This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Knowledge & Support Community

Hello,
I hope to get the procedure in January in the USA on the East Coast. My hubby and I wonder if the local hospital would refuse to treat me if I had some emergency thing go wrong with a potential stent or anything related to the procedure. They told me explicitly that they do not support the CCSVI hypothesis.
Could you please let me know if you have experience with this? I'd be grateful for some reassurance (or not!).
Best,
Deena

Not altogether sure, Deena...you might have to line up aftercare for yourself somewhere else...you'll want to be have your veins checked to see if they've closed up again at about 3 months out from the procedure and again at six months (different docs have different schedules for these things). Of course if things went really wrong and you had to go to the emergency room, they can't turn you away there!

Oh good- so yes I will have 3, 6, 9, 12 mo. follow ups. But thankfully it sounds like you're saying they can't turn me away at the emergency room??

That is correct, they cannot and will not turn you away at the emergency room.

You are very wise to be taking this issue into consideration.

Shortly after the whole CCSVI issue made the headlines I had a brief discussion about it with my GP (an open-mined progressive kind of guy). I mentioned to him that I would be reluctant to go out of the country for treatment because I would be concerned about after care. His comment was that he himself would NOT know what the best course of action would be if there were problems.

I also had a post-opperative aftecare issue that might be demonstrative of the potential problems. I had some fairly commonplace surgery at a large urban hospital because that's where my GP thought I would get the best care. Several weeks later I developed a complication that required a middle-of-the-night visit to the local rural emergency department. While the surgery I had was not complicated or unusual the local hospital did not have my surgical record. Fortunately, being in the same medical jurisdiction they were able to phone consult. Still I spent five days in hospital when I should have spent only one. You see my local hospital knew the theory but still botched the repair job.

To apply it to your case, if you have a problem, your emergency room cannot refuse to treat you BUT what they do may not be for the best. For example, if you have a stent inserted and develop a problem with it your local emergency dept. using their best knowledge might just pull the thing out. Short term solution that you puts you right back at square one.

Consider what you propose to do carefully, and whatever you decide, good luck.