Only in the US of A...

[darthfoley]

No, I understand. It\'s an attorney\'s duty upon taking a case to win, of course. I just get edgy with questions like that in cases that, to me, are straight forward.

Thanks for not taking offense.

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Are anyother countries infected with this lawsuit crazyness? What do you have if you have a lawyer up to his neck in cement?? Not enough cement.

 

[luckycharms]

Here\'s one for you (hypothetical of course):

An officer gets a call to respond to a multiple person bar fight in progress. The officer arrives and sees between fifteen and twenty adult male and females fighting in the parking lot. The officer radios for assistance, and calls for emergency vehicles to respond and stage. The fight is broken up, and the reason was two young couples (mid 20s) were hassling two married couples (mid 50s), and the young males made a comment about one of the gentlemen\'s wives. The crowd is being seperated and four arrest are going to be made. Now on scene there are four local police officers, three officers from an nearby town, two county deputies, and six firemen. One guy figures he\'s not going to get arrested and begins to walk away. An officer intervenes and tries to stop him from walking off. This guy starts to punch the officer in the head, both go down in a heap The guy goes to jail for what he did. The officer is off to the hospital for 10 X-Rays of the head, a night stay and four days off of work. Two years later it goes to trial, jury. A three day trial with five officers testiying, one fireman, and a civilian. Six hours of jury deliberation, and the guy gets a fine and supervision for one count agg batt. Well the guy wanted to win the case because he and his lawyer are going to sue the officer, department, emergency services, and the bar owner. The officer finds out that he can\'t sue the guy cause he wasn\'t hurt enough, went back to work too soon, didn\'t need therapy, didn\'t have a permanent injury,....

Now that\'s all hypothetical...
Now imagine if that were true
???!!!

 

[montro]

Originally posted by No Such Agency
Would any Americans here care to comment on the suggestion that a lot of personal-injury lawsuits are pursued simply because the plaintiff cannot otherwise afford their medical bills for even a minor injury? I\'ve heard that even a broken finger let alone a major limb can result in $1000\'s in medical costs.

(sorry I\'m a lurker most of the time) I can comment on a few things being an EMT and working for a private ambulance company and I run volunteer too. My private company will change someone(either the person we\'re transporting or and insurance company) about $800 to move someone from one hospital to another. One the 911 squad I run(volunteer) with we change $400 now this number are not always what we get(numbers based on no drugs being used in transit, if drugs are used, well you get the idea). Some insurances pay a lot less Public health only pays about $35 dollars which doesn\'t even cover the wages of me an my partner.(All ambulances must have 2 EMTs, one to drive one to monitor) Plus just walking into the door of an ER roughly cost about $200 dollars So taking an ambulance ride just cost you $1000 and the prices grow with each doctor that sees you and for how long, plus drugs and time. Now to say that this is unfair you have to remember our company pays a lot to insure each of us, the vehicle, and our equipment. So most of the time we are barely turning a profit. Which for the private company is all they care about, but the 911 well we need that money to actually buy new equipment(its illegal for a hospital to give it to us now) from even the simplest Nasal Cannula to the most expensive of our drugs. So while many people see us as carrion crows, honestly we don\'t do as well as you\'d think.

 

[vincegamer]

Originally posted by montroOn the 911 squad I run (volunteer) with we charge $400. Now these numbers are not always what we get (numbers based on no drugs being used in transit, if drugs are used, well you get the idea).

I assume you mean medicinal drugs used by the patient being transported?
If you mean recreational drugs used by the driver I want a different ambulance!lollol

 

[RedDawn]

(sorry I\'m a lurker most of the time) I can comment on a few things being an EMT and working for a private ambulance company and I run volunteer too. My private company will change someone(either the person we\'re transporting or and insurance company) about $800 to move someone from one hospital to another. One the 911 squad I run(volunteer) with we change $400 now this number are not always what we get(numbers based on no drugs being used in transit, if drugs are used, well you get the idea). Some insurances pay a lot less Public health only pays about $35 dollars which doesn\'t even cover the wages of me an my partner.(All ambulances must have 2 EMTs, one to drive one to monitor) Plus just walking into the door of an ER roughly cost about $200 dollars So taking an ambulance ride just cost you $1000 and the prices grow with each doctor that sees you and for how long, plus drugs and time. Now to say that this is unfair you have to remember our company pays a lot to insure each of us, the vehicle, and our equipment. So most of the time we are barely turning a profit. Which for the private company is all they care about, but the 911 well we need that money to actually buy new equipment(its illegal for a hospital to give it to us now) from even the simplest Nasal Cannula to the most expensive of our drugs. So while many people see us as carrion crows, honestly we don\'t do as well as you\'d think.

Whew - you guys are expensive! We had to call an ambulance for our son when he was five years old (5 years ago), and it cost about $300. He couldn\'t breathe well so he received a breathing treatment in the ambulance. Turns out it was a tumor trapped between his breastbone and trachea so the breathing treatment wasn\'t really needed. He just needed to sit up to get the pressure off his trachea.

On a completely different topic, but the same vein of \"Only in the US of A\" - our wonderful state congressman, well...one of them, decided that parents couldn\'t figure out their kids were heavy/overweight and wanted to pass legislation that required schools to put a BMI (body mass index) score on their REPORT CARDS. Thank goodness that only lasted a couple of days. The governor pretty much told them/him that he would veto it if it came to him AND the congressman had over 700 people complain.

What will they think of next? (sorry no \"idiot\" smiley to put here.)