“We’re really at an infant stage in terms of our clinical ability to assess traumatic brain injury,” a medical expert said.
Before he ended his life, Ryan Larkin made his family promise to donate his brain to science.
The 29-year-old Navy SEAL was convinced years of exposure to blasts had badly damaged his brain, despite doctors telling him otherwise. He had downloaded dozens of research papers on traumatic brain injury out of frustration that no one was taking him seriously, his father said.
“He knew,” Frank Larkin said. “I’ve grown to understand that he was out to prove that he was hurt, and he wasn’t crazy.”
In 2017, a postmortem study found that Ryan Larkin, a combat medic and instructor who taught SEALs how to breach buildings with explosives, had a pattern of brain scarring unique to service members who’ve endured repeated explosions.
Oh wow, yeah it would be tough to go to emergency care if it costed money. I hope that never happens in other places and you guys eventually get that fixed. There should be nothing stopping you or making you second guess if it’s a good idea to save your life.
ED bills are sent afterward in the US, we never have to think about it up front. It’s governed by a federal law called EMTALA. This led to some predatory “out of network” billing in the past which thankfully was shot down (in all things) during the Trump admin. It’s not perfect, but getting better.