My next move will be to go under the knife with Dr Shah in Mumbai for PRECICE II internal femurs. Now whether with he or Dr Parihar (or anyone else) there is a $US30000 payment just to -obtain- the nails & kit. The actual surgical and hospital fees in this particular case are much less.
So is it fair so say that through any LL surgery you actually OWN those REUSEABLE nails which typically are removed with a final operation two years down the track after which you may exercise your prerogative to SELL them?
That's a substantial amount of money and I'd like to explore the option of selling them back to the surgeon, or another LL surgeon, or indeed a prospective LL patient undertaking that method.
So, a number of questions:
1) did any of you keep your IM nails post-surgery? Have you attempted to resell them?
2) with the doctor that I go to (Dr Suhas Shah), is it likely that he will have a stock of these from his previous patients or that he may easily obtain them from other local docs?
3) is there anything in the design of a PRECICE II, whether deliberate or otherwise, that prevents re-use
4) has there ever been a doctor who discounts their services on the understanding that they get to keep what they take out of you?
5) is there someone you know of, doctor or patient, who might consider the sale of pre-loved PRECICE equipment at a knocked down price?
Secondhand market in IM nails (PRECICE II etc)
2) No doctor in India has actually used the Precice as of yet so unless someone goes before you, you're going to be the first Precice patient in the country. There won't be any stock to choose from. Doctors in India require special permissions to use the Precice and will only receive them after contacting Ellipse first.
4) Dr Parihar told me in passing that he might knock down the cost of surgery from 900,000 INR to 800,000 INR if Precice is used because you wouldn't be using Ilizarov frames or nails. That's the only type of possible discount I know of though. I don't believe Dr Shah would give a discount because he'd only be making $10,000 for himself with the rest going to Ellipse for the nails.
I didn't get to keep my nails. Most likely they got re-used for the doctor's financial benefit rather than mine.
If I've paid $US30000 for those things. In other words, I OWN them. Then what are the chances that somewhere down the track I then have a substantial financial asset that I can recoup money on: say from a surgeon who deals with them or a prospective patient who might put down $20k or $25k (hell, I would) assuming repurposability. Is there any precedent for this?
I have Beijing's Orthofix product in me at the present. They are expecting me to go back at the end of 2016 for the removal but I may have other ideas. I may keep them in for years and years (which is not per se inadvisable, right??) or I may have them removed under health insurance in Australia. Sure if I go back to Beijing they will grab them up and I will have no call, but otherwise there is nothing to oblige me giving them back their rods even if I'm able to.
Surely there is value in the hardware which can be recouped for $ but I've just never seen it broached on here or old forum . Nobody hangs onto and attempts to on-sell their preloved surgical devices, even at the forums which could be a honeypot for them to be trafficked. Odd?
Yeah, that is kind of odd. LL is expensive and everyone is looking for a deal, so I'm surprised that hasn't come up. Or maybe it has, and it's just been done secretly.
A friend of mine tried to set it up so that he could get internals somewhere expensive then go to Beijing for nail removal, and sell the technology to the Chinese to recoup some of the costs, but that didn't work out. Dr. Xia didn't want to buy them. He wasn't interested in creating a cheap Chinese copy of an internal nail.
Precise and STRYDE are a one times use. They're essentially worthless after the surgery, except for the emotional weight they carry.
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