 day stay in the hospital. During the surgery the doctor found a second hernia and repaired it, at no additional charge

I had to spend 4 days in the hospital, but since I had my laptop with me, it wasn't too bad.

The same surgery at Severence or Samsung Hospital in Seoul was close to 3 million won, and I would have had to wait a few weeks to get the surgery done. If I had gone to America and had the procedure done, I would have paid close to $20,000 since I don't have insurance.