Neighbor just taken off by ambulance

[Calico]

Glad to hear. You’re a good neighbor to have.

+1

 

[old medic]

Glad to hear. You’re a good neighbor to have.

+2..

 

[pacergal]

Glad to hear. You’re a good neighbor to have.

Bless you for caring for her animals so she had no worries about them while in the hospital. Hope she continues to improve daily.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Glad to hear it sounds like she's going to be ok. I have lots of could've, would've, should've thoughts in my head, but respectfully will not air them here, as that's water under the bridge.

 

[O2Bfree]

Glad to hear it sounds like she's going to be ok. I have lots of could've, would've, should've thoughts in my head, but respectfully will not air them here, as that's water under the bridge.

Could've, would've, should'ves can be useful if we learn from them. I think possibly her breathing issue was partly or mostly due to diabetic ketoacidosis. According to articles online, covid can cause problems with blood sugar levels in diabetics, leading to DKA. Perhaps she became confused and missed a dose of her meds, exacerbating the problem.

I wonder too, if her breathing problem was caused by covid, wouldn't she have been in the hospital longer?

Bless you for caring for her animals so she had no worries about them while in the hospital. Hope she continues to improve daily.

Thank you, she was much better yesterday, coherent and moving and breathing normally. I'm going to check on her later today.

We are blessed in that she's a good neighbor too!

 

[audreyh1]

I thought keto acidosis caused super low blood sugar leading to coma or even death if someone does eat some emergency food to raise their blood sugar quick. This is usually a result of taking too high of a dose of insulin or other blood sugar lowering drug - not balanced with food intake.

Regardless, obviously Covid can be way more serious for someone with diabetes.

 

[O2Bfree]

I thought keto acidosis caused super low blood sugar leading to coma or even death if someone does eat some emergency food to raise their blood sugar quick. This is usually a result of taking too high of a dose of insulin or other blood sugar lowering drug - not balanced with food intake.

I'm reading that in diabetics it's usually caused by too little insulin, which causes elevated blood sugar—hyperglycemia. Since the sugar can't be absorbed for energy, the liver starts breaking down fat for fuel, causing a buildup of ketones in the blood. From https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes-complications/diabetic-ketoacidosis.html:

In most cases, ketoacidosis in people with diabetes will be accompanied by high sugar levels. However, ketoacidosis can also occur at low or normal blood glucose levels. This is referred to as euglycemic diabetic ketoacidosis and may occur if someone who is insulin dependent neither eats nor takes sufficient insulin for a prolonged period of time.

 

[audreyh1]

Interesting. Some of us primarily use ketones for energy, i.e. fat-burning metabolism. So that in itself isn’t a problem. But for diabetics with glucose intolerance and on various medications it’s easy to see how a little Covid related disorientation not to mention virus blood sugar side effects could quickly get the person into trouble.

 

[OldShooter]

One advantage of calling an ambulance is they know which hospital is really tied up. They told me they were taking me to one 1-2 miles farther because I'd get seen sooner and they felt it was needed as I was not in my best shape. ...

I wonder if that was the real reason. For hospital air ambulances I have read that they must be paid by the hospital if they deliver to a hospital that is not theirs, but if they deliver to their own hospital then they only get paid if the patient pays.

 

[RetiredHappy]

I was in a serious golf cart accident and the paramedic told me that we only have one Trauma Level 2 hospital in the area which was about 35 minutes from where we were. That's definitely the advantage to having an ambulance take the patient to the hospital as they know which is the correct hospital to treat a particular type of emergency situation. I had 5 broken ribs, broken in multiple segments, deep and large liver larceration and a perforated lung.

On the other hand, another guy had a golf cart accident about 3 months after mine, at our same golf course, was taken to a local hospital about 10 minutes away because he just had a minor tumble into the bunker, well, dumped out of the golf cart. It was deemed that he did not require to go to a Trauma Level 2 hospital. Guess what, this guy ended up with brain bleeding, which was not picked up by the hospital, and he went back into the hospital 2 days later in really bad shape. Ultimately, he was in the hospital and rehab for about 2 months and he died.

 

[badatmath]

I wonder if that was the real reason. For hospital air ambulances I have read that they must be paid by the hospital if they deliver to a hospital that is not theirs, but if they deliver to their own hospital then they only get paid if the patient pays.

IDK really. I was just happy to get into a bed so they could figure out the problem. My insurance paid for it - IDK if they have their own rules as well but I must have met them. (I was admitted 2 nights).

I just looked and both of them are level 1 trauma centers. I was not in fine shape.

 

[O2Bfree]

I was in a serious golf cart accident and the paramedic told me that we only have one Trauma Level 2 hospital in the area which was about 35 minutes from where we were. That's definitely the advantage to having an ambulance take the patient to the hospital as they know which is the correct hospital to treat a particular type of emergency situation. I had 5 broken ribs, broken in multiple segments, deep and large liver larceration and a perforated lung.

I had no idea those carts could be so dangerous!

 

[badatmath]

I had no idea those carts could be so dangerous!

I know a person who had a head injury from a golf cart - so yeah they can be!

 

[RetiredHappy]

I had no idea those carts could be so dangerous!

My husband drove it into a large rock up the side of a hill, which overturned the cart, dumping me out on my back, and the canopy of the cart crashing onto my chest.

We were in a 4-person scramble tournament. An hour later, our friends (playing partners) finished the round by playing one final hole. We won the tournament.

 

[MarieIG]

Glad to hear. You’re a good neighbor to have.

+3

 

[TickTock]

So yeah, maybe she should have seen her doctor sooner.

Good luck with that.

"You need to see the doctor? Very well, the earliest available appointment is... in five months, at 3 pm on a Thursday."

 

[Koolau]

Medicare may cover ambulance, but it depends on the situation. https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/11021-Medicare-Coverage-of-Ambulance-Services.pdf


If the person could have gone to get care without the ambulance it most likely will not be covered.

My mum had a year long dispute with the fire dept billing for ambulance paramedics services before the paramedics and her insurance reached an agreement. They billed more than $1k, she is not mobile and there was no doubt they overbilled. In this case both the insurer and the emergency services acted badly.

Ambulance is still a hole in insurance coverage

Yeah, wait until you take an "air" ambulance! It's a whole other level of cost. People on the outer Islands here in Hawaii sometimes have to get to Oahu for life saving treatment. IIRC, it's tens of thousands of dollars for such a ride.

But regarding just the plain old ambulance, there was a guy up the street from the Old Homestead that used to need a ride to the ER at least 3 times/week. I don't know what his issues were, but we'd hear the siren and look at each other and say "I guess Mr. Whingding hasn't been to the hospital yet this week - and here it is Tuesday already." I often wondered how much "we" as tax payers had to pay for those rides.

 

[EastWest Gal]

I thought keto acidosis caused super low blood sugar leading to coma or even death if someone does eat some emergency food to raise their blood sugar quick. This is usually a result of taking too high of a dose of insulin or other blood sugar lowering drug - not balanced with food intake.

Regardless, obviously Covid can be way more serious for someone with diabetes.

You are referring to hypoglycemia. This is quite the opposite.

Ketoacidosis is relatively rare in Type II diabetes; it mainly occurs in Type I diabetes and is very dangerous. When there is a lack of insulin, glucose cannot enter cells for energy and the body turns to ketones for fuel, by breaking down fat. If there are too many ketones, they are converted to acids. The body cannot tolerate much variation in pH, so to counteract the metabolic acidosis, it creates respiratory alkalosis through hyperventilation to try to correct the low pH. The person experiences fast and deep breathing, not from a lung problem, but from a metabolic problem.

Ketoacidosis is very different from ketosis as well.

 

[Katsmeow]

Medicare may cover ambulance, but it depends on the situation. https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/11021-Medicare-Coverage-of-Ambulance-Services.pdf...

...Medicare will generally pay to transport you by ambulance. But if you’re dealing with an injured arm or leg that may be broken, that’s not reason enough to warrant an ambulance.

If the person could have gone to get care without the ambulance it most likely will not be covered.

The quote from Medicare just seems bizarre. About 15 years ago I broke my ankle. This was well before Medicare of course. But an ambulance came and took me there. I could not stand at all. Just how does Medicare expect someone with a broken limb to drive

Now that I am retired I guess DH could drive me most of the time. Although when I had the broken ankle I could not have walked and he could not have lifted me. And what if I didn't have DH?

 

[RetiredHappy]

We have a city program here where we pay $99 per year and it will cover all ambulance surcharges for 4 people in the household. We started buying the coverage 3 years ago and thank goodness we did. I had an ambulance ride for a serious golf cart accident and after a couple of mailers to the ambulance company and the city, I had $0 out of pocket cost. The hospital bill is separate and falls under insurance and that accident cost me the entire OOP for the year.

 

[old medic]

Yeah, wait until you take an "air" ambulance! It's a whole other level of cost.

I often wondered how much "we" as tax payers had to pay for those rides.

My 15 minute ride with the only thing done was 1 dose of meds given to knock me out, was $54406. The reason they knocked me out... because I was being combative and telling them I didn't need the Bird and could go by ground.

Your actually paying on multiple levels. If you have a municipal based service, your local taxes subsidizes that, state and federal taxes towards Medicare/Medicaid. Add money you pay in insurance.
Then on top of that.... they will send you a bill....

 

[Aerides]

When DH had his pulmonary embolism - and was gasping for air when I called 911 (we didn't know what was wrong and thought just the flu, had covid tested earlier in the day).

We have a county FD with EMT's a half mile from our house. The EMT's performed triage, got steroids and pain meds in him in the driveway and took him to the ER.

Something something wrong billing codes...months later we were still arguing with our BCBS as they refused payment, even though our policy should cover it for emergencies. We eventually just paid it ourselves, maybe $700? It was super annoying though as this was definitely a 911 situation and an ambulance was 100% the best way to go.

 

[Koolau]

DW took me to hosp. for chest pains (tuned out to be Coronary Artery Disease needing stents.) We had seen the local ambulance struggling to get through traffic just to pick someone up. We thought it quicker to get to hosp by car. It's true that the ambulance would have been better IF I had coded or had an actual MI. BUT we didn't know what we were dealing with. At the ER, though they started "w*rking" on me right away, they didn't administer any drugs or do much more than ask me questions and hook me up to monitors. It was 3 days later I got my stents, so a very "lazy" process IMHO.



Would ambulance be preferred in such a situation? I guess it's luck of the draw. With DW driving me to ER, I know we got there quicker than by ambulance. Could I have been helped in our car if things had worsened? Of course not. Would I do it differently next time (hoping there IS no next time?) Probably. YMMV

 

[Dash man]

DW took me to hosp. for chest pains (tuned out to be Coronary Artery Disease needing stents.) We had seen the local ambulance struggling to get through traffic just to pick someone up. We thought it quicker to get to hosp by car. It's true that the ambulance would have been better IF I had coded or had an actual MI. BUT we didn't know what we were dealing with. At the ER, though they started "w*rking" on me right away, they didn't administer any drugs or do much more than ask me questions and hook me up to monitors. It was 3 days later I got my stents, so a very "lazy" process IMHO.



Would ambulance be preferred in such a situation? I guess it's luck of the draw. With DW driving me to ER, I know we got there quicker than by ambulance. Could I have been helped in our car if things had worsened? Of course not. Would I do it differently next time (hoping there IS no next time?) Probably. YMMV

In our case an ambulance would take us to a less than desirable hospital. I’ve been taken there for severe back pain and never want to go there again. We have another hospital that is excellent, but a little further away. We will always try to make it ourselves and if necessary call an ambulance from the car. Maybe we’ll be close enough for them to take us there then.

 

[Alan]

My 15 minute ride with the only thing done was 1 dose of meds given to knock me out, was $54406. The reason they knocked me out... because I was being combative and telling them I didn't need the Bird and could go by ground.

Your actually paying on multiple levels. If you have a municipal based service, your local taxes subsidizes that, state and federal taxes towards Medicare/Medicaid. Add money you pay in insurance.
Then on top of that.... they will send you a bill....

$54,406? How much did the insurance pay and how much did you pay?