This is the story of a two year old girl named Lily who somehow opened a bottle of Dramamine. The girl’s mother, 36-year-old Lindsay Clark, didn’t know how many pills she had eaten, or if she truly needed to go to the ER.
But Clark knew that the emergency room can be expensive. A few months earlier, she’d gone to the emergency after falling down her friend’s stairs. She ended up with a $1,200 bill that she still hadn’t paid.
Still in debt from a previous emergency, and hesitant to take on the additional large debt of another ER visit, Mom and Dad tried to determine if a visit was absolutely necessary.
[Clark] called a poison control hotline and the answer was yes: A Dramamine overdose could lead to seizures. The little girl should be monitored. When Clark asked what doctors would likely do, she was told they would likely give her activated charcoal and possibly pump her stomach.
The parents decided to give Lily activated charcoal themselves, and then they drove to the ER. But instead of going inside, Lily watched a video in the car while her parents observed her.
“We were just sitting there, facing the door and watching Lily,” Clark says. “We chose the second row because we wanted to be close to the entrance, but also trying to look inconspicuous.”
The Clarks waited in the parking lot for a few hours, and Lily didn’t show any symptoms. They drove home without setting foot in the emergency room.
“I was sitting there thinking, am I a bad person?” Clark says. “I’m weighing my daughter’s life against how much the bill is going to cost.”
The rest of the article explains how many Americans are afraid of using the emergency room because they are afraid of the bills that come later.
Parents of young children are now rolling the dice on their children’s health because the outrageous cost of medical care, even with insurance.
The Clarke’s were lucky. Imagine the pain of those parents who roll snake-eyes instead …
We have a system where sick people avoid obtaining care, even emergency care for young children, because of the cost. We cannot allow this situation to continue. #MedicareForAll