The United States has also set aside more than 0 billion to reduce the financial burden on COVID-19 patients and their families. (Photo: REUTERS/Representational)
A 70-year-old man, who spent 62 days in a Seattle hospital while battling COVID-19, has received a whopping $1.1 million (over Rs 8.14 crore) bill for his medical expenses, The Seattle Times reported on Saturday.
Michael Flor, who was admitted to Seattle’s Swedish Medical Centre on March 4, joked that his heart almost failed for a second time after he got the hefty hospital bill. “I feel guilty about surviving,” he told Seattle Times. “There’s a sense of ‘why me?’ Why did I deserve all this? Looking at the incredible cost of it all definitely adds to that survivor’s guilt.”
The 181-page bill offers an explanation of the charges, which include — $9,736 per day for his room in the intensive care unit, $82,215 for using a mechanical ventilator for 29 days, and nearly $100,000 for his treatment over two days when the infection caused his heart, kidneys and lungs to fail all at once.
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The health professionals who treated Flor called him a “miracle child” after he managed to successfully fight the deadly infection despite multiple organ failure. At one point, his condition deteriorated so drastically that he was made to speak with his wife and children to say his last goodbyes, a night-shift nurse recalled.
Given that Flor is a beneficiary of the US’ national health insurance program ‘Medicare’, he will not have to pay a vast majority of the expenses, the Seattle Times report said. “It was a million bucks to save my life, and of course I’d say that’s money well-spent,” he told Seattle Times. “But I also know I might be the only one saying that.”
The United States has also set aside more than $100 billion to reduce the financial burden on COVID-19 patients and their families. With over two million cases and 115,000 deaths, the US has been the worst-hit by the ongoing global health crisis, according to data released by Johns Hopkins University.