She was 'desperate' so she went to Mexico for cheap weight-loss surgery, but she says the botched procedure left her on a feeding tube for several years

• An Idaho woman opened up about receiving bariatric surgery in Tijuana, Mexico.
• Justine Rodriguez told Fox News that the procedure left her with harrowing complications.

A woman who went to Mexico to undergo weight loss surgery said that the botched procedure left her on a feeding tube for several years, according to reports.

Justine Rodriguez, a 37-year-old from Idaho, recently told Fox News that she went to Tijuana, Mexico, to receive bariatric surgery in 2016. Rodriguez sought out the procedure — which can help those who struggle to lose weight — when she was almost 400 pounds, she told Fox News.

While the procedure can cost up to $30,000 or more in the states, she only had to pay an estimated $5,000 at the Tijuana clinic she heard about through a friend, she told the Salt Lake Tribune in 2019.

Rodriguez said she traveled to Mexico because her insurance didn't cover the surgery. "I was nervous about the surgery, but like I said, I was desperate," she told the publication.

Days after she returned home, Rodriguez suffered from an abscess in her abdomen which was the beginning of a domino effect of multiple surgeries to save her life, the Tribune previously reported. This landed her in about $1 million of medical debt, per the Tribune.

"My lungs collapsed. My kidneys and my liver were going," she told Fox News. The infection went to my brain."

Millions of Americans travel to Mexico each year to receive medical treatments, such as cosmetic surgeries, at a discounted rate. Another woman recently opened up about her experience going to Tijuana to receive a "mommy makeover," which left her "permanently disfigured."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that participating in medical tourism is risky, as individuals could be faced with challenges including disease exposure, and communication discrepancies.

However, the dangers aren't limited to the procedures alone — sometimes just getting there is risky.

For instance, recently, four US citizens were kidnapped after crossing the Mexico border. Two of the were found dead while the other two survivors were transported back to the US. Their family members previously told media outlets that the group traveled there so one can get a tummy tuck.

Rodriguez said the cheaper cost is not a risk worth taking.

"The money is not worth it," she told Fox News. "It's not worth your life."