doogg

I just hope travelling patients can avoid going through the stressful and bad experience that i went through.

Hi Melvin, as stated in my post, I have received a much bigger partial refund after negotiation. I did not say I lost 10K. This is a warning to travelling patients that they can lose the whole surgery fee (10k++) if the clinic decides not to do the surgery, provided there is a clause in the contract that states the clinic can keep the invoiced full fee (mine has). My clinic could have easily decided to keep the money, point to the contract I signed and I would not be able to get a refund. Even if you receive a full refund, there is still hotel booking, air ticket, and time gone to waste, which a local consultation can help to mitigate (if a report of the donor density analysis from the local clinic is sent to the overseas clinic).

Sorry to hear that, that sounds like such a bad experience. I agree with you, but I am sure the clinic will argue that the they could have another patient booked in that day so we have caused them a loss in earning etc etc. I think the clinic can keep maybe the fees for booking the operating room ( if the clinic does not own it), but keeping any more of the payment is quite controversial. however I think ultimately in this industry the doctor has the ultimate power and say, and so it is up to us to protect ourselves by preparing as much as we can.

Yup I think the only thing i could have done that would 100% prevent this is to have an in person consultation and conduct the microscopic test before paying anything for the surgery. However I believe that for most patients flying overseas that is not possible. As such as long as in the clinic's contract they retain their right to not give refund if you are not a suitable candidate, you are exposed to risk by not having an in person consultation first before payment.

Out of curiosity, for those who have undergone hair transplant with renowned doctors, is there a similar clause in the contract about "full payment before surgery and no refund for unsuitable candidates"?

I agree with what you said on doctor's opinions. I guess the best option for overseas patients will be to send the report from the local consultation on donor quality etc for the clinic to assess?

I was made to sign a non disclosure form in order to receive the refund. As stated above, and to be fair to the clinic, the contract I received (before i paid the deposit) already stated that there will be no refund if I am not able to go through with the surgery due to the fact that I am not a suitable candidate. It just did not occur to me that it is not such a rare occurrence after all, to be an unsuitable candidate. The clinic has out of good will issued a partial refund. Also, this post is to warn others to do a local consultation before flying overseas for surgery, regardless of which doctor it is. I am not sure if all clinics have this non refund clause in the contract, Regardless, a consultation locally would definitely be helpful.

Hi all, want to share my personal experience as a warning to everyone who is planning to travel overseas for a HT. The summary warning is this: Please do a local consultation to check if you are a good candidate first before paying for your surgery and flying overseas. If not, you run the very real risk of only finding out you are not a good candidate for HT when you are there, wasting your trip and have all your expenses down the drain (with potentially no refund). I am a nw3, 31 years old. Been researching HT for a while now, and decided to book my surgery with a renowned doctor in another continent. Sent detailed photos, had phone and video conferences with the staff at the clinic, without any problem. Clinic was very encouraging. Flew across continents for my HT. Only on the day before HT, at consultation, was I told that I don't have good donor density and thus the doctor will not go through with the hair transplant. Not only that, the clinic was initially only will to make a small partial refund. This means a few thousand dollars down the drain, not to mention air tickets, hotel bookings and other expenses etc. After a lot of negotiating, the clinic agreed to give me a bigger partial refund. I've done quite a lot of research on this forum, and from what I've read before the HT, I got the impression that people finding out that they are unsuitable HT candidates the day before the surgery is quite a rare occurrence, and did not come across any advice that you should do a local consultation first to check your donor density. To be honest, though of course the HT clinics are not obliged to, I think it would be ethical for clinics to warn their overseas patient about this risk and advice them to do a local consultation first, to be sure they are suitable candidates before paying for the surgery. So to all who are planning to fly overseas for their surgery, do yourself a favour, pay a few hundred dollars and get a local clinic in your country to check your donor density, sending the report to your overseas clinic to confirm you are a good candidate, before paying for your surgery and flying over. You don't want to go through the stress, the disappointment and the money down the drain only after you flew thousand of miles to the clinic. I feel like this is not mentioned enough on this forum, especially when there are so many people who fly overseas to renowned surgeons for HTs. Hope this helps, and I hope this does not happen to anyone else!

Hey Moe They're both good! Bisanga's team contacted me via email, while Lupanzula's team contacted me via a phone call

Thank you @qui bono! unfortuantely because I am residing in Asia it is very difficult for me to get a in person consult with any of the doctors I want.. It seems like you are suggesting that FUT might be a better option for me, can I ask why that is so? Thank you!

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Hi @Melvin-Moderator, out of curiosity who would you say are in the champion league quality and who are in the europa league quality? thank you!

Thanks Melvin for the advice, I will do that!

Hi @Melvin-Moderator sorry for the double message, in addition to this, I was wondering what are your thoughts on the Dr Laorwong/ Dr path compared with Dr Bisanga? It seems like the thai doctors have a lot less patient reviews here, so would be interested to hear your thoughts. Thank you!

Thank you curious! Just to be clear, I am a Chinese from South East Asia haha.