Jordan York is much more mobile and can go up and down the stairs of his house with relative ease now that he's had a controversial MS therapy in Costa Rica, he said. (CBC)

A Calgary multiple sclerosis sufferer who recently received a controversial MS treatment in Costa Rica says he'd do it all over again.

Jordan York isn't fazed by the case of the Ontario man who died on Oct. 19, several months after going to the same Central American country for treatment and one day after doctors in Costa Rica tried to dissolve a blood-clot complication.

Both men received the MS vein therapy pioneered by Italian researcher Dr. Paolo Zamboni.

The so-called "liberation therapy" is based on a theory that narrowed neck veins cause blood-borne iron deposits to build up and damage brain cells, and that unblocking the veins will help people with multiple sclerosis.

The difference was that Mahir Mostic of St. Catharines had a stent put into his vein, a procedure the clinic has said it doesn't normally perform because it's considered risky.

But York had an angioplasty, which involves inserting a catheter into a vein and inflating it in order the clear the way.

York said he's now able to get up and walk on his own with a cane, something he couldn't do six weeks ago.

"You know this fellow that recently died, that's a tragedy. That's a terrible thing," said York. "And it's not just a tragedy for him and his family but for everybody with MS, because there will be people in the news media who are going to make a big deal out of it.

"I would never go somewhere and have a stent put in."

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News of the tragedy has another Calgary man rethinking his options.

MS patient Steve Calder was hoping to go to Costa Rica.

He said he's now decided against the stent option, and he's considering going to Poland for treatment instead.

"A Third World country is a Third World country, regardless of how you dress it up, right?"

News that Mostic's death was related to complications from the MS vein therapy has sparked a renewed debate about the alleged dangers of the treatment and its progress in the Canadian medical community.

The MS Society of Alberta has said that part of the problem is the roadblocks to followup care in Canada for those who seek the vein therapy overseas.

"We know that it's a controversial, unproven treatment, but we respect the right of people to advocate on their own behalf," said Darrel Gregory, director of communications for the MS Society of Alberta.

"When they come back [to Canada] … they still need to have followup care here in our country."

The society is lobbying the Alberta government to create a registry of those MS patients who have travelled overseas for treatment, so they can monitor patients when they return.

The Prairie provinces have the highest MS rates in the country, according to a 2005 study by researchers at the University of Calgary.