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K. Eckland

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

June 08

Website

http://www.bogotasurgery.org

Genre

Nonfiction, Medical, Travel

Member Since

July 2011

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/KEckland

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My name is K. Eckland, and I am an acute care nurse practitioner in cardiothoracic surgery. After working with patients from all backgrounds and watching the American health care system continue to deteriorate and fail many of my neediest patients – I became interested in surgical tourism. Several of my patients asked me about medical tourism, and were relying heavily on industry supported websites to find surgeons and medical providers. This made me exceedingly nervous about their health and well-being since none of these websites were independent or unbiased.

(If you have any questions about me – please visit my website, listed above. I believe in transparency, and have posted my credentials on the site.)

So, I began traveling, interviewi My name is K. Eckland, and I am an acute care nurse practitioner in cardiothoracic surgery. After working with patients from all backgrounds and watching the American health care system continue to deteriorate and fail many of my neediest patients – I became interested in surgical tourism. Several of my patients asked me about medical tourism, and were relying heavily on industry supported websites to find surgeons and medical providers. This made me exceedingly nervous about their health and well-being since none of these websites were independent or unbiased.

(If you have any questions about me – please visit my website, listed above. I believe in transparency, and have posted my credentials on the site.)

So, I began traveling, interviewing and observing surgeries as a way to try and make sure that my patients would have legitimate and unbiased information about surgical tourism options. I use internationally accepted criteria and scientific tools to evaluate providers, procedures and facilities. I invested my own money (my retirement) into this project, and accept no outside funding from doctors, hospitals, companies so that readers could be assured of my impartiality. I don’t work for the doctors, I work for my readers.

I feel that as a nurse, my job is to advocate for my patients – and while I wish everyone could stay close to home for their medical needs, that’s just not the reality for many people. Instead – I want to help people find safe options.

I limit myself to surgical tourism and surgeons for a couple of reasons – the main reason being that I have extensive surgical experience and know the international standards and protocols used for surgery and surgical patients. I also believe that its not always practical to encourage people to seek medical tourism for chronic diseases/ conditions that require frequent follow-ups.

This is my third book in the medical tourism/ medical genre. For this book, I spent almost six months in Bogota, Colombia talking, interviewing, investigating as many people as possible. It’s hard work - a lot of 16 hour days for a product I really believe in - and most people don’t think they need. Not everyone should buy my book – but if you or a loved one is considering traveling for surgery, please buy my book before choosing a provider off the Internet.

Biography also posted at independent authors.org ...more

315 posts
K. Eckland's Blog

the Ups and Downs

After finally qualifying, I applied to take the citizenship exam – and received my notice to test on Nov 29, 2025.. I studied like crazy, cancelled all social engagements, hired a tutor.. and finally, took the test.. Failed!! By two questions in the Castellano section. (Yes – that’s correct, I passed the rest of the […]

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Published on February 12, 2026 15:57

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Combine Editions
K. Eckland’s books

Average rating: 5.0 · 17 ratings · 3 reviews · 5 distinct works

	Cartagena!: a Hidden Gem guide to surgical tourism by K. Eckland (Goodreads Author), Albert Klein, Peter K. Smith (Introduction) 4.71 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bogota!: a Hidden Gem guide to surgical tourism in Bogota, Colombia by K. Eckland (Goodreads Author), Peter K. Smith (Preface), Albert Klein (Contributor) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2010 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Thoracic Surgeons it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mexicali: a mini-gem guide to surgery in Mexicali, Baja California by K. Eckland (Goodreads Author), Joanna Calzada Algravez, Carlos Ochoa Gaxiola it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2012 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bogota! A Hidden Gem guide to Surgical Tourism by Albert Klein, Peter Smith, K. Eckland (Goodreads Author) (Foreword) 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by K. Eckland…

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The Book of the Damned

by Charles Fort

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Aug 13, 2011 02:14PM

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Aphrodite's Kiss (Superhero Central #1)

by Julie Kenner (Goodreads Author)

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Aug 07, 2011 09:48AM

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K.’s Recent Updates

K. Eckland wrote a new blog post Birthday in Boyaca, part 1 Sometimes life is messy. Sometimes it's painful. And sometimes, things don't always turn out like we expect.
Feb 13, 2026 12:40AM · like