August 06, 2009

"Come on down, you're the next contestent on the Price is Right!"

I don’t mean to bombard you with posts – but the truth is I’m bored. Most of my days involve sitting in a chair, or on the couching watching TV, reading magazines/books, surfing the interweb, and thinking about what could and should have been. The above in normal life is usually one of my favorite activities, but I’m on day 23 since my injury, and its getting old. It lacks activity, creativity, and is usually a passive activity. Which is why you get the following: a diorama slide show of that fateful day to include the expensive helicopter ride. Amanda says this evidence of my failure to cope or relive the bad parts, for me it’s just a creative outlet and a coping tool to laugh at mistakes you can’t take back.

I drew these myself – as you can tell from the 8th grade level of talent. Picture 1) I’m having a relaxing morning ride, 2) Oops, I’m bleeding from a broken leg, laying the road having rolled an ATV, 3) After 20 minutes, the FFL pilot finds a mountain meadow large enough to take off at altitude with my XL frame, 4) We land at the Medical Center of the Rockies 15 minutes later.




I talked to the Medivac company yesterday (Medtrans out of Missouri) – as they called to check on my satisfaction of the flight and professionalism of their crew (and I also assume to verify that I was still alive and able to pay). I had nothing negative to report, and their representative was very nice and helpful with my questions. Before I publish the actual cost (before insurance, and how I hope my insurance is kind), you should make a guess, it’s kind of fun. After giving an appropriate amount of time for guesses, I’ll let you guys know full bill.

I’ll give you some clues and make a better guess. The helicopter staged out of Erie, CO (about 20 miles south of Loveland), it was a 15 minute flight from Red Feather Lakes to MCR, medics took my vitals, provided an IV and a bag of saline, and gave me two doses of morphine. Don’t let my $$$ editorial comment of my last picture lead you astray, the total charge isn’t divisible by 3. The individual that guesses the closest to the actual cost without going over wins a shoutout from me!

4 comments:

Hannah said...

Well, when my friend Sarah's water broke three weeks early and she was in the hospital until her boy was born, it cost $81,000. So I don't think the ride will have been more than $81,000.

I think you can charter a helicopter here for somewhere around $4,000/day.

I'm going to go with $5,000 but I think it'll be low.

The Coach said...

As I said in person today (always good to see you by the way), my guess is $10,000-12,000 for the trip.

mark said...

Well, my brother the coach wins, as his guess was the closest without going over.

Actual Cost: $16,185

Although, I must say I was disappointed at the lack of responses, I thought there were more "Price is Right" fans.

Matthew said...

Sorry I'm too late to play but my brothers have failed to let me know they are writing entertaining stuff on the interwebs.

The price may seem a little high but having enough leg room was an important consideration for this particular jaunt, the crew to passenger ratio was better than average and morphine (plus seconds!) beats the hell out of peanuts as an in-flight goody.