Originally posted by Ratmagiclady *gasp!* No! It's... Horrible! 60 dollars CAD? That's....
Wait a minute, that's a *cab ride* to the hospital, some places I've lived.
People get stuck with ambulance bills that are hundreds to thousands of dollars, down here. They jack up the prices cause so many of their calls are 'unrecoverable bills' ...even if it can be catastrophic to people's finances and credit ratings.
Since there were 6 people on that boat you can multiply that by 6. So we paid somewhere around $360.00.
That included at least 3 ambulances... I may be wrong but probably 4 since the boat owner any myself were in rough shape, and I think I may have had my own (I was out of it)
Plus a rescue team including at least 2 boats, which made the trip at least twice looking for others. We could see them searching for us for 20 minutes or so, thankfully a call to 911 on a cell got them turned around and looking in the right direction.
There's no way I would have been able to afford the rescue alone if the tax payers weren't helping with the bill
I do however have a couple of complaints on our system. The hospital only had 1 open bed, which I got. The boat owner couldn't breath, so they stuck her in the hall.
The rest got pushed out the door, 2 people with shattered legs, and 1 missing her front teeth... so she must have had a blow to the head
The worst part though was the initial 911 call.
From what I understand the operator actually asked
Quote: Can we wait until the morning?
I was told the woman who had found her cell and made the call told them
Quote: Sure, if you don't mind 2 dead people