While driving an all-terrain vehicle for the first time, Dr. Naveed Khan, a 35-year-old radiologist, had a terrible accident.
"As soon as I turned to the side where my body weight was, this two-seater vehicle ... just tilted toward the side and toppled," Khan recalled. It landed on his left arm, tearing it open.
Khan fashioned a tourniquet from his jacket to stanch the bleeding, and a friend called 911. The injury was so bad that Khan had to be taken by helicopter to a trauma center more than a hundred miles away.
Despite eight operations to try to save his left forearm, Khan eventually had it amputated to get on with his life.
The air ambulance company charged $56,603 for the emergency trip; Khan’s insurer paid $11,972. Now he’s on the hook for $44,631, NPR’s Alison Kodjak reports in the latest Bill of the Month story done in conjunction with our partners at Kaiser Health News.
Khan was mortified by the cost of the medevac ride and the amount he’s supposed to pay. “It's whatever price they want to set,” he said. “And to put that onto a person who's already been through what I've been through, I hate to say it, but it's cruel."
Do you have a medical bill you’d like to share with us? You can submit it here.
|
Almost every chair has one of two problems: It’s either too deep or too soft.
"When a chair is too deep, the backrest is too far away from the edge and you can't put your legs [feet] on the ground without slouching," says Jean Couch of Palo Alto, Calif. When a chairs is too soft, it's almost impossible not to slouch.
But NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff reports on three ideas for making the best of even a bad seat: Sit on the edge, create a perch and build out the backrest.
|
Taiyo Masuda/Screenshot by NPR
|
A sea lion smacks a kayaker with an octopus, and the video capturing the unlikely encounter quickly becomes a viral sensation.
The conflict between man and beasts happened off the coast of New Zealand's South Island, where Taiyo Masuda, Kyle Mulinder and friends were going for a paddle.
NPR Science Desk intern Rachel D. Cohen stretched Shots’ mandate to ask some scientists experienced with sea lions and animal cognition what the suddenly famous sea lion might have been thinking.
“The behavior in that video is pretty normal behavior for a sea lion that is feeding on prey that is too big to swallow whole," says Colleen Reichmuth, a researcher at the University of California, Santa Cruz's Institute of Marine Sciences.
"Frequently people observe sea lions doing new things that we did not know they could do," says Peter Cook, who studies animal cognition at the New College of Florida. "There are always a lot of questions, and we make our best guess. But, yeah, they can surprise you."
We hope you enjoy these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots and follow us for daily up-to-the-minute updates at @NPRHealth.
Your Shots editor, Scott Hensley
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment