Badly Injured Woman Begs Passersby Not ToCall An Ambulance, Due To Cost
The woman was pinned between a train andthe platform in Boston last Friday.
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By Ryan Grenoble
Welcome to America: Where the pain ofcrippling debt from medical bills exceeds the visceral, searing pain of aliterally crippling injury.
This stark epiphany brought to you by MariaCramer, a reporter at the Boston Globe. Last Friday, Cramer encountered a womanduring her commute whose leg slipped into the gap between the train and theplatform, where it was pinned, twisted and bloodied.
Despite being in agony, the 45-year-oldwoman, whose name hasn’t been released, begged bystanders who came to her aidnot to call an ambulance ― because she couldn’t afford it:
Video of the incident released by theMassachusetts Bay Transportation Authority shows the chaotic scene as fellowpassengers gathered to push the train off the woman’s leg. They succeeded infreeing the woman after a couple of coordinated heaves.
MBTA officials told the Boston Globe thatthe gap between the platform and the train is 5 inches.
“When I saw her sitting on the platform, she was shaking, crying, interrible pain and very scared about what this injury would do to herfinancially,” Cramer tweeted after the incident.
According to a police report, the womansuffered a “serious laceration, exposing the bone” on her left thigh. A BostonEMS ambulance took her to Boston Medical Center for surgery.
Boston EMS Chief Jim Hooley told the BostonGlobe the service’s most urgent transport costs for patients typically runbetween $1,200 and $1,900. But ambulance trips in general can soar higher. AWashington Post investigation in 2017 found bills nationwide vary greatlydepending on the company that responds, in some cases exceeding $8,400.
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