Insurance

Sam is not a happy camper. "Insurance" is a bad word in his vocabulary right now.

Back in October of 2008, Sam was asked by some of his buddies to help load a bull to take to market. The bull was going to require some encouragement to load up in the trailer. Sam is very knowledgable about darting animals and has the equipment to do so. He checked with the local vet and secured the correct drug and instructions on how much to use, blah, blah, blah.

The Day of the Bull (as I call it) was on Columbus Day. To make a long story short, Sam was gored by the bull. Makes sense that the bull would charge the man with the gun; doesn't it? The bull caught Sam in the back just to the right of his spine. Tossed him like a rag doll. The boys loaded Sam in a pickup truck and hauled ass to the hospital. Victor broke the sound barrier getting Sam to town. Once they arrived at the hospital, it was determined that Sam had some internal bleeding around his liver. The attending nurse told Sam to be prepared for surgery. This required being transferred to a trauma center. Sam requested to be taken by ambulance. Request denied and a helicopter ended up taking him to Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Internal bleeding was confirmed but surgery was not required. I brought him home two days later.

Guess how much that helicopter ride cost? $18,000.00 No shit. So Sam is jumping through hoops and trying to get the insurance company and the helicopter company to negoiate the medical costs. There is a helluva lot of red tape involved and I suspect this matter will take a while to get settled.

So my advice to everybody: Make sure you know what kind of coverage you have on your insurance policies. This includes health, home, auto -- all of it! It may sound boring but take some time to look through your policies instead of just filing them in the bottom drawer of the desk.