January 26, 2020
I felt a combination of sadness and worry when I found out that someone very dear to me had a heart attack last August. He never told us. Maybe he didn’t want us to get worried.
He called 911 at 1 o’clock in the morning. Their neighbors were alarmed because the big firetruck came, the ambulance, a police car. That is a standard operating procedure here in America. Three vehicles come. Maybe if the call is a medical emergency, the ambulance, the doctors should be sent, no longer the firemen.
He said the total bill was $68,000 but luckily it was covered by his health insurance.
The 911 call, bringing him to the hospital, then eventually transferring him to another hospital cost $18,000.
The doctors initially told him they would either put a stent or do an open heart surgery. When he woke up the next day, the doctors told him the good news, it was a mild attack, a small vessel ruptured but it didn’t need surgery nor stent. He was put on aggressive medications. I didn’t know that the chances of getting a second heart attack within the next 30 days after the first is high. He is `past that. He is still being monitored 3x a week and is taking 8 pills a day for blood thinning, bad cholesterol, high blood pressure, etc.
I wish him him many many more years of happy life with us, with his family and grandkids.
