A day after the successful spinal surgery of a British boy, who was asked to wait seven months for his turn in London, his mother said she will tell all her friends back home about the marvellous "efficiency" of Indian doctors and the "wonderful facilities" here.

"When I came to India, there was a lot of apprehension, and this is very natural. But the operation went off well, and now my kid can get back to his normal life," Karen Knott, mother of Elliot, 14, told Friday.

Stepping out of her fifth floor room in the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital here, Knott smiled and said she had been quite apprehensive about her son and the operation in India. But after the five-hour operation, she has no fear about Elliot's health.

"The long wait is over and now my son can walk," said an emotional Knott.

Elliot suffered a major injury in an ice-skating accident on New Year's Eve in Dorchester. Knott had been told by officials at Britain's National Health Service (NHS) Elliot would have to wait seven months, if not more, for an operation.

"Looking at the gravity of the injury and his deteriorating health condition, we decided to come to Delhi and get the operation done," Knott told.

"It is a good experience to come to India and directly get treated without any delay. I will tell all my friends about the facilities available in India. The efficiency of the doctors here is simply impressive," said the beaming mother.

The operation is over, but the suffering is still fresh in the minds of both mother and son.

"It was a period of pain I cannot describe. It's all because of ice-skating, and I am not going go skating ever in my life," said Elliot, with tubes all over his face, which did not allow him to smile.

"Since morning, I have been messaging my friends and relatives. I am just waiting to meet all of them and go swimming," he added.

When Elliot took admission in the hospital on Monday, his situation was too serious and he was not in a position to walk properly.

"The situation was critical and we had to undertake a five-hour surgery under hypotensive anaesthesia to reduce blood loss. Now the patient is out of danger and can be discharged in two weeks' time," said Yash Gulati, the doctor who performed the operation along with three associates. He said Elliot should be walking in five days.

"Due to advanced technology we avoided a lot of blood loss and there was no transfusion needed. To keep his vertebra intact, we have used six screws and attached the spine to a steel rod under the pedicle screw system," Gulati said, explaining the operation.

Elliot is not the only case. India is fast becoming a major hub of medical tourism. Patients from the Gulf and other South Asian countries, Africa and even Europe have been coming to India for quicker and cheaper medical treatment.

To boost the flow of patients to India, the tourism ministry has recently started issuing M-visa (medical visa) under its medical tourism scheme, to foreign patients and their relatives that allows them to stay here for one year at a stretch.

A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)-McKinsey study, released in 2004, said medical tourism could help upmarket tertiary hospitals gain additional revenue of $1-2 billion by 2012 in India.