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A Surgical Emergency Exposes the Crisis of the Young and Uninsured
When a patient looked anxious before emergency surgery, it turned out he was worried about the hospital bill, not the surgery. He was uninsured.
- Medically reviewed by Patricia Salber, MD, MBA
- April 18, 2021
Some years ago, a few months after I had made the decision to leave academic medicine for the greener pastures of private practice anesthesia, I was called in one night to evaluate a young man in his early thirties with a presumptive diagnosis of appendicitis.
He had classic symptoms(1), was febrile, and had an elevated white blood cell count. A quick ultrasound followed by a CT scan confirmed the diagnosis. Unfortunately, the scan also demonstrated free air in his abdomen. This signaled that his appendix had ruptured, making his surgery urgent.
We had some time together before the rest of the surgical team arrived at the hospital to get the operating room ready, so I was able to chat with him a little. I learned that he was an accountant with his own small firm. He rented an apartment in the Marina, was married, and was thinking about buying a house in Marin near where I lived. He and his wife were expecting their first child.
