How long will hospital keep someone for free??

[wolfcreek]

How long will the hospital here generally keep an expat before kicking him/her out? The reason I ask is because I have a former teaching coworker, age 72, who had a stroke on Christmas eve and has been hospitalized ever since. Now they have moved him to the cardiology unit and are saying he needs a pacemaker. I notified the US embassy, his wife, his brother, his sister, and his nephew of his situation they day after the stroke happened, by the way.

They all expressed some degree of sadness and thanked me for going by to check on him once a week or so, but none of them have expressed any desire to come here to take care of him, nor have any of them made any effort to speak to his doctors, pay his hospital bill (in excess of $8,000 so far), or do any of the other things which a family would normally do in this situation.

There seems to be some degree of dysfunction amongst the family members, but as I have never met any of them I don't know the reason. I do however know he was in the US army for many years, and that he has been teaching abroad since finishing his PhD in San Diego about 30 years ago. I first worked with him in South Korea in 1998 and have stayed in touch with him 1-2 times per year ever since. By the way, he rarely drinks (almost never), doesn't smoke, and is not one to chase women (making him somewhat of an anomaly among foreign men here in Phnom Penh).

He is partially paralyzed and therefore unable to communicate very well. He does have Medicare, but of course it is not good outside of the US. The hospital staff have asked me about the bill several times now and I have told them that he and his wife own a hotel/restaurant/bar back home, and that he receives about $1,000 per month Social Security (which his wife withdraws from the ATM).

I know the hospital is not a charity per se, and I am wondering just how long they will keep him without getting some money from his family? Fortunately for him, there is another coworker who goes by to shave him and take adult diapers to the staff a few times each week.

[wolfcreek]

Talk about bad timing, he had finished his employment contract, purchased his one way plane ticket home, and was all set to fly out 4 days later.

[wolfcreek]

He was to meet us at Larry's for Christmas dinner at 6:00 pm, and when he didn't show up (he was always very punctual before) we knew something was wrong. Then his apartment owner phoned us and said he had been found unconscious on the bathroom floor, and had apparently been there since the day before.

[violet]

Very sad tale. I have no answers to your question

[badboybubby]

what advice did the embassy give?

i'd give the hospital phone numbers of family and let them deal with it...I presume if the family don't want to be involved then the embassy assume some role...

[wolfcreek]

I gave all of the family contact information which I could find to the embassy duty office who answered the phone (the regular embassy staff were all off of work during the Christmas/New Year holiday period). A few days later someone from the embassy did visit the hospital (as they are required to do), and presumably then contacted the wife and older brother afterward. It is my understanding that the embassy can't provide any other assistance than this....

[wolfcreek]

And the funny thing is that all of the family members claim to be very religious.....

[badboybubby]

that's how it works in the first instance I think...embassy can provide short term loan if appropriate...
more here..
https://travel.state.gov/content/passpo ... tance.html

[wolfcreek]

But he and his wife own a hotel/restaurant/bar back home so I don't think he would qualify for any "destitute US citizen abroad" assistance. And the wife says it would "be difficult" for her to come to Cambodia at present in order to take care of her husband and/or sort out the hospital payment. I guess she is either waiting to see if he dies (thereby being able to avoid the purchase of a plane ticket), or perhaps she is hoping that he will ultimately recover and be able to fly home on his own....

[Tano]

Just to clarify.

1. You said his wife withdraws the SS money here via ATM. Is she a local gal or a Westerner?
2. You also said "he and his wife own a hotel/restaurant/bar back home" Back home where? Back in the States or here in Cambodia?
3. Have you communicated directly with any of his US relatives, either in written or spoken form?
4. If you did talk to them (brother, sister etc) have they indicated any intent of action, such as: to do something about his situation, not do do anything about his situation?

[Tano]

Right.

So she is back in the US, correct? A broken relationship? Norminally married, but went own separate ways?

Edit: It doesn't tally. She withdraws money via ATM back in the US? She also has a restaurant back there? All the proceeds go to her? How then does he survive here here in Cam, especially considering his age?

How long has he lived here?

[badboybubby]

But he and his wife own a hotel/restaurant/bar back home so I don't think he would qualify for any "destitute US citizen abroad" assistance

that's right strictly speaking but if there's no one to fork up the cash the embassy I imagine would step in...there's probably protocols to deal with this stuff...

[Alexandra]

Is the hospital holding the passport as collateral? In my experience with Calmette they do and continue treatment as long as you tell them that the money is coming "soon".

Any chance you can tell us your friend's name?

Bless

[wolfcreek]

Both he and his wife are American citizens, but she has never been here. Their hotel business is near a national park/tourist area back home, not here.

He was working here slightly over one year. He recently completed his employment contract and was all set to fly home 3 days after Christmas.

He taught in Saudi Arabia for about 20 years before coming here and used his income from Saudi to buy land and build the hotel/restaurant/bar on it. His wife is back there overseeing it while having someone else run it. He always said she is a very astute business woman.

She withdraws most of his SS money each month back home via the account (which she has access to). Leaves him a couple of hundred dollars in the account each month, which he combines with his income here to live on. Led a simple life here, but wasn't wanting for anything.

Hospital wanted his passport but was provided with a photocopy instead.

From what he has always told me the relationship with his wife is good. But now I have to question that... Maybe he viewed it as good, but maybe she didn't?? By the way, he is 22 years older than her (if that matters). And, no she is not Asian...

Also he never indicated that his relationship with his brother, his nephew (his brother's son), and his sister was anything other than normal. But often jokingly said they (and his wife) were all religious fanatics.

There seems to be little communication between any of them.

He himself was raised Catholic I gather but has more or less lapsed. But to keep peace with his wife he plays along with the Catholic belief thing still.

Brother and nephew are very devout 7th Day Adventists (if that matters). Not sure about his sister, but they all say (via messages to me) that they are praying hard for him...

No children.

It was almost 20 years ago that I worked with him, not since, not in Cambodia. I hadn't seen him in about 5 months and had invited him to Christmas dinner at Larry's /to catch up on things in general.

One upside to all of this is I got to eat both my dinner plate and his

As I said earlier, all I can do is drop be and see him once or twice a week (usually he is asleep/unconscious, hard to say which). And fortunately he had a coworker at his job here who goes by his hospital most every day.

I gather the hospital doesn't provide any physical therapy, and it is going to be difficult for him to regain the ability to sit up, talk, walk, shower, etc. without therapy. That is one reason why I question his wife's commitment to him.