Finally pulled the trigger on a '15 Prerunner for my son with 25K miles. Hope to get many, many more miles for him. Came down to two contenders and this one had fewer miles and was sportier (Texas Edition) Black rims and black trim on a white body. I bought my daughter a new car (Civic) when she graduated and was going off to school. By the time it came his turn, life threw us all curves. My wife broke her hip, pelvis and back. A $61,000 helicopter ride of which BCBS paid only $11,000. The $50K is about paid off thanks to her getting up and teaching Chinese kids how to speak English at 5AM every morning. Then my part time job with the City was eliminated and that was a set back. Anyways, I promised my son when I was able I'd do for him like I did for my daughter, I would. He has been patient and been a trooper. He even got a job this Summer helping load and unload Budweiser. Well his time finally came and it all came together. He's one happy dude, even with a 2 wheel drive. I'm happy that even though it looked dicey at times, I was able to fulfill a promise to him. Hopefully, he will remember the times it didn't look likely and take this as a lesson in keeping your word, even though there was no way I wasn't going to fulfill a promise to one of my children.

Congrats on everything, that sucks about the chopper ride. Our word means everything to our kids

Word means a lot. No telling how many times i heard some bs from my dad that never panned out.

👍

Good on you.

The ambulance helicopter industry is a joke. They are unregulated on what they can charge.

$51K? Holy cow, did they take her to Abu Dubai?

No doubt. When I had my accident last memorial day they initially took me to Russel in Alex City. One of the nurses told me they were about to call the helicopter to UAB but my BCBS did not cover it. Even told me it was going to be around $35,000. I refused it told them to stick me in the meat wagon and I would not burden my family with a debt like that. If It’s my time to go so be it.

A family member said I kept saying to call TR or BCLC they’d get me there. At that point they probably thought I was limited out on morphine. Also said I told the doctor he looked like the Cheech & Chong dude.

We'd have dang sure done it too, with no more than one or 2 stops for a cold beer. All jokes aside I'm glad you're ok. That was one hell of an accident AND ordeal afterwards that you went thru.

Tuscaloosa. This is the cheapest I've heard of for a ride from here. Coach Reece's wife's bill to UAB was $75,000+. What has happened is that there are only two vehicular ambulances that work for this company here and they cover Lowndes county also. That is why you often see one sitting at the Tyler Volunteer Fire Dept. Well because there are only two of them, they don't, do out of town runs anymore and try their best to keep one available at all times. Instead, they call for a helicopter and leave the patient with a huge bill, which of course, we may be among the few that have actually paid it. Before I retired, a woman fell off the roof of her one story house and broke her arm. The local hospital was between orthopedists so guess what? They put her on the helicopter. the ambulance took her straight to the helipad and bypassed the ER over her broken arm. My wife was in horrible pain, but I know she would have told them to let me drive her. They were first going to go to Baptist South, which I could have driven there in 45 minutes or less, but said it was full so they changed it to Druid City.

You want to check on this:

https://www.airmedcarenetwork.com/

No it was $61K. BCBS generously Paid $11k so we were only left with $50K.