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TomClash

(11,344 posts)
Thu Aug 2, 2012, 01:25 PM Aug 2012

Lifeguard gets $2,600 bill after rescuing boy from surf [View all]

Seventeen-year-old John Clark of Vancouver, Wash., knew what to do when he saw a boy struggling to stay afloat in the surf off the Oregon coast.

The trained pool lifeguard jumped through the breakers and heavy swells to reach the boy in the ocean, reports KOIN-TV. Clark then calmed the boy and kept him afloat until watercraft arrived to take them to shore.

. . .
An ambulance came and took the 12-year-old boy, wrapped in a towel, and Clark—who complained of a headache—to the hospital.

Clark thought it was standard procedure until a few weeks later when he was shocked at the bill from the hospital.

The emergency room bill came to $449. The physician's bill was $227. The 15-mile ride in the ambulance was $1,907. The total bill for saving a young man's life was nearly $2,600.

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/lifeguard-gets-2-600-bill-rescuing-boy-surf-130832240.html

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unlike our military, which gets free medical care, REAL heros have to pay their own way nt msongs Aug 2012 #1
Do you want free healthcare for yourself? Nuclear Unicorn Aug 2012 #3
Why should the lifeguard pay Politicalboi Aug 2012 #2
What about the company he works for?? RockaFowler Aug 2012 #4
He wasn't on the job. n/t tammywammy Aug 2012 #7
Exactly.. The PATIENT was the 12 yr old...not the lifeguard SoCalDem Aug 2012 #8
He went to the hospital too, complaining of a headache. ryan_cats Aug 2012 #9
"He and his family are making arrangements to pay the bill." MicaelS Aug 2012 #5
Don't you just love the 'for profit' health care system? Lint Head Aug 2012 #6
Save a life Smilo Aug 2012 #10
this is the "Freedom" that the libs want to take away from us Enrique Aug 2012 #11
I hope he doesn't try to spend it hfojvt Aug 2012 #12
Sounds like the ambulance comapny is trying to double dip. whistler162 Aug 2012 #13
I wonder if the ambulance split the cost between the two patients or charged both full price. Liberal_in_LA Aug 2012 #14
This 'journalism' is ATROCIOUS. Was the lifeguard treated for the headache in the Nay Aug 2012 #15
The "Journalist" probably went to the Sarah Palin School of Journalism. madinmaryland Aug 2012 #19
One of the many ways capitalism shreds the ties between human beings and instinctual reactions HiPointDem Aug 2012 #16
No good deed goes unfisted. HughBeaumont Aug 2012 #17
The rescue'd boy's parents Sgent Aug 2012 #18
That is so ridiculous. RebelOne Aug 2012 #20
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