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A Helicopter Ride To An ICU WIth Beds Available


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2020 Dec 19, 6:43am   652 views  17 comments

by ohomen171   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

#helicopterridetoICU ICU's in hospitals in Southern California are full. The same is happening all over the US If a deathly ill patient needing an ICU bed comes in, he/she will have to be sent elsewhere. Most likely a helicopter will have to be used. I can remember that Elena and I were in Death Valley 10 years ago. We were warned that if we got badly injured or really ill, a helicopter would have to come and take us to a hospital in Las Vegas. We were told that the bill would be $9,000. What would this same helicopter bill be today? Who pays it? I suspect the sick patient. Will medical insurance cover this? I think not.

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1   Booger   2020 Dec 19, 6:51am  

Hospitals are still empty.
2   WookieMan   2020 Dec 19, 7:03am  

ohomen171 says
Will medical insurance cover this? I think not.

Depends on how it happened. My SIL was in an auto accident and needed to be air lifted. The auto insurance covered the ride. They dropped them after they paid out though.

If you just fall off a cliff walking or something, then you're probably right. Most the time it happens on property that is insured though. If not just don't pay it then, file BK if you have to and keep as many of your assets in protected accounts. Call and negotiate as well. Ultimately they just want costs covered if it's an uninsurable event. Fuel, pilot time, EMT time, etc. Still expensive, but not as bad as how much they mark that shit up. Though they do deadhead two legs of the trip to get you and then get the chopper back to their base airport. Depending on the times fuel can be expensive. Don't know rough chopper burn rates, but has to be above 20-30 gallons an hour. So probably $4k in fuel minimum.

Or if you foresee potential hazardous conditions on travels, get travel insurance. It has saved me $6k having to cancel a trip for a unexpected death in the family. Check the policy and make sure you get $1M in medical transfer on it. And primary or secondary medical insurance as well of at least $100k. Especially if traveling out of country. MedJet rides back to the states from say Mexico to Miami can run half a million. And you don't want major medical treatment in Mexico for trauma events.

Booger says
Hospitals are still empty.

Mostly correct. Some minority communities, they get hit the hardest, are close to capacity. But it's completely overblown. Media never knew about hospital operations and now they do, so they freak out when a 10 bed ICU has 8 patients in it. It's not a big deal. Ambo ride or chopper ride and you're at another facility. Done all the time. This is something they deal with on a relatively frequent basis. Or just moving patients to better equipped hospitals if the condition worsens. Not all ICU's are =
4   Robert Sproul   2020 Dec 19, 7:16am  

WookieMan says
Hospitals are still empty.

Mostly correct. Some minority communities, they get hit the hardest, are close to capacity. But it's completely overblown. Media never knew about hospital operations and now they do, so they freak out when a 10 bed ICU has 8 patients in it. It's not a big deal. Ambo ride or chopper ride and you're at another facility. Done all the time. This is something they deal with on a relatively frequent basis. Or just moving patients to better equipped hospitals if the condition worsens. Not all ICU's are =


Everybody's memories are so short. This was what they were shrieking about a couple of years ago:
"The 2017-2018 influenza epidemic is sending people to hospitals and urgent-care centers in every state, and medical centers are responding with extraordinary measures: asking staff to work overtime, setting up triage tents, restricting friends and family visits and canceling elective surgeries, to name a few."
“We are pretty much at capacity, and the volume is certainly different from previous flu seasons,” says Dr. Alfred Tallia, professor and chair of family medicine at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical Center in New Brunswick, New Jersey. “I’ve been in practice for 30 years, and it’s been a good 15 or 20 years since I’ve seen a flu-related illness scenario like we’ve had this year.”
https://time.com/5107984/hospitals-handling-burden-flu-patients/
5   ForcedTQ   2020 Dec 19, 7:32am  

Billed for a 78 mile ride for my 3 day old son in NICU to more capable NICU, $76,xxx. Luckily insurance picked it up as the hospital stays far exceeded that and my deductible/max out of pocket was paid up.
6   Karloff   2020 Dec 19, 7:43am  

$76k for a 78 mile ride is absolutely criminal, no matter who's picking up the tab.

The entire system is rotten to the core.
7   ForcedTQ   2020 Dec 19, 7:58am  

Yep, no shit. That was Reach in the Sacramento Valley.
8   Automan Empire   2020 Dec 19, 10:48am  

I just chortled coffee imagining a really sick and out of it socialist realizing they're being loaded on a helicopter coming alive and balking at the helicopter door with arms and legs spidering off the stretcher like when trying to stuff a reluctant cat into its carrier.
9   mell   2020 Dec 19, 10:59am  

No lies or FUD. Pretty much all ICUs have ample capacity. In fact many MDs and surgeons and anesthesiologists are furloughed due to the fake news and hospitals being afraid of being sued.
11   NuttBoxer   2020 Dec 19, 3:16pm  

With all the first hand accounts and videos of empty hospitals, I'm betting you could get a free ride. Just have to prove the transport was unjustified, seems easy enough.
12   Patrick   2020 Dec 19, 3:45pm  

And remember, ICU beds are normally 75% full all the time. Hospitals remove beds and the support equipment to save money if they go below 75% full because it's not cost effective to keep empty beds around.

Given that there are only 29 ICU beds in all of Marin County, it took only 8 (eight) patients beyond normal for them to "fill up". And that's out of a population of 260,000.

You'd never know that from the headlines though. You'd think thousands were dying in the streets.
13   ForcedTQ   2020 Dec 19, 5:43pm  

Agree Patrick.

Friend that is a nurse said their ICU is normally at 75-85% full this time of year anyway. Also was told that their ICU was shut down to 50% capacity due to low census. So really, just what are those less than 15% capacity numbers being calculated on, and why should anyone be fearful of those numbers? Only people who choose not to do their own research are following the fear porn crowd to the slaughter house.
14   Onvacation   2020 Dec 19, 5:56pm  

How long does it take from losing your sense of smell until you have to fly in a helicopter to your doom!

It's a fucking cold. Open up the country!
15   Onvacation   2020 Dec 19, 5:58pm  

Is Biden still planning on a nationwide muzzling for 100 days after he is inaugurated?
16   Bd6r   2020 Dec 19, 6:49pm  

Onvacation says
muzzling

face diapering
17   Shaman   2020 Dec 19, 7:45pm  

Helicopter rides are entirely appropriate for communists. Preferably one way and over ocean.

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