Brit teacher in Cambodia told by docs to cough up £20k or lose his infected lung

[geovalin]

Anthony Igoe, 31, from Clydebank, Scotland, has picked up two bacterial infections while on holiday with partner Alana Fonseca, who claims insurance firm Cigna is refusing to pay

 

A sick Brit teacher in Cambodia has been given a brutal ultimatum - cough up £20,000 or lose one of his lungs. Anthony Igoe was hospitalised with a serious lung infection but medics in the south-east Asian country have told him he must pay for the antibiotics himself.

 

 

The 31-year-old's family, from Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, Scotland, are scrambling to raise the cash or doctors will simply remove the infected lung.

 

read more https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brit-teacher-cambodia-told-docs-22067761

[tifino]

so... the lung 'Removal' per se option, is Free then?

[robblok]

1 minute ago, tifino said:

so... the lung 'Removal' per se option, is Free then?

Probably cheaper (though its a bit strange) sounds like a piece to get sympathy and money. 

[Sheryl]

According to the article he became ill in January hut took out the insurance in February.

[4reaL]

5 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

According to the article he became ill in January hut took out the insurance in February.

 

Is lung removal actually a thing ?

[Sheryl]

14 minutes ago, 4reaL said:

 

Is lung removal actually a thing ?

Certainly. Removal of a whole lung or parts of it.

[Canuck1966]

Lung infection, not Chinese flu?

 

Don't test, don't tell

 

Like all the SEA third world countries

[Proboscis]

As I understand it, removal of a lung or part of it is for conditions such as lung cancer. Removal of a lung due to infection I have not heard of.

 

In addition, the cost of a partial or full lung removal would far outweigh the costs of treatment, including antibiotics.

 

Therefore I think there is something strange about this story. The only point that might ring true is that it is Cigna that is refusing to pay for treatment. They did this before in the case of a Canadian who got sick while in Thailand.

[topt]

7 minutes ago, Proboscis said:

The only point that might ring true is that it is Cigna that is refusing to pay for treatment. They did this before in the case of a Canadian who got sick while in Thailand.

And possibly rightly so if he took it out after getting ill as suggested by the linked article.

It would appear (based on what is written which is not that extensive on the subject) to be yet another example of someone going abroad without bothering to get themselves covered during their trip.

[phantomfiddler]

He should jump on a bus or plane and head for Thailand, where he could doubtless receive the required medicine and excellent care at no great cost. I recently had a ruptured appendix removed and 4 days in a private room, splendid care throughout, for just over $2,000.

[lee b]

3 hours ago, Sheryl said:

According to the article he became ill in January hut took out the insurance in February.

Very understandable why the insurance company has refused to pay. Is this not a kind of fraud? ????

[sapson]

20 thousand pounds roughly 780,000 baht seems an enormous sum for intravenous antibiotics and follow up xrays etc...... diidnt know Bangkok Hospital had a branch in Cambodia.

[Sheryl]

It is not exactly a branch. It is a "sister hospital", joint venture between some Cambodian tycoons and Bangkok Hospital.

 

Unfortunately due to COVID restrictions travel to either Thailand or Viet Nam is not possible. Otherwise would be a good idea and could be done by land ambulance.

 

However if he requires expensive medication even Thailand or VN would be costly. We don't know the nature of the lung infection but if it is TB, a full course of TB treatment is expensive and even more so if it is a drug resistant variant.

 

The talk of otherwise removing part or all of a lung is suggestive of TB.

[Kerryd]

Story smells worse than that Fermented Fish dish that is killing everyone.
I knew it before I even clicked on the story. Sure enough, got the GoFundMe link in there. What a surprise. Seems they've reached 75% of their goal. (It started on 14 May by the way.)

In the Mirror he's a "Brit Teacher" but in the Daily Record he's a "Sick Scot".

No health insurance.
Gets sick and goes to the hospital on 25 January. Supposedly gets better.
Almost immediately goes out and buys Insurance with coverage starting 4 February. (His partner claims "he seemed fine" when they applied for the policy.)
Supposedly starts a teaching job on 20 Feb.
Schools close in March (because of the virus I guess), they start to work from home.
He gets (really) sick again in March. Doesn't get better. Supposedly loses 20 kilos in one month. Still very sick in April. Apparently didn't go to the hospital at all in March/April despite how sick he supposedly was.
Goes to the Hospital in 1st week of May. 8 weeks after getting Insurance.
2 weeks later tries to claim on insurance.
Insurance company says no. (It's almost like they've seen people do the exact same thing before ! Get sick, buy an Insurance policy and then try to make a claim on it within a couple of weeks. Kind of like people who hurt themselves at home and drag their @ss into work and then try to claim they were hurt at work.)

They make a GoFundMe and then (tell ? sell ?) their story to a media outlet known for such stories.

Now of course they want to blame the insurance company. 

Reminds me of the 2 Irish guys a couple years ago. Sold/Told their story to (the Mirror was it ?) about how they'd been "drugged and raped" in Thailand and their insurance company wouldn't pay for AIDs tests.
Of course, they never reported the "drugging and rape" to the police and claimed they had the tests done after they returned home.

However the real story supposedly was that they'd been out partying and having unprotected sex with some of the local boys and then went to the hospital to get AIDs tests and wanted their Insurance company to pay for them.
When the Insurer refused, they went home and sold their story (and probably used it to get tested at home at well).

Update.
Apparently the guys partner Alana contacted an "online Facebook news site" to correct the story (somewhat) as they claim that the Daily Record misquoted them. (No reason given for why they apparently didn't contact the Daily Record though.)
Now it's:
"He is in a chronic condition and I refuse to take him somewhere where he might get ill again or not receive the same medication. After being in this hospital for 3 weeks, Anthony has recovered somewhat and in the past few days has been more mobile. He has been fever free for a week, and his abscess has finally shown signs of decreasing in size according to the last tests! This is great news for us and it means the antibiotics are finally taking effect.
 

The doctors are very hopeful that he will be able to stay one more week on the intravenous antibiotics, and then they will keep him for another 3 days under observation, with only oral antibiotics. That would make it a full month being hospitalised, and he will hopefully be back at home by the 2nd or June. After he is finally released from hospital, we will have to ensure he continues with his rehabilitation and he will continue to take oral antibiotics for a minimum of 6 months or so."
https://cne.<deleted>/2020/05/24/hospitalized-scottish-man-speaks-about-uk-news-report/?fbclid=IwAR0zfTYWXINnlxGESLVledtZiP0X0hGV3haA73EqSpPNknPJV7h73mSjwL8

No mention of "pay or we remove the lung now".
Oh and he is a smoker and she thinks his "cough" was from him trying to quit ! (Seriously.)
"He developed a continuous cough, which we started to think could be a cough due him quitting smoking at the time."

I used to have a cough and when I quit smoking the coughing stopped soon after. Never heard of anyone starting to cough after they quit.

Oh look in the comments on that story. In the "Update" she doesn't say anything about "pay up or we remove the lung". Apparently she said exactly that on the GoFundMe page as well and then edited it to remove that bit.

Seems she decided to "soften" her story and switch the blame from the hospital to the Insurance company (looks like she doesn't want to upset the wrong people).

Still sounds like a load of BS to me. He hasn't posted anything on his FB page since April of last year. She doesn't post much herself, including nothing at all between the end of Oct and the 1st of March.
And from 1 March to 14 May she makes a total of 2 posts. From October until May she makes no mention of her partner. Zero mention of the "love of her life" being sick, "getting better", buying insurance, starting new jobs, working from home, getting really sick again, going to the hospital on 3 May or staying there for 2 weeks.

Until she starts posting almost every day from the 14th on. Same pic of the guy each time despite posting different pics on the GoFundMe page. GoFundMe link on every post.

Looking at the stories (and where they were printed), the GoFundMe and their Facebook pages, I'd say it's all BS.

The story has all the characteristics of a scam story. No mention of what city they're in. What hospital they're in. Make sure the photos (if any) are very generic and can't pin down a date/time/location that someone could check.
 

Edited May 26, 2020 by Kerryd

[soalbundy]

5 hours ago, 4reaL said:

 

Is lung removal actually a thing ?

Yes, I knew a French expat with only one lung, one was removed in France due to cancer.

[nahkit]

2 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

He should jump on a bus or plane and head for Thailand, where he could doubtless receive the required medicine and excellent care at no great cost. I recently had a ruptured appendix removed and 4 days in a private room, splendid care throughout, for just over $2,000.

Well he could if it wasn't for the fact that the Thai borders are closed to foreigners.

[Kerryd]

In the news articles she states:
"We have literally been told the doctors at the public hospital will have to remove Anthony’s lung because the drugs he needs are too expensive if we can’t pay for them.”

So first its a "cheap" hospital (in January), then in May they go to a "public hospital", which is then referred to as an "internationally recognized hospital" on the GoFundMe.

And I really have a hard time believing that a series of antibiotics to cure a lung infection would cost more than removing the lung itself.
 

Treatment

When a melioidosis infection is diagnosed, the disease can be treated with the use of appropriate medication.

The type of infection and the course of treatment will impact long-term outcome. Treatment generally starts with intravenous (within a vein) antimicrobial therapy for 10-14 days, followed by 3-6 months of oral antimicrobial therapy.

Antimicrobial agents that have been effective against melioidosis include:

Intravenous therapy consists of:

• Ceftazidime administered every 6-8 hours
• OR
• Meropenem administered every 8 hours

Oral antimicrobial therapy consists of:

• Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole taken every 12 hours
• OR
• Amoxicillin/clavulanic acid (co-amoxiclav) taken every 8 hours

https://www.cdc.gov/melioidosis/treatment/index.html
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4236584/

Ceftazidime (one dose every 6-8 hours for 10-14 days. Max would be 4 doses/day x 14 days = 56.) Max dosage is 2 gm and it seems to cost about $50/2 gm so $2800 US.
Meropenem (one dose every 8 hours. 3 per day, 14 days = 42 doses.) $126/dose (max 1gm/dose) = $5,290 US.

Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (6 tablets/day for 3-6 months = 540-1080 tablets. Cost for 20 tablets - $5.00 (Walmart) = $135 - $270.00

So total cost of the meds would be around $8,360 assuming maximum dosages for the maximum prescribed time.

Now the prices will be different in Cambodia. Assuming they use the proper, name brand drugs and not some much cheaper generic knock-offs. 

Still a long, long way off of £20,000 ($24,600 USD) I'd say. 

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, Proboscis said:

As I understand it, removal of a lung or part of it is for conditions such as lung cancer. Removal of a lung due to infection I have not heard of.

I'm guessing the infection can be cured with medication, however without medication the infection will spread, so they will take out the lung as an option.

But he has to pay for the medication!

[Keyser Soze666]

Told to 'cough up'

 

I suppose someone thought it was funny.

[Burma Bill]

2 hours ago, sapson said:

20 thousand pounds roughly 780,000 baht seems an enormous sum for intravenous antibiotics and follow up xrays etc...... diidnt know Bangkok Hospital had a branch in Cambodia.

Yes indeed 2 - one in Siem Reap and one in Phnom Penh!

[sapson]

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

joint venture between some Cambodian tycoons and Bangkok Hospital.

That explains the cost, I wonder if its COVID related, but i guess that would be the same as Thailand and not quickly publicised.

 

I truly hope with youth on his side he pulls through.

[from the home of CC]

35 minutes ago, Keyser Soze666 said:

Told to 'cough up'

 

I suppose someone thought it was funny.

yeah there's a real (dim) wit headline writer out there, follows the lead of most of tabloid garbage out there..

[Letseng]

5 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

He should jump on a bus or plane and head for Thailand, where he could doubtless receive the required medicine and excellent care at no great cost. I recently had a ruptured appendix removed and 4 days in a private room, splendid care throughout, for just over $2,000.

At present you are not going to jump on to anything. Borders are not open. For a Brit,  Thai private hospitals may not be so cheap. In fact, Thai hospitals aren't cheap.

[yogi100]

4 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Story smells worse than that Fermented Fish dish that is killing everyone.
I knew it before I even clicked on the story. Sure enough, got the GoFundMe link in there. What a surprise. Seems they've reached 75% of their goal. (It started on 14 May by the way.)

In the Mirror he's a "Brit Teacher" but in the Daily Record he's a "Sick Scot".

No health insurance.
Gets sick and goes to the hospital on 25 January. Supposedly gets better.
Almost immediately goes out and buys Insurance with coverage starting 4 February. (His partner claims "he seemed fine" when they applied for the policy.)
Supposedly starts a teaching job on 20 Feb.
Schools close in March (because of the virus I guess), they start to work from home.
He gets (really) sick again in March. Doesn't get better. Supposedly loses 20 kilos in one month. Still very sick in April. Apparently didn't go to the hospital at all in March/April despite how sick he supposedly was.
Goes to the Hospital in 1st week of May. 8 weeks after getting Insurance.
2 weeks later tries to claim on insurance.
Insurance company says no. (It's almost like they've seen people do the exact same thing before ! Get sick, buy an Insurance policy and then try to make a claim on it within a couple of weeks. Kind of like people who hurt themselves at home and drag their @ss into work and then try to claim they were hurt at work.)

They make a GoFundMe and then (tell ? sell ?) their story to a media outlet known for such stories.

Now of course they want to blame the insurance company. 

Reminds me of the 2 Irish guys a couple years ago. Sold/Told their story to (the Mirror was it ?) about how they'd been "drugged and raped" in Thailand and their insurance company wouldn't pay for AIDs tests.
Of course, they never reported the "drugging and rape" to the police and claimed they had the tests done after they returned home.

However the real story supposedly was that they'd been out partying and having unprotected sex with some of the local boys and then went to the hospital to get AIDs tests and wanted their Insurance company to pay for them.
When the Insurer refused, they went home and sold their story (and probably used it to get tested at home at well).

Update.
Apparently the guys partner Alana contacted an "online Facebook news site" to correct the story (somewhat) as they claim that the Daily Record misquoted them. (No reason given for why they apparently didn't contact the Daily Record though.)
Now it's:
"He is in a chronic condition and I refuse to take him somewhere where he might get ill again or not receive the same medication. After being in this hospital for 3 weeks, Anthony has recovered somewhat and in the past few days has been more mobile. He has been fever free for a week, and his abscess has finally shown signs of decreasing in size according to the last tests! This is great news for us and it means the antibiotics are finally taking effect.
 

The doctors are very hopeful that he will be able to stay one more week on the intravenous antibiotics, and then they will keep him for another 3 days under observation, with only oral antibiotics. That would make it a full month being hospitalised, and he will hopefully be back at home by the 2nd or June. After he is finally released from hospital, we will have to ensure he continues with his rehabilitation and he will continue to take oral antibiotics for a minimum of 6 months or so."
https://cne.<deleted>/2020/05/24/hospitalized-scottish-man-speaks-about-uk-news-report/?fbclid=IwAR0zfTYWXINnlxGESLVledtZiP0X0hGV3haA73EqSpPNknPJV7h73mSjwL8

No mention of "pay or we remove the lung now".
Oh and he is a smoker and she thinks his "cough" was from him trying to quit ! (Seriously.)
"He developed a continuous cough, which we started to think could be a cough due him quitting smoking at the time."

I used to have a cough and when I quit smoking the coughing stopped soon after. Never heard of anyone starting to cough after they quit.

Oh look in the comments on that story. In the "Update" she doesn't say anything about "pay up or we remove the lung". Apparently she said exactly that on the GoFundMe page as well and then edited it to remove that bit.

Seems she decided to "soften" her story and switch the blame from the hospital to the Insurance company (looks like she doesn't want to upset the wrong people).

Still sounds like a load of BS to me. He hasn't posted anything on his FB page since April of last year. She doesn't post much herself, including nothing at all between the end of Oct and the 1st of March.
And from 1 March to 14 May she makes a total of 2 posts. From October until May she makes no mention of her partner. Zero mention of the "love of her life" being sick, "getting better", buying insurance, starting new jobs, working from home, getting really sick again, going to the hospital on 3 May or staying there for 2 weeks.

Until she starts posting almost every day from the 14th on. Same pic of the guy each time despite posting different pics on the GoFundMe page. GoFundMe link on every post.

Looking at the stories (and where they were printed), the GoFundMe and their Facebook pages, I'd say it's all BS.

The story has all the characteristics of a scam story. No mention of what city they're in. What hospital they're in. Make sure the photos (if any) are very generic and can't pin down a date/time/location that someone could check.
 

I had coughing fits after I quit smoking.

 

The doctor said it was quite common as the coughing was caused by tiny hairs that start growing in your respiratory system that the smoking had previously destroyed.

 

After a few weeks the coughing stopped.

[holy cow cm]

Surely for 20k he could have a lung removed and a new one put in. It's Cambodia for Chriminy sakes. Easy to do in chain and India. 

[purcho]

7 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

He should jump on a bus or plane and head for Thailand, where he could doubtless receive the required medicine and excellent care at no great cost. I recently had a ruptured appendix removed and 4 days in a private room, splendid care throughout, for just over $2,000.

Do you mind sharing which hospital that was and the city . Thanks

[mvdf]

6 hours ago, Kerryd said:

Story smells worse than that Fermented Fish dish that is killing everyone.
I knew it before I even clicked on the story. Sure enough, got the GoFundMe link in there. What a surprise. Seems they've reached 75% of their goal. (It started on 14 May by the way.)

In the Mirror he's a "Brit Teacher" but in the Daily Record he's a "Sick Scot".

No health insurance.
Gets sick and goes to the hospital on 25 January. Supposedly gets better.
Almost immediately goes out and buys Insurance with coverage starting 4 February. (His partner claims "he seemed fine" when they applied for the policy.)
Supposedly starts a teaching job on 20 Feb.
Schools close in March (because of the virus I guess), they start to work from home.
He gets (really) sick again in March. Doesn't get better. Supposedly loses 20 kilos in one month. Still very sick in April. Apparently didn't go to the hospital at all in March/April despite how sick he supposedly was.
Goes to the Hospital in 1st week of May. 8 weeks after getting Insurance.
2 weeks later tries to claim on insurance.
Insurance company says no. (It's almost like they've seen people do the exact same thing before ! Get sick, buy an Insurance policy and then try to make a claim on it within a couple of weeks. Kind of like people who hurt themselves at home and drag their @ss into work and then try to claim they were hurt at work.)

They make a GoFundMe and then (tell ? sell ?) their story to a media outlet known for such stories.

Now of course they want to blame the insurance company. 

Reminds me of the 2 Irish guys a couple years ago. Sold/Told their story to (the Mirror was it ?) about how they'd been "drugged and raped" in Thailand and their insurance company wouldn't pay for AIDs tests.
Of course, they never reported the "drugging and rape" to the police and claimed they had the tests done after they returned home.

However the real story supposedly was that they'd been out partying and having unprotected sex with some of the local boys and then went to the hospital to get AIDs tests and wanted their Insurance company to pay for them.
When the Insurer refused, they went home and sold their story (and probably used it to get tested at home at well).

Update.
Apparently the guys partner Alana contacted an "online Facebook news site" to correct the story (somewhat) as they claim that the Daily Record misquoted them. (No reason given for why they apparently didn't contact the Daily Record though.)
Now it's:
"He is in a chronic condition and I refuse to take him somewhere where he might get ill again or not receive the same medication. After being in this hospital for 3 weeks, Anthony has recovered somewhat and in the past few days has been more mobile. He has been fever free for a week, and his abscess has finally shown signs of decreasing in size according to the last tests! This is great news for us and it means the antibiotics are finally taking effect.
 

The doctors are very hopeful that he will be able to stay one more week on the intravenous antibiotics, and then they will keep him for another 3 days under observation, with only oral antibiotics. That would make it a full month being hospitalised, and he will hopefully be back at home by the 2nd or June. After he is finally released from hospital, we will have to ensure he continues with his rehabilitation and he will continue to take oral antibiotics for a minimum of 6 months or so."
https://cne.<deleted>/2020/05/24/hospitalized-scottish-man-speaks-about-uk-news-report/?fbclid=IwAR0zfTYWXINnlxGESLVledtZiP0X0hGV3haA73EqSpPNknPJV7h73mSjwL8

No mention of "pay or we remove the lung now".
Oh and he is a smoker and she thinks his "cough" was from him trying to quit ! (Seriously.)
"He developed a continuous cough, which we started to think could be a cough due him quitting smoking at the time."

I used to have a cough and when I quit smoking the coughing stopped soon after. Never heard of anyone starting to cough after they quit.

Oh look in the comments on that story. In the "Update" she doesn't say anything about "pay up or we remove the lung". Apparently she said exactly that on the GoFundMe page as well and then edited it to remove that bit.

Seems she decided to "soften" her story and switch the blame from the hospital to the Insurance company (looks like she doesn't want to upset the wrong people).

Still sounds like a load of BS to me. He hasn't posted anything on his FB page since April of last year. She doesn't post much herself, including nothing at all between the end of Oct and the 1st of March.
And from 1 March to 14 May she makes a total of 2 posts. From October until May she makes no mention of her partner. Zero mention of the "love of her life" being sick, "getting better", buying insurance, starting new jobs, working from home, getting really sick again, going to the hospital on 3 May or staying there for 2 weeks.

Until she starts posting almost every day from the 14th on. Same pic of the guy each time despite posting different pics on the GoFundMe page. GoFundMe link on every post.

Looking at the stories (and where they were printed), the GoFundMe and their Facebook pages, I'd say it's all BS.

The story has all the characteristics of a scam story. No mention of what city they're in. What hospital they're in. Make sure the photos (if any) are very generic and can't pin down a date/time/location that someone could check.
 

 

And not only that... the Cambodian health ministry says it's a fake story they made up!

 

http://www.freshnewsasia.com/index.php/en/localnews/160207-2020-05-23-10-53-32.html

 

 

[NoshowJones]

17 hours ago, lee b said:

Very understandable why the insurance company has refused to pay. Is this not a kind of fraud? ????

It is usually the insurance companies that commit frauds using any excuse or technicality to avoid

paying out, although that doesn't seem to be the case here.

[Sheryl]

14 hours ago, holy cow cm said:

Surely for 20k he could have a lung removed and a new one put in. It's Cambodia for Chriminy sakes. Easy to do in chain and India. 

I assure you they cannot do lung transplants in Cambodia or anything else remotely that complex.

 

Very low quality of medical care. Those Cambodians who can mamage it go to Thailand or VN for medical care.

 

In addition to low quality medical care in Cambodia is extremely expensive, much more so than Thailand even the public hospitals.

 

It is not a good place to be stuck in with a medical problem.

[Ketyo]

There is a lesson here for all.

 

Do not use CIGNA health insurance. They are a bunch of cowboys.

 

They are double the price of many alternatives and claim to be a Rolls Royce insurance company.

 

But they only pay out around 50% of the time. Some other health insurance companies pay out 95%. There are loads of complaints online about them not paying out.

 

They have an internal rule book with many detailed rules to help them deny payment and they will not share those rules with the customer.

 

They have a very aggressive sales team and incredibly poor claims management team. And they are dishonest about what they have done or not done. 

 

I used them one year and had 2 completely separate claims that were genuine and covered according to my policy. But they said they had found some internal rules to deny the claims.

 

There is a famous story of a guy who needed a liver transplant but they denied the claim because they said the treatment was not accepted by some medical group in the USA. The guy died.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Ketyo