Originally Posted by
Christopher
Hungary has sufficent medical support for her condition. It seems that, for whatever reason, she chose not to avail herself of it.
I am not so certain that her family's former home country (i.e. Hungary) had sufficient medical support for her needs this year. Sufficient medical support -- in a former home country involving new doctor(s) -- may be doubtful when dealing with a person meeting all of the following conditions: has a very complicated medical history of illnesses; and would have limited (if any) timely contact with relevant specialists working closely with a long-standing internist; and prescribed drug and/or diet regimen adjustments may be problematic in one or more ways.
This isn't to say that she returned to Hungary against the directions of her doctors in the US. It is to say that the situation is almost certainly complex enough that playing medical treatment hopscotch in Europe in the last month or two of her life wouldn't necessarily have solved anything for her.
[Medical tourism to even high-priced medical facilities in the US is a business that has held up pretty well despite the economic cycle. That kind of business orientation is why teams catering to visiting foreigners were created at the likes of Mayo and Cleveland Clinics. Many such visitors come from countries that have far better advanced medical service capabilities than Hungary.]
Can't say I blame her or her husband for wanting to get back to the US -- for medical reasons and probably family reasons too.
Originally Posted by
celle
I am almost willing to think that she never even told her US doctors that she was contemplating such a journey without arranging ongoing medical care. If she had told them, they would have advised strongly against such a course of action.
I wouldn't be so sure of your second sentence above. Some people consulting their doctors with at least two of her conditions are not necessarily advised strongly against travel (to a former home country, or travel between a former home country and the current host country) yet they die within a few weeks or months of travel. Sometimes bodily functions vacillate between some modicum of stability and instability such that medical experts cannot reliably predict problems in any meaningful, actionable way with time specificity. Certainly they could advise her of heightened risks and probably did. I would be surprised if all of her US doctors were unaware of her foreign travel -- some of the doctors would almost certainly have been involved in getting her prescriptions sourced in the US in advance of her travel, and some would almost certainly have had appointment schedules adjusted due to her travel plans.