Hospital Bill, German style

[cachukis]

44. Wisdom pays dividends.

My wife, one night around 11:30 PM, experienced dreadful chest pain. To myself, this is beyond it will be alright in the morning.
Ran a few red lights, but got her into a wheel chair at the emergency room within minutes.
An hour and a half later, I was brought to her room. The attending described her dissected ascending aorta as ruptured and in need of immediate surgery. The surgeon was on his way.
When he arrived he said he would do all that he could to extend her life, but there were no guarantees.
Statistically, there are 46 to 48k deaths annually and only 250 surgeries.
Most rural communities have traumatic care too far away. Rarely are there trained surgeons for these complications.
They removed her frozen heart, repaired a valve, replaced 4 inches of her aorta and sent her to the ICU in 6 hours.
Luckily, her surgeon was well trained to the point he was a teacher of thoracic surgeries.
My wife is now famous as a rare survivor of this calamity and her medical community jumps funny to keep her going.
She turns 80 this August.
Glad she didn't sleep this one off or she would have waked up dead.