Season 25, Episode 18
Tristan
Age:
Location: Markham, Ontario, Canada
Addiction: Alcohol
What’s Memorable:[Guest Post by Stefan] Like others profiled in the past, an undisclosed traumatic incident occurred while at college/university. Sadly we all know what that means. Despite being violent with his family, Tristan is a beautiful souls underneath it all, and it showed through after he got sober.
Official Synopsis: Golden child Tristan excelled at academics and the arts, winning scholarships and lead parts in theatre productions. But beneath the “perfect kid” exterior, he carried the trauma of domestic abuse witnessed at home while also struggling with identity as a gay, mixed race, young man. After a sexual assault at university, he spiraled into severe alcoholism. Now his liver is failing, and revolving trips to the emergency room have his family fearing for his life.
Date Aired: August 26, 2024
Interventionist: Maureen Brine
One thing that really stood out to me was how his ambulance bills came to a total of “only” $900. Gotta love Canada, because in the US one ambulance ride would easily exceed that amount.
They’re $45 a ride here in Ontario, so he actually took it 20 times !
I’d hate, Stefan, to ruin your buzz, but the cost in France of having a private ambulance sent to you to drive you to the next “Urgences” department (ER) would be around €60 at most and people here are all up in arms because it is more money than you have to fork out anywhere else in the EU with the exception of Germany as you can see on a chart here: https://www.ifrap.org/budget-et-fiscalite/44-par-depuis-8-ans-il-est-temps-de-maitriser-le-cout-du-transport-sanitaire..
And once you’re there, if you are a citizen of the EU, it will be at most €100 out of your pocket per day of hospitalization, including surgery and care (but most people don’t pay anything at all). I cannot fathom how much you would have to pay in the US for such medical services. I think that one of the causes of the lower life expectancy in the US compared to the EU, besides the rampant opioid use and an (almost) open bar access to guns, is people trying to defer their hospitalization as much as possible because of the ensuing costs and showing up too late to get another lifeline. Two such cases come to mind in just the last couple of months: YouTuber Simply/Sinfully Sara and drag queen Giggly Caliente who, apparently, showed up too late to be saved from their medical woes.
Do Europeans even realize when they’re boasting about this?…half of Americans know damn well how inequitable and heinous our healthcare system is. We navigate this every day. We struggle financially because of it. We watch our loved ones go broke and get sick and die because of it. Hundreds of people die every day from”medical woes” that they can’t afford to treat. And right now,, there’s nothing we can do about it but try to care for each other in whatever capacity we have. Go back to your cigarettes, baguettes, and arrogantly waxing poetic unless you’ve got something helpful to add .