The Chicago Tribune explores the benefits of traveling to India for radical or expensive surgery.

NEW DELHI — When James Payne found out he needed a liver transplant, he first tried to arrange the surgery at a top local hospital in South Florida. Doctors there told him that they couldn’t schedule the procedure for a few months and that it would cost $450,000, a fortune for the uninsured former investment banker.

So the 55-year-old and his wife, who planned to donate half her own liver to her husband, bought plane tickets to India instead. There, at one of New Delhi’s premier hospitals, a transplant specialist did the surgery for $58,000—a price tag that included their 10-week hospital stay.