Kevin Mahoney

The United States health care system is broken! (So is my arm!)

Background of incident:

Picture a fun filled Labor Day in sunny San Diego,  setting up in the morning on the beach area of the bay. Friends gathering and  planning a full day of boating, fun and food!


Now after running last minute errands for supplies and a new battery for my freshly rebuilt old-school 90’s seadoo, I take out one of the boys for a ride. Not even 2 minutes into the ride, an out of control jetski rider, going way too fast, and with no idea of how to operate his boat/machine crashed into the side of me and my seadoo. Fortunately, the boy riding with me was ok and did not get injured, except for probably some shock and slight bumps and bruises.

(The damage to my seadoo, it’s worse than it looks)
(Extensive damage to the hull that is not worth repairing. Seadoo went to the trash.)

Unfortunately, I took the brunt of the hit and knew immediately that my left forearm arm was broken.  I was brought back to the shore by my friends and transported to the hospital. That is where I found out later that I had two fractures in my forearm, 7 broken ribs, and a pneumothorax (collapsed lung) of my left lung.  Due to the fracture of my arm and being in the salt water in the bay, it was mandatory for me to spend four days in the hospital to receive IV antibiotics. 

(Initial image of broken arm)
(Initial repair of broken arm)

I was lucky enough to have some friends and an amazing sister there to take care of me, and my stuff that was left at the bay. My sister stayed with me for over a week to make sure I was OK physically and able to start my recovery, which took about 4 weeks to get back to work. 
(Amazing sister that helped me out! Took her out for dinner before she had to fly home)

Now fast forward to June and I find out one of the bones in my arm (ulnar) did not heal and I had to undergo another surgery to repair the broken bone. The most recent surgery required removal of some of the hardware in my arm, and replacing it with a bone graft from my hip and new metal hardware to restart the healing process. This also required taking a few weeks off of work to recover.  I now have two plates and 14 screws in my arm and have had hundreds of staples and stitches during the surgeries and am still trying to fully recover so that I can get cleared for full work status. 
(The bone break is very clear on the right, 9 months later) 

Now normally when you are in an accident the other persons insurance would cover these bills.  But, you are not required to have insurance on a jetski, and when the person that hit you has nothing, there is nothing to go after. He gets to walk away from the incident with no injuries and not having to take responsibility for what he did. The police did not even issue any citation for it, even when there were plenty of witnesses. 
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-sj9_st8-lc&feature=youtu.be 

Even while having good health insurance that should cover medical bills in case of an accident, some copays are very expensive. The worst part is that the doctors are also able to bill you separately after the insurance has paid them the normal rate that Doctors “in network” would get paid for the remaining amount they feel they want to charge.  It is not right that an attending surgeon in an emergency room can just bill you more later! 

In the case of an emergency accident such as mine, the ambulance brought me to the nearest trauma center that was not busy. It was a very good hospital and they took good care of me, but while laying strapped to a backboard and not being able to move I was not able to say “wait, is this hospital in my network? Let me get online and find an “in-network trauma surgeon.”  That just does not happen in the emergency medical situation that I was in. 

Then, it is not till weeks later that the  bills start to roll in. At first it was a couple hundred here, a few hundred there. Each little follow up has a co-pay too, then they bill you the remaining adjusted amount after insurance pays them. 

Now after having to endure another surgery, I have had to take many days off from work and the bills are rolling in by the thousands. Hopefully I will be back to full duty status soon and will finally be able to work some overtime and get back to doing my part of protecting this country!