A Peruvian woman was eating pork rinds when she suddenly felt an object stuck in her throat. After vomiting blood, she went to the emergency room thinking she had swallowed a bone – but it was something far more dangerous.
Celia Tello, 68, had to undergo surgery to remove the object, which doctors told Reuters turned out to be a nail that was piercing one of her carotid arteries, blood vessels that the Cleveland Clinic says are “a vital part of your circulatory system.” There is a carotid artery on each side of your neck, each splitting into two branches to help supply blood to your head and neck.
“It never crossed my mind I had this nail or piece of wire,” Tello told Reuters in Spanish.
An x-ray image shows the nail accidentally swallowed by a 68-year-old woman who was eating pork rinds in February.
EsSalud via Reuters
Surgeon Diego Cuipal told Reuters that doctors had to conduct a “careful dissection” to remove the nail and that there was a risk of “detaching a clot that could reach the brain.” X-ray images showed the long nail lodged in her throat.
“We were able to isolate the affected artery and we repaired it by sectioning it and we joined a healthy artery with another healthy artery,” Cuipal said in Spanish.
The incident occurred last month, and Tello has since healed. Now, all that remains is a large scar on her neck from the procedure.
This is not the first time random and dangerous objects have turned up in someone’s food. Last year, stainless steel was found in peanut butter and bone fragments were found in smoked sausage, leading to massive food recalls. The FDA has cautioned that some food contamination is expected, saying that it’s “economically impractical” to avoid some “non-hazardous, naturally occurring, unavoidable defects.”
Li Cohen
Li Cohen is a social media producer and trending content writer for CBS News.
2 Bodies found stuck on floating barriers on Rio Grande – CBS News
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Mexican authorities have recovered two bodies of possible drowning victims from the floating river barrier along the Rio Grande. Texas Governor Greg Abbott claimed the two drowned before they ever reached the controversial barrier. Omar Villafranca reports.
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When a surprise medical emergency, such as a heart attack or incident that requires an airlift leads to a bill you can’t afford to pay, do not fret.
There are tried and true tactics to negotiate down the bill’s amount, as well as other ways to get assistance paying what you owe.
Here are rules of thumbs to follow when a medical bill gives you sticker shock, according to experts.
File an appeal
If your insurer doesn’t want to pay for treatment you received and has denied coverage of a procedure, find out why.
“It’s important to understand the reason for denial,” Braden Pan, founder and CEO of Resolve, a company that helps patients save money on medical bills, told CBS MoneyWatch. “We see claims denied all the time for stupid things, like a patient’s middle initial was wrong, or their birth date was wrong so the insurance company denied coverage,” he said. In cases like that, Resolve can always successfully clear up the claim, he added.
Other times, an insurance company won’t cover the cost of a service that they don’t deem medically necessary. All insurers have appeals processes in place. Find out what their process is and file an appeal arguing your case.
“Very often you can appeal and get things covered, but the success rate is slightly lower,” Pan said. It helps to have a doctor or medical provider bolster your case by documenting why what you’re being billed for was medically necessary.
“You want your doctor to weigh in on your side,” he said.
State lawmakers propose bill to help prevent bankruptcy from medical debt
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Don’t pay sticker price
Consider the total amount of the bill a starting point for negotiations.
“A lot of times, medical providers’ prices are wacky,” Howard Dvorkin, a certified public accountant and chairman of Debt.com, told CBS MoneyWatch.
Dvorkin recalls receiving a bill for a medical incident that required his daughter to be airlifted for treatment. The initial total? $18,000.
He asked the treatment provider what rate they would have billed his insurance company and said: “That’s the rate I’ll pay.”
He ended up paying about $5,000, he recalled. “Every provider has the flexibility to reduce rates,” he said.
Ask for an itemized bill to see exactly what you are being charged for. Go through it line by line to identify any errors, such as charges for services you never received.
“Make sure there’s not a mistake there. Mistakes are made, people bill for the wrong thing and send bills to the wrong patients sometimes. Don’t assume the bill is accurate,” Patricia Kelmar, senior director of Health Care Campaigns for U.S. PIRG EducationFund told CBS MoneyWatch.
You could also inadvertently be billed for a medical test that was ordered but that you never received, for example. “Those are the kinds of things you might be able to flag and have removed,” Kelmar added.
It’s also worth asking the hospital if paying a lump sum, as opposed to paying a bill off in small chunks over time, will earn you a discount.
“Talk to the hospital and ask if they’ll accept a lower amount in exchange for a lump sum settlement,” Pan of Resolve said. “If you owe $5,000, say, ‘I’ll give you $2,500 right now if we can consider this settled and paid in full.'”
Make consistent payments, avoid credit cards
Large medical providers like hospitals, in particular, will often take what you give them, according to Dvorkin. Pay what you can afford on a monthly basis, and it will be applied to your balance.
“As long as you continually pay something, they usually wont turn it back,” he said. “If you owe $1,000 and you can only afford $25 a month, guess what, they’re going to take it.”
People will be getting relief from medical debt on credit reports
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Do not use a credit card to pay off medical debt unless you plan on paying the bill in full at the end of the month, because carrying a credit card balance is costly, while unpaid medical bills don’t charge interest.
“Most medical bills, even if they’re delinquent, will not charge an interest rate. So putting medical bills on credit cards is not a great idea,” Dvorkin said.
Hardship programs
All nonprofit hospitals in the U.S. are supposed to offer financial assistance programs to help patients who cannot afford to pay for their care, according to Kelmar.
Ask your provider if you are eligible for a discounted care program, Dvorkin advised.
Eligibility criteria vary, and they can be difficult to identify, so it pays to do your research on your provider’s program.
They can be cumbersome to navigate and require lots of paperwork, but can save patients thousands of dollars.
Two men who got lost in Death Valley National Park and walked for miles to find help could be facing charges and fines for allegedly driving across a salt flat, officials said Tuesday.
Though using GPS, the two got lost on July 4 after taking a wrong turn onto a gravel road, officials said. There is no cell service in most of the park, and the men spent three hours driving back and forth on the road. Worried about running out of gas, they decided to drive directly across the salt flat to reach Badwater Road, the main paved road in the southern end of the park, according to the park service.
The car got stuck in the mud after less than a mile, officials said.
A car stuck in the mud in Death Valley National Park.
National Park Service
There is no cell service in most of the park, so, unable to call for help, the men walked about a mile across the salt flat to Badwater Road, then another 12 miles north. Around 3 a.m., the men split up, with one of them walking another 6 miles north.
He was picked up by other visitors around 8 a.m. and taken to Furnace Creek, where he was able to call for help.
The good Samaritans who picked up the first man drove back to get the second man, who was suffering from heat illness. The man was taken to a hospital for treatment.
The lowest temperature that evening was 90 degrees Fahrenheit, the park service said.
“Driving off-road is illegal in Death Valley National Park,” the National Park Service said. “In this case, it could have cost their lives.”
The car remained stuck in the salt flat for three weeks until a towing company was able to remove it on July 27, according to the National Park Service. The skid steer used to remove the car was carefully driven in the same tracks the car had created to minimize additional damage to the park, as off-roading can harm plants and animals. Driving on the salt flats often leaves tracks that can scar the desert for decades.
A skid steer was used to carefully extract the car after it got stuck in the mud in Death Valley while traveling across the salt flat.
National Park Service
“Death Valley is an awe-inspiring place that demands our utmost respect and preparedness,” Death Valley Superintendent Mike Reynolds said. “We urge visitors to exercise caution and adhere to park rules. Don’t drive off established roads; this damages the environment and can turn deadly.”
The park visitors who got lost were issued a mandatory court appearance for illegal off-road driving and the resulting damage to the park.
The dual tracks of the car that had gotten stuck and the skid steer used to remove it from a salt flat in Death Valley National Park.
National Park Service
The National Park Service urged visitors to prepare before visiting Death Valley National Park. Officials noted that GPS navigation in the area can be unreliable. Visitors should be sure to bring an up-to-date road map.
Heat-related deaths have been reported at Death Valley this summer. Tourists have flocked to the park this summer to experience the extreme heat.
Aliza Chasan
Aliza Chasan is a digital producer at 60 Minutes and CBS News.
