At the end of 2022 I started passing blood. A colonoscopy found a 3-centimeter adenoma in the sigmoid colon — pathology showed high-grade dysplasia. In plain language: pre-cancerous, requiring surgical removal before it becomes malignant. The gastrointestinal surgeon in France said a segment of colon had to be resected, but the wait was six to seven months. I told him, "This lesion could turn malignant any day — seven months is too long." He shrugged. "That is the fastest we have, unless you go private — roughly €25,000."
I run a small restaurant in Paris. €25,000 was doable but represented nearly a year's profit from the restaurant. I started searching for options outside Europe. A French friend who had worked in Shanghai told me that large Chinese cities had dedicated international departments at top public hospitals, welcoming foreign patients at a fraction of European private prices. He recommended MyMedVia. I filled the consultation form (English available) and received a reply quickly. They forwarded my colonoscopy report and pathology slides to the chief of gastrointestinal surgery at a Shanghai Class III-A hospital, who confirmed the case was suitable.
Flew to Shanghai. Met the surgeon the same afternoon — a department head with over 2,000 laparoscopic colorectal procedures. He explained the surgical plan in fluent English. Admitted day two for pre-op screening, surgery day three — laparoscopic segmental colectomy with primary anastomosis. By day two post-op I was on liquids; by day four, after passing gas, soft diet. Seven days in hospital, sutures out, then ten more days at a hotel near the hospital for one follow-up visit confirming good anastomotic healing. Day eighteen, flew back to Paris.
A year and a half post-op now. I get a colonoscopy check every six months — everything normal. The critical window for this condition was not wasted waiting. The whole trip cost under €13,000 including flights and accommodation — nearly half what a French private hospital would charge. But the money is not the point — that adenoma did not get an extra seven months to grow inside my colon. The surgeon later told me if I had waited another half-year, it would likely have already become cancer. Sometimes I think about that French doctor's shrug, and how it nearly changed my entire fate. I am so glad I did not accept "the fastest we have."
Medical advisor reply within 24 hours · Free consultation