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Lifeguard gets bill [for $2,583] after ocean rescue
koinlocal6.com ^ | July 31, 2012 | Kohr Harlan

Posted on 08/02/2012 6:03:00 PM PDT by grundle

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- Seventeen-year-old John Clark, a senior at Hudson's Bay, says he didn't think twice about running into the ocean to save a drowning 12-year-old.

But what he hasn't stopped thinking about, is the bill he received as a result of his effort.

What started at Rockaway Beach

The guardian angel is busy this week teaching Boy Scouts to tie knots. It's a far cry from the sand at Rockaway Beach nearly a month ago -- when John Clark heard screams for help from a 12-year-old swept out to sea.

The call for help came just five days after Clark had been certified as a lifeguard.

"He had to do something," said Dan Clark, John's dad.

So John Clark dove in -- through the breakers and heavy swells -- to reach the boy in the ocean. Then he calmed the boy down, and kept him afloat.

"I don't know exactly how big the swells were," Clark said, "but they were big enough to push both of us underwater -- all the way down to where we were touching sand."

Jet skis arrived and pulled both of them to shore.

John had a headache, and the 12-year-old was wrapped in a blanket to warm up. Into the ambulance they both went.

'When we got the bill it was a shock'

Clark thought the trip to Tillamook General Hospital was standard procedure; he didn't give it a second thought until several weeks later ... when the bill arrived.

"I am extremely proud of him," his dad tells KOIN. "When we got the bill it was a shock."

The emergency room bill came to $449. The physician's bill was $227. The 15-mile ride in the ambulance to Tillamook: $1,907. The total bill for saving a young man's life? Nearly $2,600.

"I had a feeling there would be a bill," Clark said. "But I didn't know how much it would be, and I kind of feel bad for the fact that it's so expensive. But I couldn't just let the kid go -- I had to do something."

John Clark is a lifeguard at the Firstenburg Community Center pool and the Marshall Community Center in Vancouver. He's the youngest of nine kids; his family is trying to make arrangements to get the bill paid.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: bill; gooddeed; injustice; lifeguard; swimming; washington
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To: grundle

Too bad they didn’t wash ashore dead a few miles north. It would have been free.


41 posted on 08/02/2012 7:25:16 PM PDT by Cyber Liberty (Obama considers the Third World morally superior to the United States.)
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To: luvbach1
What is funny to me was when I saw Vancouver, I first thought Canada, but the hospital bill would not make sense. Then I looked at the map for the location and this beach is west of Portland, Oregon so the 17 year old was from Vancouver, Washington just north of the Oregon border.

This article was on Yahoo earlier today and many were complaining about the lifeguard getting billed.

42 posted on 08/02/2012 7:25:16 PM PDT by I Drive Too Fast
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To: goseminoles

Had your initial reading been correct, I too would have agreed with your conclusions. I do agree that the article, as does so much of what passes for journalism today, is poorly written.


43 posted on 08/02/2012 7:27:22 PM PDT by muir_redwoods (Legalize Freedom!!)
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To: GGpaX4DumpedTea

Pssst, the kid is from Vancouver, Washington. The beach where the near-drowning happened was in Oregon.


44 posted on 08/02/2012 7:27:22 PM PDT by I Drive Too Fast
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To: I Drive Too Fast

Thank you...


45 posted on 08/02/2012 7:58:00 PM PDT by GGpaX4DumpedTea (I am a Tea Party descendant...steeped in the Constitutional Republic given to us by the Founders.)
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To: napscoordinator
I agree with your assessment. He was properly billed.

At 17 he's probably none the wiser of how these situations work. He should've declined treatment at the scene but it appears he was talked into going to a hospital to be examined.

The article doesn't say if he has insurance, through his parents or other outlet, that might cover the bill. It's a poorly written piece designed to get someone else to pay.

46 posted on 08/02/2012 8:19:08 PM PDT by newzjunkey (Pontius Pilate 'voters' are arrogant, delusional, lilly-livered collaborators.)
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To: I Drive Too Fast

Wouldn’t they bill his employer?!? He got the headache directly from saving a drowning kid while on duty. It’s a work-related medical issue.


47 posted on 08/02/2012 8:38:10 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

John Clark is a lifeguard at the Firstenburg Community Center pool and the Marshall Community Center in Vancouver, Washington. He was not a lifeguard at the beach (I thought he was too), but he was just there and reacted using his trining..


48 posted on 08/02/2012 9:23:12 PM PDT by I Drive Too Fast
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To: I Drive Too Fast

He used his training too.


49 posted on 08/02/2012 9:24:21 PM PDT by I Drive Too Fast
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To: Sloth
Who goes to the hospital in an ambulance for a headache? Pay up, dude.

After the bill arrived I think the parents ALSO had a major headache.

50 posted on 08/02/2012 9:27:47 PM PDT by I Drive Too Fast
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To: DeaconBenjamin
But if you do have a problem, they will see you in the ER right away if you come in an ambulance, while it may be 3-4 hours if you are driven in.

WRONG. that's what triage is for. big myth used by drug seekers that claim "chest pain" to get bumped to the head of the line, then yap about my chronic back pain and ran out of lortab. I've had toe pain come in via ambulance that gets sent right out to triage and then the waiting room.

First come first serve is prehistoric. Oh and if you do lie just to get to the front of the line and the nurse finds out..well you might spend the rest of the shift in "time out".

51 posted on 08/02/2012 9:28:39 PM PDT by Dick Vomer (democrats are like flies, whatever they don't eat they sh#t on.)
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To: I Drive Too Fast

Ahhhhh. No good deed goes unpunished.


52 posted on 08/02/2012 9:31:39 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
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To: grundle

Two thousand bucks for a fifteen-mile ride in an ambulance?

He’d have been better off to hire a limo and a couple of hookers.

No wonder everybody’s screaming about the high cost of healthcare.


53 posted on 08/02/2012 10:06:16 PM PDT by Jack Hammer
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To: panaxanax

Was that on June 23rd at Table Mountain?


54 posted on 08/02/2012 10:19:44 PM PDT by oldteen
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To: ontap

Thanks.

Lots of stitches, staples, bruises and such, but he’s back to work.


55 posted on 08/03/2012 5:15:48 AM PDT by panaxanax (Voting 'Third Party' will ensure a Communist-Marxist-Socialist dominated Supreme Court!)
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To: oldteen

“Was that on June 23rd at Table Mountain?”

Not sure about the exact location, but that was about the date he fell.


56 posted on 08/03/2012 5:19:19 AM PDT by panaxanax (Voting 'Third Party' will ensure a Communist-Marxist-Socialist dominated Supreme Court!)
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To: grundle
We should take up a collection for that amount and he should pay it in person after having it converted at a large bank Into Rubles, or Wan or some other Socialistic currency.....
57 posted on 08/03/2012 5:23:27 AM PDT by taildragger (( Palin / Mulally 2012 ))
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To: panaxanax

I happen to hear the call on the scanner. Never found any news items on it so always wondered if it was a local or someone from out of town.

I pray he has healed/is healing well. Must have been a very scary experience for him. Please give him my best.


58 posted on 08/03/2012 10:09:55 AM PDT by oldteen
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To: luvbach1

I’ve never heard of that before. EMTs are taught that a competent adult can always refuse care and transport. Doing either without consent can leave a medic open to criminal charges.


59 posted on 08/03/2012 5:32:46 PM PDT by suthener
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