Tweet
About a year ago, I published on the Internet, a copy of a letter that I had sent to the United States Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand regarding me being surgically scared and mutilated, as a medical tourist, by Dr. Kamol Pansritum, a plastic surgeon in Thailand, specializing in sex change surgery (See below letter too the United States Embassy). After I published this letter on the Internet, I was aggressively cyber stalked, my E-mail account was hacked into, I was sent threatening E-mails, and was scathingly attack on the Internet by Dr. Kamol's Internet marketing staff for the purpose of flaming me and/or to destroy my credibility. His attack on my credibility is quite ironic, and is a classic example of a wealthy and powerful villain attempting to turn the tables, for his selfish self interests, in making his weak and defenseless victim out to be the villain.
I will take this opportunity to put to rest, hopefully for all time, the issue of who is the victim and who is the villain, who is the Internet scam artist and who has used false and misleading advertising over the Internet to sell his questionable services. But, before I start, I would like to remind the reader of a very useful Latin phrase and piece of philosophy used for hundreds of years for getting at the truth: The term is "Que Bo no" which means who benefits by what is being claimed, or argued? In this case it is quite self evident.
The purpose of the letter I had sent to the American Embassy was clear and unmistakable. Its purpose was to notify American government officials of the harm done to me as an American citizen and as medical tourist while in Thailand. This letter was also to help make American government officials aware of the increased numbers of Americans traveling too Thailand as medical tourists, and the resulting risks to American citizens of devastating medical harm done by incompetent and unscrupulous medical doctors in Thailand.
This heightened risk of harm is not only a result of Thai doctors' medical malpractice and incompetence, but is a result of the lack of medical malpractice laws in Thailand to protect American medical tourists, and the profound corruption endemic within the country of Thailand. Transparency International ranks Thailand as one of the most corrupt countries on earth!
The final purpose of my letter too the American Embassy was to suggest that United States government officials take more action to protect its citizens traveling as medical tourists from medical malpractice and corruption in Thailand. Specifically, I suggested that these efforts should target Thai and other medical doctors that are marketing and advertising to prospective medical tourists risky and dangerous medical procedures on the unregulated Internet. Many of the claims of these Internet advertisements', including those from questionable doctors located in third world countries, speak for themselves. But, in the case of medical tourism, these false and misleading claims can quite easily be a matter of life and death.
But now I would like to focus on the facts of my case that quite easily point to the truth of the matter. I will start with the least condemning issues, and work my way too the more glaring and substantial factual issues that clearly demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the truth about the questionable business and medical practices of Dr. Kamol Pansritum.
#1) Just by a brief and simple review of what has been written in my letter too the United States Embassy and the inconsistencies in the claims of what the doctor's Internet Marketing staff has written in response, clearly casts a shadow of doubt on the doctor's claims and intentions. The glaringly obvious inconsistencies in his false statements and written public attacks on me over the Internet, in response to me publishing a copy of my letter to the American Embassy is self evident.
#2) A related and equally condemning issue regarding the creditability of the doctor is his violation of internationally recognized patient/doctor confidentially issues while attempting to flame me on the Internet. His Internet Marketing staff has not only published information on the Internet regarding my private medical file in the doctor's office, but also has published information about my private life that was not provided to the doctor, and was completely not relevant to my medical relationship with his office. This information could only have been obtained through a deliberate effort in seeking it after the fact, which clearly points to the issue of cyber stalking.
#3) In a related issue; Dr. Kamol's office sending me harrasing E-mails.Contained in one of these was a claim that he had changed the name of his medical practice in his Internet advertisements. I recieved this E-mail soon after I published my letter of complaint on the Internet. So, at the first sign of trouble, Dr. Kamol's Internet Marketing staff had informed me that the doctor had changed the name of his medical practice, appearently to run and hide from the truth. I have no way of verifying the veracity of this claim in his E-mail too me.
#4) Dr. Kamol Pansritum and/or his Internet marketing staff making false and misleading claims about his association with the only American accredited hospital in Thailand Bumrungrad Hospital. (Please see below a copy of the doctor's Internet advertisement from his web page). His web page advertisement clearly and unambiguously falsely claims his association with Bumrungrad Hospital of Bangkok, the only American accredited hospital in Thailand. This association is really played up on the doctor's web page.
#5) Finally, a quite intriguing issue that speaks of the corrupt nature of Thailand in general and to the questionable professional loyalties of Dr. Kamol Pansritum. The issue can be most effectively highlighted by the blatant inconsistencies between the very name of the doctor's medical practice MtF ( Male to Female) Aesthetic Surgery Center and the doctor's and his medical staff's association with what is know in Thailand as "Police Medicine." (Please see below copy of the doctor's web page in regards to his medical associates and himself, and their qualifications). In the doctor's web page he is advertising as a sex change doctor and his and his medical staff's association with "Police Medicine and law enforcement. The reader may not truly understand the blatant contradiction of a sex change doctor publicly claiming such a strong association with "Police Medicine and law enforcement unless you are familiar with the highly charged antagonistic relationship that exists between transsexuals and police in Thailand and around the world. If you are a transsexual seeking a sex change, you would never knowingly seek it from a doctor and/or medical practice with any associated with police medicine, or law enforcement!
The above is only a few of many issues not mentioned about my nightmare experience that this doctor has caused to my life. Much of the damage done to me by this doctor is irreversible, and I will be forced to spend the rest of my life scared and disfigured from his surgeries to me. Given, the nature and magnitude of the harm done to me, the doctor's callus and insensitive response immediately following my surgery and his later statements regarding me on the Internet are inconceivable and speak to the truth of this matter. Why does a medical doctor need a full time Internet marketing staff anyways? But, you can certainly see the results. Just type his name on the Internet, he is all over the web!
Supporting Documents:
#1)
To the American Embassy, U.S. Citizen's Services:
As an individual, my circumstances, and/or opinion may not be of any significance. But, I feel compelled to help guard my fellow Americans from the harmful experiences I was forced to endure as a medical tourist to Thailand from the United States.
Over a year ago, I dropped by the United States Embassy in Bangkok, to pick up a copy of the list of Attorneys that it compiles for Americans in Thailand seeking legal assistance. My reasons for doing so, had to do with me attempting to file a medical malpractice complaint against a Thai plastic surgeon that had badly scarred, mutilated, and disfigured my face. Please see the following brief description of this experience:
As an American, I have been scared, mutilated, and disfigured by offshore plastic surgery in Thailand. I traveled to Thailand for plastic-reconstructive surgery because it was too expensive in the United States, and American insurance companies would not cover the cost of the procedure because they viewed it as an elective surgery. Before going to Thailand, I did months of research on Thai doctors and hospitals in my price range, and thought I had made the right decision until after the surgery, when my doctor (Dr. Kamol Panritum of the Aesthetic Surgery Center) took off the bandages from my face.
Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of my Thailand nightmare. After the doctor refused to refund my money, or pay to have the damage he had done to my face fixed by another doctor, or do the surgery over again himself; I attempted to report the doctor to government and professional medical associations to no avail. I was completely ignored by the Medical Council of Thailand, the Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand, and the Medical Association of Thailand. I wrote a formal complaint to the hospital (Piyavate Hospital of Bangkok) where the surgery was performed, and it was ignored. The doctor had falsely claimed in his Internet advertising to be associated with Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, the only American accredited hospital in Thailand.
Even the attorney I attempted to hire, just gave me a run around for several weeks promising to take action against the doctor and never doing so. He initially was very eager to take my case, but shortly after doing so, he not only lost interest in the case, but became an apologist for the doctor. This appeared to have everything to do with me being a foreigner, attempting to take legal action against a wealthy and influential Thai plastic surgeon.
I later discovered that there are extremely few successful medical malpractice cases against medical doctors in Thailand that result in a cash award. Currently, there are only about 60 outstanding medical malpractice case on file with the Medical Council of Thailand for the entire country, and this number of cases is being pointed to by Thai Medical Council authorities as being unacceptably large.
It appears that if something goes wrong with a medical procedure in Thailand, and your are a foreigner, you have few, if any options of redress, and are completely at the mercy of the doctor. Thai attorneys will gladly take your case; and certainly your money, but what is uncertain, is if they will do anything more than take your money. These attorneys certainly must be aware of how few of these cases ever succeed, but there are many attorneys in Thailand that claim they do medical malpractice work.
Medical tourism is rapidly becoming more popular in America, and more Americans are traveling to Thailand to seek potentially dangerous, and risky medical procedures. I, as an American medical tourist to Thailand, am one of many Americans that have chosen this option, and the numbers are growing very rapidly. It seems to me, that the American Embassy should take a more proactive posture, in guarding, protecting, and informing its people of the very real dangers in seeking complicated medical procedure in Thailand, and of the truth about the practical limits to legal redress, if something goes wrong.
If the United States Embassy can publish alerts, warnings, and advice on teaching English in Thailand on its website, it certainly could do a better job addressing the dangers of Medical Tourism in Thailand. Further, the Thai government should be made aware of the increase concern that the United States government has about the exposure of its citizens to the dangers and limitations of Thai medical practice, and the limits of the legal system in Thailand to redress issues of medical malpractice. Americans are being harmed at ever increasing numbers.
If you have any information concerning private and government organizations in Thailand that I should contact in my attempt to hold this doctor accountable for the damage he has done to my face and life, I would much appreciate it. Please respond to this E-mail as soon as possible, by writing me at: @yahoo.com. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Heather
#2)
The need for a website that rates & tracks the quality of sex change doctors.
Sex change doctors that advertise on the world wide web, should be held accountable for their claims, and for the quality of care they provide their web clientele, by the existence of a consumer protection type of website, strictly devoted to rating these doctors.
Many of these doctors, practice medicine in under developed, third world countries where there are no real consumer protection, or medical malpractice laws to protect, particularly, international medical patients, from harm done by medical malpractice, or false and misleading advertisements. This does not speak to the issues of the endemic corruption problems within the health care profession in many of these countries such as Thailand.
Further, many of these plastic surgeons are practicing medicine in countries where the state of medical care, and particularly cosmetic surgery is very poor. For example, plastic surgery is rapidly becoming very popular in China, but 60% of all cosmetic surgery performed in this country, is an attempt to repair damage done from past surgeries.
We, as trans gender people, are extremely vulnerable to these less than reputable international-Internet plastic surgeons, not just because of the lack of laws, or the lack of integrity of these laws to extend equal protection to trans gender people, but because the emotional desperation and sense of urgency trans gender people feel to undergo a surgical sex change procedure, as soon as possible. We are frequently compelled to grasp at the first, and cheapest option available. This is an issue of emotional desperation for most of us! We are forced by society to feel this way.
Even in the best of legal circumstances, given the pervasive, and pandemic prejudice, and discrimination, trans gender people face, we can not expect local government authorities in the third world, or even the first world, to do the right thing, and treat us fairly by extending to us the same legal protections they extend to all others.
We must empower ourselves!!!!! We must protect our selves! We must speak out! There must be transparency in regards to the quality of medical care these Internet doctors are providing! There must be a website that rates, and tracks these doctors! This can be a matter of life and death!
Sincerely yours,
Heather
I will take this opportunity to put to rest, hopefully for all time, the issue of who is the victim and who is the villain, who is the Internet scam artist and who has used false and misleading advertising over the Internet to sell his questionable services. But, before I start, I would like to remind the reader of a very useful Latin phrase and piece of philosophy used for hundreds of years for getting at the truth: The term is "Que Bo no" which means who benefits by what is being claimed, or argued? In this case it is quite self evident.
The purpose of the letter I had sent to the American Embassy was clear and unmistakable. Its purpose was to notify American government officials of the harm done to me as an American citizen and as medical tourist while in Thailand. This letter was also to help make American government officials aware of the increased numbers of Americans traveling too Thailand as medical tourists, and the resulting risks to American citizens of devastating medical harm done by incompetent and unscrupulous medical doctors in Thailand.
This heightened risk of harm is not only a result of Thai doctors' medical malpractice and incompetence, but is a result of the lack of medical malpractice laws in Thailand to protect American medical tourists, and the profound corruption endemic within the country of Thailand. Transparency International ranks Thailand as one of the most corrupt countries on earth!
The final purpose of my letter too the American Embassy was to suggest that United States government officials take more action to protect its citizens traveling as medical tourists from medical malpractice and corruption in Thailand. Specifically, I suggested that these efforts should target Thai and other medical doctors that are marketing and advertising to prospective medical tourists risky and dangerous medical procedures on the unregulated Internet. Many of the claims of these Internet advertisements', including those from questionable doctors located in third world countries, speak for themselves. But, in the case of medical tourism, these false and misleading claims can quite easily be a matter of life and death.
But now I would like to focus on the facts of my case that quite easily point to the truth of the matter. I will start with the least condemning issues, and work my way too the more glaring and substantial factual issues that clearly demonstrate, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the truth about the questionable business and medical practices of Dr. Kamol Pansritum.
#1) Just by a brief and simple review of what has been written in my letter too the United States Embassy and the inconsistencies in the claims of what the doctor's Internet Marketing staff has written in response, clearly casts a shadow of doubt on the doctor's claims and intentions. The glaringly obvious inconsistencies in his false statements and written public attacks on me over the Internet, in response to me publishing a copy of my letter to the American Embassy is self evident.
#2) A related and equally condemning issue regarding the creditability of the doctor is his violation of internationally recognized patient/doctor confidentially issues while attempting to flame me on the Internet. His Internet Marketing staff has not only published information on the Internet regarding my private medical file in the doctor's office, but also has published information about my private life that was not provided to the doctor, and was completely not relevant to my medical relationship with his office. This information could only have been obtained through a deliberate effort in seeking it after the fact, which clearly points to the issue of cyber stalking.
#3) In a related issue; Dr. Kamol's office sending me harrasing E-mails.Contained in one of these was a claim that he had changed the name of his medical practice in his Internet advertisements. I recieved this E-mail soon after I published my letter of complaint on the Internet. So, at the first sign of trouble, Dr. Kamol's Internet Marketing staff had informed me that the doctor had changed the name of his medical practice, appearently to run and hide from the truth. I have no way of verifying the veracity of this claim in his E-mail too me.
#4) Dr. Kamol Pansritum and/or his Internet marketing staff making false and misleading claims about his association with the only American accredited hospital in Thailand Bumrungrad Hospital. (Please see below a copy of the doctor's Internet advertisement from his web page). His web page advertisement clearly and unambiguously falsely claims his association with Bumrungrad Hospital of Bangkok, the only American accredited hospital in Thailand. This association is really played up on the doctor's web page.
#5) Finally, a quite intriguing issue that speaks of the corrupt nature of Thailand in general and to the questionable professional loyalties of Dr. Kamol Pansritum. The issue can be most effectively highlighted by the blatant inconsistencies between the very name of the doctor's medical practice MtF ( Male to Female) Aesthetic Surgery Center and the doctor's and his medical staff's association with what is know in Thailand as "Police Medicine." (Please see below copy of the doctor's web page in regards to his medical associates and himself, and their qualifications). In the doctor's web page he is advertising as a sex change doctor and his and his medical staff's association with "Police Medicine and law enforcement. The reader may not truly understand the blatant contradiction of a sex change doctor publicly claiming such a strong association with "Police Medicine and law enforcement unless you are familiar with the highly charged antagonistic relationship that exists between transsexuals and police in Thailand and around the world. If you are a transsexual seeking a sex change, you would never knowingly seek it from a doctor and/or medical practice with any associated with police medicine, or law enforcement!
The above is only a few of many issues not mentioned about my nightmare experience that this doctor has caused to my life. Much of the damage done to me by this doctor is irreversible, and I will be forced to spend the rest of my life scared and disfigured from his surgeries to me. Given, the nature and magnitude of the harm done to me, the doctor's callus and insensitive response immediately following my surgery and his later statements regarding me on the Internet are inconceivable and speak to the truth of this matter. Why does a medical doctor need a full time Internet marketing staff anyways? But, you can certainly see the results. Just type his name on the Internet, he is all over the web!
Supporting Documents:
#1)
To the American Embassy, U.S. Citizen's Services:
As an individual, my circumstances, and/or opinion may not be of any significance. But, I feel compelled to help guard my fellow Americans from the harmful experiences I was forced to endure as a medical tourist to Thailand from the United States.
Over a year ago, I dropped by the United States Embassy in Bangkok, to pick up a copy of the list of Attorneys that it compiles for Americans in Thailand seeking legal assistance. My reasons for doing so, had to do with me attempting to file a medical malpractice complaint against a Thai plastic surgeon that had badly scarred, mutilated, and disfigured my face. Please see the following brief description of this experience:
As an American, I have been scared, mutilated, and disfigured by offshore plastic surgery in Thailand. I traveled to Thailand for plastic-reconstructive surgery because it was too expensive in the United States, and American insurance companies would not cover the cost of the procedure because they viewed it as an elective surgery. Before going to Thailand, I did months of research on Thai doctors and hospitals in my price range, and thought I had made the right decision until after the surgery, when my doctor (Dr. Kamol Panritum of the Aesthetic Surgery Center) took off the bandages from my face.
Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of my Thailand nightmare. After the doctor refused to refund my money, or pay to have the damage he had done to my face fixed by another doctor, or do the surgery over again himself; I attempted to report the doctor to government and professional medical associations to no avail. I was completely ignored by the Medical Council of Thailand, the Royal College of Surgeons of Thailand, and the Medical Association of Thailand. I wrote a formal complaint to the hospital (Piyavate Hospital of Bangkok) where the surgery was performed, and it was ignored. The doctor had falsely claimed in his Internet advertising to be associated with Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok, the only American accredited hospital in Thailand.
Even the attorney I attempted to hire, just gave me a run around for several weeks promising to take action against the doctor and never doing so. He initially was very eager to take my case, but shortly after doing so, he not only lost interest in the case, but became an apologist for the doctor. This appeared to have everything to do with me being a foreigner, attempting to take legal action against a wealthy and influential Thai plastic surgeon.
I later discovered that there are extremely few successful medical malpractice cases against medical doctors in Thailand that result in a cash award. Currently, there are only about 60 outstanding medical malpractice case on file with the Medical Council of Thailand for the entire country, and this number of cases is being pointed to by Thai Medical Council authorities as being unacceptably large.
It appears that if something goes wrong with a medical procedure in Thailand, and your are a foreigner, you have few, if any options of redress, and are completely at the mercy of the doctor. Thai attorneys will gladly take your case; and certainly your money, but what is uncertain, is if they will do anything more than take your money. These attorneys certainly must be aware of how few of these cases ever succeed, but there are many attorneys in Thailand that claim they do medical malpractice work.
Medical tourism is rapidly becoming more popular in America, and more Americans are traveling to Thailand to seek potentially dangerous, and risky medical procedures. I, as an American medical tourist to Thailand, am one of many Americans that have chosen this option, and the numbers are growing very rapidly. It seems to me, that the American Embassy should take a more proactive posture, in guarding, protecting, and informing its people of the very real dangers in seeking complicated medical procedure in Thailand, and of the truth about the practical limits to legal redress, if something goes wrong.
If the United States Embassy can publish alerts, warnings, and advice on teaching English in Thailand on its website, it certainly could do a better job addressing the dangers of Medical Tourism in Thailand. Further, the Thai government should be made aware of the increase concern that the United States government has about the exposure of its citizens to the dangers and limitations of Thai medical practice, and the limits of the legal system in Thailand to redress issues of medical malpractice. Americans are being harmed at ever increasing numbers.
If you have any information concerning private and government organizations in Thailand that I should contact in my attempt to hold this doctor accountable for the damage he has done to my face and life, I would much appreciate it. Please respond to this E-mail as soon as possible, by writing me at: @yahoo.com. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Heather
#2)
The need for a website that rates & tracks the quality of sex change doctors.
Sex change doctors that advertise on the world wide web, should be held accountable for their claims, and for the quality of care they provide their web clientele, by the existence of a consumer protection type of website, strictly devoted to rating these doctors.
Many of these doctors, practice medicine in under developed, third world countries where there are no real consumer protection, or medical malpractice laws to protect, particularly, international medical patients, from harm done by medical malpractice, or false and misleading advertisements. This does not speak to the issues of the endemic corruption problems within the health care profession in many of these countries such as Thailand.
Further, many of these plastic surgeons are practicing medicine in countries where the state of medical care, and particularly cosmetic surgery is very poor. For example, plastic surgery is rapidly becoming very popular in China, but 60% of all cosmetic surgery performed in this country, is an attempt to repair damage done from past surgeries.
We, as trans gender people, are extremely vulnerable to these less than reputable international-Internet plastic surgeons, not just because of the lack of laws, or the lack of integrity of these laws to extend equal protection to trans gender people, but because the emotional desperation and sense of urgency trans gender people feel to undergo a surgical sex change procedure, as soon as possible. We are frequently compelled to grasp at the first, and cheapest option available. This is an issue of emotional desperation for most of us! We are forced by society to feel this way.
Even in the best of legal circumstances, given the pervasive, and pandemic prejudice, and discrimination, trans gender people face, we can not expect local government authorities in the third world, or even the first world, to do the right thing, and treat us fairly by extending to us the same legal protections they extend to all others.
We must empower ourselves!!!!! We must protect our selves! We must speak out! There must be transparency in regards to the quality of medical care these Internet doctors are providing! There must be a website that rates, and tracks these doctors! This can be a matter of life and death!
Sincerely yours,
Heather
From 'News...' to 'Academia'
Comment