Just curious- if you knew you were getting a bill for $6k - would you stitch your own wound? There are pretty good instructional videos on you tube and you can practice on a banana.
What would be the expected bill that would drive you to stitch yourself up?
Let’s say the wound is on your shin, not your face.
You can use butterfly closures if you want. I’m just saying at what price when you know the best practice is to get stitches do you go a different route? (I’ve never stitched a human - but it’s pretty easy to stitch a horse- so I assume human is similar and you definitely get a better scar with neat stitches)
And this is based on actions of a friend so I just started getting curious. Health care is so expensive I assume DIY options are increasing- so was curious where others would draw the line. 5k, 10k, 20k?
What is your out of pocket max? For my insurance it’s so much cheaper to have the high-deductible that I’ll either hit my out of pocket max or I save so much that the $6,000 is not a problem. I e I’m better off paying the 6,000 then the high cost of better insurance
Depends. How deep is the 6’ gash? If it’s superficial and I’m not going to bleed out i might Not go to the hospital regardless of cost. Have done so with a 4-5 inch cut so I don’t see why 6’ would be any different.
If it’s to the bone, needs subcutaneous sutures and such I’m probably going to pay a pro.
Some years back I was at a party at a friend’s house and he managed to open up a pretty sweet gash on his forearm with a broken wine bottle. . Fortunately, or not, he was a med student at the time and had a suture kit so he talked me through stitching him up with both of us completely shitfaced.
“Dude, get me my surgical kit,” said a really high college friend of mine after stepping on a resin needle that broke off several inches into his arch.
He had on old WWII field surgeon’s kit that he picked up at an Army & Navy store.
His older house mates refused and, instead, dropped him off at the ER. They didn’t want to get busted because they were high as well, so they didn’t go inside with him.
Vote for Bernie Sanders would be my answer. However, I’m Canadian. Oh, I live in Japan. Doesn’t make any difference. Both countries have socialized medical.
Yeah, I had my latest surgery only 8 days ago. General anesthetic but only day surgery. Follow up consult yesterday.
My out of pocket cost was $0.00, as always. No health insurance, ever.
Of course I pay for it through my taxes, which happen to be lower than they would be in the US anyway.
You have to remember your main audience here, though. If there is one thing that scares them more than AOC, it is an improved and less expensive health care system. That must be resisted at all (and ever increasing) cost.
Since I have no clue what the bill is going to be before hand its kind of a mute point.
My High deductible is only $3500 and since we are only $500 away, and hit it last year, its really a free trip to the ER, cause it seems most years now we hit the deductible. So if not for the stitches it would be for something else, just pull the money from the HSA and move on… I mean HSA money is not real money anyhow (Yes I know it is, but I view it as this slush fund of funny money I have)
To more directly answer your question, I would not and could not stitch myself up. If I new someone who could and the wound looked clean and only needing stitches, I would have someone do it just to save the time of the ER trip. so I guess $10.
But really for most cuts and open wounds, i clean them out and stick a hydrocolloid bandage on them… good to go… I love hydrocolloid bandages
No need for stitches when they have the new zip tie bandages. You place a strong adhesive strip on either side and sinch the ties. Pulls the wound together. Then bandage as usual.