Editing Motorcycle Accident

On May 17, 2022 I was riding my motorcycle when I apparently got involved in a collision with an Uber. I'd be more specific except that I literally [[wikipedia:Retrograde amnesia|don't remember what happened]]. [[File:MotorcycleAccidentLocation.png|thumb|alt=A screenshot of Google Maps showing where I was in an accident|A screenshot of Google Maps showing where I was in an accident]]

Fortunately, my parents and younger brother were visiting me about then and were able to come see me in the hospital. So it turns out I had a lot of injuries: my sternum, scapula, spleen, ribs, and cervical spine. I also had an incredible concussion. But perhaps worst of all was the fact that my fingers were done on my left hand: I broke my thumb, and had a small fracture on the left ring finger.
[[File:RoshanHospitalBed.jpg|thumb|alt=A photograph of me at ZSFGH showing me in my ICU bed|A photograph of me at ZSFGH showing me in my ICU bed]]

On the day that I had the accident I discovered a cool device called [[wikipedia:fluoroscopy|a fluoroscope]] that is a live-motion X-ray machine, something I did not know was possible. This part is a bit hazy since I was in the ICU and drugged up on painkillers, but I have a vivid memory of the nurse or a doctor trying to put my hand back together while we watched the thumb just fall apart on the fluoroscope.

In my time in the ICU, they decided that I had to get surgery for my hand but that the rest of me would recover in time. The hand surgery involved something called [[wikipedia:Percutaneous Pinning|Percutaneous Pinning]] which involved, in my case, placing two metal rods into my thumb to hold the bones in place as they healed. I was fortunate in that I had good advice through the whole process since my parents are both doctors, and perhaps most relevantly, my dad was the Chairman of [[wikipedia:AO Foundation|AO Trauma India]] - the Indian arm of an organization that focuses on musculoskeletal injuries. Anyway, this surgery went well and the pins were inserted neatly. Unfortunately, the only way to get a digital copy of the x-rays is to get a CD-ROM from them which I have since lost.

A month or so later, I had the pins out, and began hand therapy to fix my mobility. There were a few things the hand therapists offered me, but the best workout for my thumb was loosening and then tightening the Lyft bike seat lever. It requires you to apply a lot of force, and after long enough, my left thumb became strong again. And with the help of the therapists, I was able to achieve quite a bit of mobility with it.

The only really lasting damage is to my ring finger, which is now permanently bent at an angle.
[[File:Roshan's Hand With Bent Ring Finger.png|thumb|alt=A photograph of my hand with a bent ring finger|A photograph of my hand with a bent ring finger]]

The real terror came a few months later when the medical bills arrived. I received an Explanation of Benefits. Despite the fact that the top of the document says "This is not a bill", there is a prominent line telling me that I have to pay some $160k. And that wasn't the only one!
[[File:Anthem Explanation of Benefits Motorcycle Accident.png|thumb|alt=A screenshot of one of my Anthem EOBs after my motorcycle accident. It shows a "You Pay: $160k" line.|A screenshot of one of my Anthem EOBs after my motorcycle accident]]

It turns out that EOBs are, in fact, not bills. The reason my 'not a bill' was so high was that Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital is not in-network with any insurance provider, or at least the trauma center isn't. And it is the only Tier 1 Trauma Center in the region (which was fortunate for me, being so close). Anyway, the reason I didn't eventually end up paying that is that there's a [https://www.dignityhealth.org/socal/locations/californiahospital/patients-and-visitors/for-patients/billing-and-payment/no-surprises-act No Surprises Act] which makes it so that I can't be billed an out-of-network rate for emergency care. Real benefits to there being Democratic Party administrations in power, I suppose.

In the end, I paid a little over $2k for the care, which was top-notch!

[[Category:Stories]]