Over two million Americans have traveled to Mexico and other foreign nations for cosmetic procedures, lap band surgery and cosmetic dentistry, but U.S. doctors say medical tourists may be taking a gamble.
The kidnapping and murder of a group of Americans in Mexico is throwing a harsh spotlight on the billion-dollar business of medical tourism.
The four victims drove 1,500 miles from Lake City, South Carolina, to Matamoros.
Latavia McGee, a 33-year-old mother of six, is one of the over one million Americans who have traveled to another country seeking cheaper medical treatments.
In this case, McGree planned to have a tummy tuck, which in Mexico can typically cost less than half of what it does in the U.S.
McGree and her three male companions were reportedly buying medical products 15 minutes from the doctor's office where she was slated to have the procedure, when their rented SUV was fired on by gunmen from the feared Gulf Cartel that controls the border city.
Two of the men, Zindell Brown and McGee's cousin, Shaeed Woodard, were found dead.
The third man, Eric James Williams, was wounded. McGree was reportedly unharmed.
"She didn't want to go there by herself, but she had already been there one time," her cousin, Hakquan Burgess, tells Inside Edition.
Video captured the moments after the terrified survivors were rescued.
The State Department issued a "level 4 - Do Not Travel" advisory for Matamoros last year.
That is the same rating as Syria, Afghanistan and North Korea.
Over two million Americans have traveled to Mexico and other foreign nations for cosmetic procedures, lap band surgery and cosmetic dentistry.
“Medical Tourism is a huge industry and it's growing until we get costs down here in the United States. It's going to continue to grow," Pauline Frommer, editorial director of Frommers.com, tells Inside Edition.
Ali Schneider plans to go ahead with plans to have a tummy tuck in Mexico.
“It is scary. I mean, at the end of the day it is if I could afford it, I would definitely do it in the United States,” Schneider tells Inside Edition.
U.S. doctors say medical tourists may be taking a gamble in traveling to Mexico for the procedures they're seeking.
"It's not that Mexico doesn't have amazing surgeons; they have incredible surgeons in Mexico," Dr. Ben Talei, a plastic surgeon, tells Inside Edition. "It's just that the patients from here don't know how to research and they're going to the wrong surgeons, sometimes, in Mexico."
