Dr Francisco Contreras from Betancourt Medical

Has anyone had surgery with Dr Contreras through Betancourt Medical or Oasis Hospital? PLMK, Diane

I am looking for some information on them as well.  I am glad that you posted. 

Nope, nor would I.  As I posted on another thread: >>Andres Betancourt has one of the worst reps in Mexico.  They will do any surgery for any price just to get the booking.  Andres already lost his medical license for being a crappy doctor.  He hired Huacuz and later lost his clinic license.  Later, after Huacuz they revoked his clinic license.  He is no longer "Betancourt" but now under another person's name he is "Betancourt Medical".  Too many infections and too many incorrectly placed bands that had to be removed when the patient got back to the US. He will take your money up front for surgery and then when you research and find out how bad it is and want to cancel, he won't refund your money.  He keeps it.  Hopefully if you have already paid for this you will have paid via credit card and can do a charge back on your credit card to get your money back. Good luck, you'll need it.<<

I had my surgery at Betancourt Medical in July of o7.  Have lost 75 lbs so far.  Was told I could not have it in the US due to a large peice of Mylar mesh in my abdomen.  I was a very high risk for infection and had no insurance.  Dr B and his staff did my surgery and follow up.  NO INFECTION, NO POST SURGERY TRAUMA, NO COMPLICATIONS.  The surgery was good, the recovery was good and they are a great bunch of people.  My freind had her's done in very reputable center in California .......and died.  Everybody has one go south now and then.  If you blackball every doctor who didn't have one go south....you would have no doctors.  Dr. B is not a surgeon, he is a doctor of hospital administration.  He had me in contact witht the SURGICAL staff all the way trough.

I had my surgery around the same time period you had  your and need a number so i can get my medical records as i am planning a revision.

I would like to change a message that I posted 2 days ago.... I was vey happy about my surgery and the surgical center till yesterday.

I sent an e-mail to Andres Betancourt founder of Betancourt Medical Center, which later changed it's name to Emmanuel Medical Center and is now Jerusalem Medical Center, also known as Mt Zion Medical. Why all the changes I don't know... something must not be right...  I received an email responding from one of his patient liasions which had nothing to do with my e-mail to him.  I later responded to her and she so very rudely responded to me telling me that her boss Dr Betancourt was too busy to talk to anyone, that he no longer accepted phone calls.  I again sent him an e-mail and copied another one of his websites, I than received a call from another patient liasion, which told me about the same thing.  I was told plain blank that he was too busy to talk to patients.  That he would only talk to a patient if it was a medical emergency.  If I would have been in a dier emergency, I would have called 911 and would have been rushed to the hospital, not called or e-mailed him and think that everyone with a dier emergecy would have also called 911.  If we have a medical emergency, by the time we call him, get a responce from his patient liasion (a day later) and than relays a message to him and he in turn returns our call, we may be dead by then.

I recommend that everyone looking for a surgical center in Mexico look elsewhere.  Do your research before choosing.  Make sure that you are dealing with doctors that will respond to your call, even if it's not a dier emergency.  Remind yourself that if you have a dier emergency, it will be safer to contact your local hospital, than to call a doctor in Mexico that is too busy to talk to patients....

Hi, Did you have surgery with Betancourt personally? Or just in his facility. Where was this facility? I am scheduled to have VGS with Dr. Almanza in Tijuana in April. I don' know how Betancourt is associated with the Jerusalem Hospital but his name appeared on my payment receipt. Do you have any information about any of that? Now I am worried. Please reply with any info.. Thanks Charlotte 

Betancourt is not a doctor, never has been.  Previously I thought he was but lost his license.  Turns out, he never went to medical school to begin with.  He claims to be a doc, but he isn't.

I wouldn't dream of going there for surgery.  Read the boards, read the complications, infections, leaks, misdiagnosed bowel perforations... You really do get what you pay for.

Betancourt owns the clinic.  It's a surgery clinic in a strip mall from what I hear.

I'd look for someone who is board certified in surgery (they claim he is but as of two months ago he isn't, I can provide you with a link to doctors who are board certified), someone who has a better track record for complications, and a REAL hospital with a radiology dept, pharmacy, ICU, CCU, PICU, ED.  Not a surgery clinic in a strip mall.

I've heard "not the place to go". There are other members on this forum as well as myself who've gone to Ensenada for surgeries. If you want a referral -- check out Dr. Salvador Valencia on www.alighterme.com . He performs lap band surgeries and I promise you will LOVE your experience. I am six days out and SOOOO glad I chose this man over ANY American doctor. If you want to know more, email me here on OH and I will share everything I know about his team... which is alot. Jen