Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • NPR

    Veteran's Appendectomy Launches Excruciating, Months-Long Battle Over Bill

    An uninsured Colorado man who had appendicitis owed $80,232 after two surgeries. After months of negotiating with the hospital, he still owes far more than most insurers would pay for the procedures.
    by Elizabeth Lawrence Aug 25, 2020 5 minutes
    "Before the appendectomy, I was looking for property and homes to purchase, and that is pretty much completely off the table right now," says Shannon Harness, a veteran who was uninsured when he had two appendicitis-related surgeries in 2019. The bills amounted to $80,232.

    In late August 2019, Shannon Harness awoke to serious pain in the lower right side of his abdomen — a telltale sign of appendicitis.

    Harness booked it to the emergency room of the only hospital in the county: Heart of the Rockies Regional Medical Center in Salida, Colo. After a CT scan, doctors told Harness he had acute appendicitis and required immediate surgery.

    A surgeon performed an appendectomy that night and released Harness the next day.

    But a couple of days later, Harness felt sharp pains where his appendix had been. The pain grew until he was on the floor screaming.

    "It was disturbing," says his partner Eliza Novick-Smith. "He has a pretty high pain tolerance," given previous injuries from military service and mountain biking.

    Harness went back to the hospital, where another CT scan revealed a blood clot the size of a brick the appendix tissue in the first surgery, his surgeon says. Harness would need another operation to check for the source of bleeding and to remove the clot.

    You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

    More from NPR

    NPR2 min read
    Police Enter UCLA Anti-war Encampment; Arizona Repeals Civil War-era Abortion Ban
    Law enforcement officers have moved into a pro-Palestinian encampment at UCLA. Arizona lawmakers voted to repeal a Civil War-era abortion ban.
    NPR3 min readAmerican Government
    A Michigan Grassroots Effort Is Raising Reparations, While The Government Lags
    The year 2020 was a turning point for Lansing, Michigan resident Willye Bryan. Between the racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd and the health disparities that hit the African American community during the pandemic, she knew it was t
    NPR4 min read
    A Poet Searches For Answers About The Short Life Of A Writer In 'Traces Of Enayat'
    Poet Iman Mersal's book is a memoir of her search for knowledge about the writer Enayat al-Zayyat; it's a slow, idiosyncratic journey through a layered, changing Cairo — and through her own mind.

    Related Books & Audiobooks