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Turning a Blind Eye to Life and Death

One day, my grandmother went out and didn’t come home. Our whole family spread out to search for her.

We later found out she had been in a traffic accident. A passerby brought her to a local hospital. After initial treatment, doctors found signs of head trauma and transferred her to a central surgical hospital.

When she first arrived at the central hospital, she was still conscious—she could say her name, street, and house number. Since our house was nearby, the hospital sent a nurse to inform us. But at that moment, our whole family was still out searching for her everywhere. It wasn’t until evening that we returned to the local hospital to check again—and that’s when we found her. But it was too late. She had just passed. Her body was still warm.

No words can fully describe our heartbreak. Especially when we saw that the hospital had already prepared her for surgery: she had changed into a patient gown, her head had been shaved and cleaned... everything was ready. They were just waiting for a family member to sign the consent form for the operation.

This happened a long time ago. I was only a few years out of medical school. I knew my grandmother had suffered a traumatic brain injury with internal bleeding. If she had undergone emergency surgery in time, she would’ve had a real chance at survival.

According to hospital regulations, though—an elderly patient over 70, admitted alone, with no one to authorize the surgery—she “passed by the book.” No one was technically at fault. To the hospital staff, she was just another casualty. But to me, she was the dearest person in the world. The pain still lingers inside me. Sometimes I can’t help but choke up with anger. Why didn’t they try harder to save her when there was still hope? If they had, my family and I would have been eternally grateful—no hospital bill, no expression of thanks would have been too much.

Since then, in my years of working in emergency care, I’ve seen this kind of situation nearly every day. Sudden emergencies where patients come in with nothing—no ID, no money. Many are brought in by strangers off the street. Others are brought in by family but lack insurance or don’t have enough cash.

This creates serious challenges for the emergency team. We often need immediate scans, lab tests, sometimes resuscitation, expensive medications, or blood transfusions—and all of this costs money. Some expenses aren’t covered by insurance. If a family can’t or won’t pay, the hospital is left to absorb the cost. And usually, it’s the doctors and nurses on duty who end up pooling their own money to cover the bill. For healthcare workers barely scraping by, this is a huge burden.

That’s why, after admitting a patient, the first thing many staff say is, “Please go pay a deposit.” We know it sounds cold, and we get backlash for it. But we don’t have much choice.

So what have the authorities done to fix this? In my experience, leadership is always very firm about reminding staff to prioritize saving lives. “Patient care comes first,” they say. As for the unpaid costs, every hospital handles them differently. Some use charity funds, others tap into union budgets—or, once again, deduct from the staff’s salaries.

As someone working on the frontlines of emergency medicine, I understand the dilemma. We can’t just stand by and watch someone die. But how many times can we personally foot the bill? Eventually, reality hardens even the most compassionate hearts.

But from the perspective of a victim’s family, a human life is priceless. If someone saves your loved one in a moment of crisis, you’ll never forget it—and you’ll repay that kindness many times over. From what I’ve seen, most families who owe hospital bills do come back to settle them. Of course, some don’t—either due to financial hardship or because they simply can’t pay.

That’s why I believe the healthcare system needs a new emergency billing mechanism. Doctors shouldn’t be forced to wear two hats—saving lives and collecting money.

We should create an emergency payment fund. When someone’s life is in danger, medical staff should be free to focus solely on treatment. Once the emergency phase is over, the entire bill is submitted to the fund. If the case meets the criteria, the fund reimburses the hospital.

After that, the fund can issue an invoice to the patient’s family. If they can’t pay all at once, they can do it in installments. If they genuinely can’t pay, the fund can consider waiving the cost. But in cases of deliberate evasion, the fund can use legal means to recover the money. This fund could be supported by various sources: government funding, health insurance, disaster insurance, and charitable donations.

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