This evening, Maryann smashed a finger under a skateboard or rollerskate or something along those lines. Her friend was not watching what was going on her and Maryann was not watching what was happening around her either. Now the smashed finger apparently began bleeding pretty good right away. The entourage of friend followed her home. I am not sure how they kept up with her. She ran pretty fast to get back to the apartment.
Now when I was a kid, I would have run home and Mom would have washed off my finger and put a band-aid on it.
Yes, Maryann's was bleeding and the nail is sure to come off. But get real here. Bridget ran her to the hospital. Yes, she was upset. I know it was bleeding. Not very much, just a little.
Crap. When I smashed my fingers (four at the same time) they bled a lot. Like in little red squirt guns. Right from under the tips and after having them smashed by a 50 pound piece of aluminum slamming down on them. But that was my four grown up fingers smashed about 2/3 of the way flat and up to the first knuckle. Hers was just at the top end of the nail and bled enough to maybe cover a big band-aid.
Anyway, she is still gone at the hospital, 3 hours later.
Now I come to my point. Who is going to pay for all this? I know I am. But I can't see how. This will probably cost $300 to $500 for someone to, irrigate the wound, wrap it up, and tell her to see her family doctor if it start to do something bad. I was going to do just that, and I have enough intelligence to know that if it was not healing up, to take her to the doctor. But I guess that emotional panic overrules patient judgment.
I have really good insurance, but it costs all the same. If I could have taken her to the Air Force Base hospital, it would have been nearly free.
(OK, I am not entering in the $50 in gasoline it takes for a round trip to the Base.)
This little error in judgment will be half a weeks pay for the deductible.
Now for what I really wanted to say.
If I was an illegal alien, I would not be worrying about this bill. My stress level would be so low, I would think of this emergency room trip just like a trip to the fair. I would just go to the hospital and do everything they ask. Filling out forms, doing loads of paperwork. Then all I would have to do is skip out on the bill. What would be better, than to have free health care at a moments notice! I know there are people reading this and saying things like:
- "I should not be saying this kind of things,
- The illegal aliens in this country deserve to be here because of all the oppression they were enduring.
Well I say bullshit. We have many friends here who worked their fingers to the bone to come here. They are now outstanding citizens of the United States and each couple came from a different country on various continents on the planet. This all happened through hard work and doing what ever was needed to be a citizen. I can't speak for them, but I have spoken to them about this exact situation and they indicated that they are very pissed off. Not at the government, but at the illegals who make it so very hard for legitimate immigrants to enter the country, let alone become citizens. Yes, they consider them criminals. They are stealing our healthcare (I doubt they are going to pay for the healthcare they receive when they can get away without paying). They are stealing our children's education by having their children enrolled in schools where the do not pay taxes to pay for the programs they use. If your illegal, you don't have a social security number, thus how would you ever pay taxes?
Anyway, this is just a rant. I will probably take it down after a few day and re-edit it. But until then, is there a way legit way to do an illegal act? Besides being in this country illegally and stealing from the general population on a daily basis?
Bridget brought Maryann home after 3 hours. They did exactly what I thought they would do and removed the nail. The only difference between there and here is that the hospital used novacaine. We would have used time and growth here to remove the nail. I doubt she has learned anything from this experience. I would like her to learn something, even if it is that accidents are painful. No one likes to have their child in pain. But for me, that is what always convinced me what was right and wrong in decision making. If it didn't hurt me, I didn't learn anything from an experience. I hope she does not miss the point of her accident.
Injury updates!
They made it home after over 3 hours. Apparently she was a pretty good patient. They x-rayed it, injected her with novacane, and pulled off the nail. She was pretty upset even after all of that was over. She did feel better after a little after a bowl of ice cream. So, with all the meds and attending medical personnel, I imagine that this will end up being around $800+. Like I said. This is the reason I really hate being honest.
