Mother left with a ~$70,000 bill for a 15-minute trip to the emergency room for her 6-month-old son.

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Mother left with a ~$70,000 bill for a 15-minute trip to the emergency room for her 6-month-old son. (xcancel.com)

This is criminal. How the actual frig is a normal person supposed to afford this?

CA woman Jessica Farwell says she was forced by doctors to put her son in a helicopter, which ended up costing $90,000.

The insanity doesn't end there.

After the 15-minute helicopter ride, which was deemed necessary by the doctors because the hospital Farwell went to didn't have a burn unit, she was forced to put her son in an ambulance to get him from the helipad to the hospital.

This was a 0.3-mile ride that they charged $10,200 for.

The son, Brody, was treated with second-degree burns and was discharged the next day.

The entire ordeal came to over $100,000.

"You look at the bills, and it's absolutely enraging. We got hit for a $600 waiting fee... there's a fee for it being a nighttime service... there's just every single fee you can think of!" the mother said to ABC 7.

Farwell said she was promised by doctors that her insurance would cover the costs. They didn't initially.

At first, her insurance wouldn't even cover half of the bill, meaning she would owe nearly $70,000.

"I've called the hospital, ambulance company, my insurance numerous times. It's been three years and then they wouldn't listen to me or talk to me. They just kept giving me the runaround..." she said.

It wasn't until Farwell went public with ABC 7 that the insurance company finally gave in and waived the fees.

This is criminal. How the actual frig is a normal person supposed to afford this? [Burn from the video](https://poal.co/static/images/0486060607033b2e.png) [Another pic from probably the day after](https://poal.co/static/images/7cf48e8a96c6c67e.png) >CA woman Jessica Farwell says she was forced by doctors to put her son in a helicopter, which ended up costing $90,000. > The insanity doesn't end there. > After the 15-minute helicopter ride, which was deemed necessary by the doctors because the hospital Farwell went to didn't have a burn unit, she was forced to put her son in an ambulance to get him from the helipad to the hospital. > This was a 0.3-mile ride that they charged $10,200 for. > The son, Brody, was treated with second-degree burns and was discharged the next day. > The entire ordeal came to over $100,000. > "You look at the bills, and it's absolutely enraging. We got hit for a $600 waiting fee... there's a fee for it being a nighttime service... there's just every single fee you can think of!" the mother said to ABC 7. > Farwell said she was promised by doctors that her insurance would cover the costs. They didn't initially. > At first, her insurance wouldn't even cover half of the bill, meaning she would owe nearly $70,000. > "I've called the hospital, ambulance company, my insurance numerous times. It's been three years and then they wouldn't listen to me or talk to me. They just kept giving me the runaround..." she said. > It wasn't until Farwell went public with ABC 7 that the insurance company finally gave in and waived the fees.

[–] • 1 pt

Something similar happened with me. I took our son to ER. They decided he needed to be admitted but they didn't have a children's ward. They insisted we have him transported to another hospital by ambulance about 10 miles away. This was not a life threatening situation imo, but hospital staff had his mother freaking out. They were also telling us that insurance would deny our claims if we didn't use the ambulance, as I was addiment about driving him there myself. I relented and allowed the ambulance transport.

It ended up being like 3k for the transport. I argued like hell when the bill came and got it knocked down to 500, but what a fucking hassle and it was a total waste. They ended up just giving him some IV fluids and overnight stay. TBH he probably would have been okay just drinking some fucking Gatorade. Fuck American healthcare.