Alcohol & Drugs: DUI, DWI Drunk driver treated without insurance and without permission at hospital.

[Cokeayn]

Not actually sure if this is the right place to post so please forgive me. This case is semi-unique I suppose so bear with me.

I crashed my car while intoxicated and the police showed up. They requested an ambulance and I was taken to a nearby hospital. At the hospital I was treated with a cat scan without my permission. I was unaware of this fact due to how intoxicated I was and only just found out through a letter mailed to me with a bill from the hospital. I was charged $5,200 roughly and never wanted or needed any of this service. I didn't even honestly need to go to the hospital at all since I wasn't actually treated for anything. Is there anything I can do to reverse what has happened? Am I going to have to pay this bill or is there any way I can fight it?

I may not have told this story with all the major details, so please let me know if you need any other information to make an accurate conclusion. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Just want to know if I have any options.

 

[Antigone]

Not actually sure if this is the right place to post so please forgive me. This case is semi-unique I suppose so bear with me.

I crashed my car while intoxicated and the police showed up. They requested an ambulance and I was taken to a nearby hospital. At the hospital I was treated with a cat scan without my permission. I was unaware of this fact due to how intoxicated I was and only just found out through a letter mailed to me with a bill from the hospital. I was charged $5,200 roughly and never wanted or needed any of this service. I didn't even honestly need to go to the hospital at all since I wasn't actually treated for anything. Is there anything I can do to reverse what has happened? Am I going to have to pay this bill or is there any way I can fight it?

I may not have told this story with all the major details, so please let me know if you need any other information to make an accurate conclusion. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Just want to know if I have any options.

No more information necesseary ~ Expensive lesson to learn, isn't it.

Had the cops left you by the side of the road, you'd be here asking us how much you can sue for because you were neglected.

 

[CdwJava]

If you feel you were too inebriated to consent to the medical treatment, you refuse to pay the bill and force them to take you to civil court. However, you might want to dispose of any criminal case BEFORE you march into a court and admit just how messed up you were because they would most certainly be able to use your admission of impairment against you at the criminal trial.

 

[Toddster]

Seriously? When you are too impaired to make rational judgements (this includes intoxication to the point of a black out) doctors and other officials not only have a right but a responsibility to do what is in your best interest. The accident, or something utterly unrelated to your intoxication or your inebriation, might have been causing your altered mental status. Doing a CT Scan is standard in such cases. You WERE evaluated to see if you needed further treatment. Said evaluation is what the bill is for.

I'd love to be in the courtroom watching if you try to get out of paying that bill for people trying to make sure you're OK after you broke the law by driving while intoxicated. Consider if doctors (or police officers) were bound to follow the requests of drunk accident "victims."

I'd suggest instead of worrying about trying to get out of this bill that you worry about getting substance abuse treatment.

 

[mightymoose]

You probably didn't consent to them towing your vehicle either... that is another bill you will get, along with bills for any property damage you caused.

 

[CdwJava]

And many jurisdictions now bill for fire/paramedic response!

For years they have been able to do so to compensate expenses at the scene of a DUI collision, but it did not generally apply for non-collisions. Now, starting with Roseville, agencies have started charging for such responses even if not part of a collision.

 

[Darsha05]

I totally get the reality of what everyone is saying however...I know...there is always that one...can you be charged for something when you are not in the right mental state to make the informed decision to assume the responsibility, be it money, treatment and so on. I guess what I am trying to say, does a drunk person going to rehab once there and sober realize what this will cost him and decide to leave...but told that he made a contract while impaired. Is that person legally responsible for a decision that he didn't make with full rational capacity regardless of what caused the temporary impairment? Understanding that loss of rights goes with any crime including financial, if he pleads not guilty and wins...would he then still be responsible for a contract he didn't comprehend fully at that time however still entered into unknowingly?

 

[CdwJava]

Understanding that loss of rights goes with any crime including financial, if he pleads not guilty and wins...would he then still be responsible for a contract he didn't comprehend fully at that time however still entered into unknowingly?

That would be up for a civil court to decide, I imagine. He can always refuse to pay a bill and let them sue him.