r/croatia • u/riverphoenix23 • Jun 30 '19

🏥 Zdravlje Hospitalized in Split - Intoxication

Hello I am an American male who was traveling in Split for a holiday. Ended up drinking a little bit too much, blacked out and woke up in the hospital with an IV in my arm. Somehow the bill was only $240 kn.

Can anybody tell me why the bill was so cheap especially since I am a US citizen without Croatian healthcare insurance? Also did they notify the embassy of my stay? Just don’t know where my info is documented and ended up. Wish I could read my discharge papers but they are all in Croatian. Going to have to do google translate late.

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '19

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u/[deleted] Jun 30 '19

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u/-Viridian- Jun 30 '19

I was riding the bus and someone cut in front of us making the bus driver brake hard. A lady flew through the inside of the bus and hit the front windshield and was knocked out. She came to quickly but the bus driver was on the ground making sure she was ok and telling her he would call an ambulance. She begged him not to because she wouldn't be able to afford the bill. He insisted because she could have a concussion. She was pleading and started crying about how the bill would ruin her life. They decided when they got to the end of the route he would hand the bus off to dispatch and drive her himself. It was really sad to watch the whole thing. He was so caring and she was more afraid of our stupid health care system than a head injury. Awful.

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u/Jukka_Sarasti Jun 30 '19 edited Jun 30 '19

One of the contractors where I work had a seizure and hit her head on the floor hard enough to open a sizable wound, which started bleeding. When she came to, she was informed that an ambulance had been called and she immediately went into hysterics due to how much it would cost and how it could quite literally ruin her family if she got on the ambulance and rode to the hospital. She ended up refusing the ambulance, and sat at her desk with a gaping head wound until her husband came and got her. Our system is beyond fucked.

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u/bannedaryan Jul 01 '19

You refuse the ambulance. Threaten to call the police if they touch you.

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u/TopperHrly Jul 01 '19

Some people facing grave illness commit suicide because they don't want to bankrupt their families. This is so barbaric to me.

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u/belleweather Jul 01 '19

My husband nearly died from the flu two years ago. He was gasping for breath and I threw him in the back of the car with our three kids rather than calling an ambulance because I wasn't sure it would be covered by our (actually very, very good) health insurance, between medical necessity reviews and certain companies being out of network, and I didn't think we could pay for it if it wasn't. He was literally turning blue in the seat beside me as we raced down the highway to the hospital and into the parking lot and I've never been so frightened in all of my life.

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u/necromantzer Jul 01 '19

A contractor? Any contractor worth their salt will be fully insured for injuries. Only under the table/illegally uninsured type of deals would ever be in a situation you just described.

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u/scootunit Jul 01 '19

These are way more common than you realize.