A California man raced to the aid of a trapped family who were involved in a horrendous auto accident in Elk Grove, California. What does this brave man get for his troubles? He gets a bill for $143 from the paramedics who showed up at the scene after the man had risked his life and rescued the family trapped inside their van.
Derrick DeAnda saw the accident happen and the van he saw just continued to roll over and over. He said he stopped immediately and ran over the the van. When he got to the van, he saw a father and three children, his two year old cradled in his arms, trying to escape but they just couldn’t move.
Derrik DeAnda
“All I can say,” said DeAnda, “is the look on the man’s face when I was able to break that windshield and get him and his kids out of that vehicle was all the thanks I needed. I was glad I was there to help.”
When the first responders and paramedics showed up, there didn’t seem like a whole lot for them to do. DeAnda asked them for some water and one of the paramedics felt his pulse. All seemed well until a couple of weeks later when DeAnda gets a bill for $143 from the ambulance company.
Derrik’s invoice from the Elk Grove FD
DeAnda was shocked to say the least. “So I guess this is how Good Samaritans are treated when they stop at an accident scene to help somebody. Now I have a bill to pay and they won’t let it go.”
Mike McLaughlin, the deputy chief of the Elk Grove fire department said that, “We are obligated to provide the same level of service, the same billing, the same everything, for every patient we encounter.”
He said that DeAnda officially became a patient of theirs when the paramedic felt his pulse and offered him a bottle of water. DeAnda plans on securing legal counsel and fighting the invoice before it gets sold off to the debt collectors. If that happens, the paramedics will get most of the money back. DeAnda believes that this type of behavior from the paramedics and first responders is stopping people from actually trying to help out in a crisis situation.
PHOTO CREDITS: Facebook