So this tweet went kind of viral tonight, and while I was reading responses a thing happened.

My neighbor tripped down a flight of stairs and put his arm through a single pane window essentially flaying his arm from wrist to bicep.

A thread. https://twitter.com/james_roe/status/1264297708375826432

He and his friends were celebrating Memorial day weekend with a BBQ, don't do that! You should still be social distancing, they were also not wearing masks, don't do that!

I digress. The third thing out of his mouth after saying "I'm Sorry" twice was "How much is an ambulance

going to cost?"

When you have just tripped and fallen down a flight of stairs and put your hand through a window flaying your arm over 12 inches one of the things you are thinking about should not be your future life in debt.

Yet that was his primary concern, fortunately cooler heads prevailed and 911 was called, the fire department was on the scene almost immediately, less than 3 minutes, before I knew it had happened I was hearing sirens.

They were incredibly professional, they dressed his wounds, and were preparing to transport him if the situation was more critical, about 5 minutes after they were on the scene a private ambulance company showed up. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-envision-hlthcr-m-a-kkr/envision-to-sell-ambulance-business-to-kkr-in-2-4-billion-deal-idUSKBN1AO14E

American Medical Response, they are a giant corporation, worth at least 2.4 billion dollars.

They did not further dress my neighbors wounds, after I flagged them into the parking lot the only thing they did was transfer him to a gurney and transport him from the premises.

For the next 20 minutes the fire department cleaned and sanitized any surface my neighbors blood had contacted, assured the assorted friends and family that he would be OK, and did all of the humanitarian work of responding to an emergency.

I do not object to this division of labor, it makes sense that you would have people who would handle the ancillary details of an incident like this as well as people who would transport a victim to seek medical care.

What I object to though is a system where the people who did

the vast majority of the work in terms of real time spent and emotional support delivered will be billing my neighbor nothing.

Their service was free. The car ride to the hospital however will cost him thousands.

We have to do better people.