8 yrs ago there was the beginnings of a market for advocates who helped people thru the process, traveled with them, and served as the go-between for the patient and the hospital. It was not clear to me who paid for their services. The one I was familiar with had had the surgery done himself a few years prior.
The one instance of a serious problem I followed was a patient who had a lumber artificial disc implanted in Germany. On the flight back to the USA, things started going badly wrong. Either the disc moved or had not been located correctly on the vertabra. US doctors took a look at him and refused to try to correct the problem. He was faced with a flight back to Germany for corrective work. Last I knew he hadn't done it since his mistrust level was very high.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13