[vimto]

He’s recovering but not a quickly as we had hoped. but he’ll be OK. Appreciated.

[mware]

My sister had hers removed on Thanksgiving morning. She was out of work for 4 weeks, and even at that it was kind of rushing it a bit.

She is a nurse who works in a hospital ER.

As stated in earlier posts, as long as you make some sort of monthly payment, (even as small as $25) they dont bother you.

I had an emergency gall bladder operation last year and it ran over 25K.

[MeanWestTexan]

The comments regarding negotiating payment are correct. A 50% reduction is in order, plus you can simply tell them to get stuffed, come collect.

Also, if I recall correctly, I believe Brits abroad are basically insured -— they turn the bill over to the Brit health system and it acts as a psuedo-insurance company.

Next thing to check and see how you paid for the trip. When I use one card (used for this purpose — not otherwise a credit card fan) for travel -— any emergency medical while I am there is covered by an insurance program. This is a very common benefit on Gold/Platinum type cards.