DH just been taken to french hospital

[AirbnbhostAWOL]

On holiday in France. DH woke me up at 12.30 with intense pain in his left shoulder. Couldn't get comfortable. I put some voltarol on it and we propped him up on the bed, and turned the light out. Next thing I know he's fainted/lost consciousness, and is making a terrible groaning noise and his eyes have rolled back in his head. I can't rouse him, and obviously called emergency services.
He then woke up but was very confused and sweaty. We spent a long time using a combination of my long ago a level french and the operators broken English, but they sent an ambulance.
By the time the ambulance arrived he was better, although in a lot of pain and very pale and clammy. They had an amazing interpreter on board, they took his vitals, and seems convinced it is not his heart, but have taken him to hospital anyway.
I am in the apartment with two DC who slept through almost the whole thing (DD appeared right at the end but half asleep and has gone back to bed). He seemed ok and is obviously in the right place, but now the adrenaline has left my system I feel very shaky and tearful. It was fucking terrifying when he lost consciousness, I genuinely thought he was dying.
If anyone is up to keep me company it would be appreciated

Although what is your excess? And will you also be charged for the 7 hours in hospital?

still get the invoice though so you can decide later if necessary

@T1Dmama

VERY unprofessional of the ambulance service to stop for cash on the way… and awful to not give him a receipt of some sort.. They would know about holiday insurance… or insurance in general!

If it had been a genuine blues and twos to Urgences you may have a point.

OTOH if the telephone assessor decided it wasn’t worthy of that then it’s a different matter.

It’s just possible maybe the private company involved has had difficulties with foreign visitors and/or their insurance companies in the past and had no intention of being caught out again.

I’m not sure if the ambulance team is going to accept what to their eyes is a piece of random paper in English as proof they would get paid, maybe some would take the risk, some would not…how many times have we read on MN of people not having travel insurance?

I think it’s maybe worth emphasising that in a genuine crisis where time was genuinely an issue they (or more likely the Sapeur Pompiers) would have gone straight to hospital.

“will you also be charged for the 7 hours in hospital?”

If the OP’s partner was not admitted as a result of going to A&E there may well be a charge..

I am very surprised you had to pay for the ambulance. did you manage to clarify that?

Having to pay for the ambulance somehow by some means shouldn’t be a surprise, it looks like in this case it’s the how and when that seems to be the issue.

Why are you surprised?

in 1991 I was sent an invoice in uk for ambulance ride as my do had been hit by a driver. The NHS want to recoup their money - so it was paid from insurance

I for one was under the impression that if you have a GHIC card and you are able to present it you have access to healthcare as French citizens do. But maybe some services, such as ambulances, are charged to non French?

Charging for ambulances has nothing to do with somebody being a French Citizen or not.

Your Uk issued GHIC gives you roughly/exactly the same cover as that a French citizen/resident gets with their Carte Vital, which I cannot emphasise enough does not mean everything is free at the point of delivery.

Transport to/from hospital, either for emergency purposes or a routine appointment is one area where French system is different to the UK - except in dire emergency you almost certainly will end up paying for the ride, French, Brit, Dutch or whatever.

Most French residents anticipate these types of charges by contributing to private insurance (the aforementioned Mutuelles) to help pay the additionals (e.g. transport)

Similarly a visitor to France would also be expected to pay any additional charges, either out of their own pocket or via travel insurance.

There really is no French citizen vs non-French citizen factor lurking here with regard to charges, it’s just the way the French system works…you get some stuff free, you pay for other stuff.

Thank you for the explanation, it's now clear!

I had to have a general anesthetic for a small op . I knew I had to have someone pick me up later but I didn’t realize that I had to have someone with me overnight. I was told that if I couldn’t arrange this I would have to stay and pay. No bed blocking here.

@AirbnbhostAWOL really random but have you looked into non epileptic attack disorder as that is seizures but they have no physical cause it’s very complicated but it could be a possibility and maybe something to look into your body basically shuts down like an epileptic seizure but it doesn’t have the same cause as an epileptic seizure it’s your brains way of shutting down kind of a bit like fight or flight mode or if you get overwhelmed if that even makes any sense. It doesn’t show up in bloods but can show up on an eeg but it doesn’t affect the brain signals at all. If you google it Mind I think it is website has a really good information page about it.

I had bursitis in my left shoulder and I too passed out from the pain. It's horrendous, worse than labour pain (in my case).