I can never quite bring myself to understand why our president has to go Saudi Arabia(SA) and other 3rd-rated health systems to obtain medical care. For people who want to go to SA for religious reasons, I do understand, but why go to a bad and underdeveloped country to look for healthcare, when the leaders of those countries are trooping to the US for their own medical care?

Why not just go to the US like the these SA leaders, or better still upgrade your own local health facility and enjoy good healthcare at home. Many SA hospitals are manned by Nigerian doctors anyway. I was part of a team that once treated a member of SA royal family, the late king of Jordan, and some former Sudanese minister at Mayo, and I know they are every bit as human as other people. Apperently, SA royal family members have continued to go to the US, why our #1 citizen goes to them for his own healthcare. What a shame?

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58C0NO20090913


[size=18pt]Saudi foreign minister undergoes surgery in U.S.[/size]
Sun Sep 13, 2009 4:36am EDT


RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's veteran foreign minister has undergone successful spine surgery in the United States, state media said.
Prince Saud al-Faisal, a member of the ruling Al Saud family, would be expected back "soon" after the end of an unspecified recuperation period, the state news agency SPA said late on Saturday. It gave no more details.

Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with no elected parliament. It is the world's largest oil exporter and has long been an ally of the United States in the Middle East. Al Qaeda launched a failed campaign of violence to destabilize the ruling family from 2003 to 2006.

Crown Prince Sultan has been out of the country since November when he went to unspecified surgery. He has been in Morocco since April for "rest and recreation," state media said at the time.

In March, King Abdullah appointed Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz as second deputy prime minister, a promotion that would normally place him second in line to the throne after Sultan.

The position means he will run the kingdom when both the monarch and