A woman went to Mexico for an experimental multiple sclerosis treatment. She developed a life-threatening meningitis infection from contaminated equipment.

• A patient traveled to Mexico to get an experimental stem cell therapy for multiple sclerosis.
• She returned with bacterial meningitis, a potentially fatal disease, from contaminated medical equipment.
• Her doctor told Insider that patients shouldn't go abroad for medical procedures: "The risk isn't worth it." 

In October 2022, a patient went to a commercial clinic in Baja California, Mexico for an experimental treatment she hoped would help alleviate her multiple sclerosis symptoms. Instead, the day after she returned to the United States, she began developing a headache and fever — symptoms that were later diagnosed as a bacterial meningitis infection.

In Mexico, she was planning to get a four day experimental treatment that involved two rounds of stem cell injections into the spinal fluid in her lower back. Instead, she was likely injected with a solution contaminated with bacteria. 

Her case, reported in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, isn't the only example of medical tourism gone wrong, and American doctors are worried that patients are unknowingly putting themselves at risk of serious illness for treatments that are advertised as cheaper or more innovative than those available here.

Bacterial meningitis is a deadly infection 

Meningitis is a condition in which the protective membranes of the brain and spinal cord become inflamed. Bacterial meningitis in particular can be deadly. Even if a patient recovers, the patient may experience long-term effects like brain damage, hearing loss or learning disabilities. 

When the patient returned to the United States, doctors weren't initially sure what was causing her headache and low-grade fever. Dr. Brian Montague, an infectious disease expert who worked with the patient, told Insider that she had been "in and out of health facilities" as doctors rushed to figure out her diagnosis. 

The care team eventually determined that the patient's infection was caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium abscessus, which is typically found in water and soil. In healthcare settings, these bacteria can be transmitted "through unclean water getting into some product," likely the stem-cell injections she received, Montague said.

Stem cell injections are especially risky, Montague said, because they are injected directly into the fluid surrounding the spinal cord, a place in the body where there are no immune cells - making it easy for bacteria to multiply and cause severe illness if the sample is contaminated.

When the team identified the cause, "the first thought is, we have an answer for her she hadn't had," Montague said, but "the second thing is remembering this is a hard infection to cure in the best circumstances."

Skin infections caused by improperly sterile medical equipment can be cut out, but "you don't have that opportunity with infections in the brain and spinal fluid," he said.

The patient had to take multiple rounds of antibiotics to treat the infection

The patient was placed on rounds of antibiotics and had numerous doctors appointments after her diagnosis. She also had to undergo lumbar punctures — in which a needle is inserted between two lower vertebrae in the back to sample spinal fluid — to see if the antibiotics were working.  It took eight weeks from her initial emergency room visit to identify and treat her bacterial meningitis infection.

Today, it's been over three months since the patient has had symptoms. But her symptoms may flare up again. The prognosis for bacterial meningitis is hard to determine because it is rare and still poorly understood. 

"Many people with mycobacterium abscessus infections may be on treatment for months or even years," Montague said, "there are cases where we're not able to cure it."

Traveling for a medical procedure isn't worth the risk

Her case was alarming to physicians, who note that people who pursue medical tourism are likely doing so due to more affordable prices. Medical tourism in the United States is on the rise. More than a million Americans travel for medical treatments each year, often to places like Mexico, because they can save 40% to 65% on medical treatments, Insider previously reported.

The problem is that other facilities "don't have the same quality controls to make sure that everything is sterile" Montague told Insider. Without stringent quality controls, bacteria might be present in medical solutions — putting patients at risk of infection.

"If you're a person who wants hope, and you hear, 'Oh, cells that will just rebuild healthy tissue where there's none now,' it sounds very good. It's an attractive idea," said Montague.

But for the stem cell procedure this patient received, as well as other elective procedures, Montague states its important to consider "are you going to a center that you think has the same standards for cleanliness and supplies coming into it that a US facility would?"

Montague says he's treated two additional people with mycobacterial infections from medical tourism in the past year, both of whom got infections from getting liposuction abroad. These cases aren't going away anytime soon, Montague said.

As a result, he urges people to "think twice before they go for these these medical procedures overseas, I've seen that really devastate too many people's lives."