Family receives hospital bill for over $25,000 after their son was treated with a bottle and nap

A family of South Korean tourists, holidaying in the United States, received a shocking bill for over US $18,000 (AUD $25,000) after they took their son to the hospital.

The bill may have been easier to swallow if their son had received more treatment than a bottle and a nap.

Back in 2016, the family were visiting San Francisco and Jang Yeo Im’s son, Park Joeng Whan, bumped his head after falling off the hotel bed, according to Kaiser Health News.

Although the then 8-month-old didn’t appear to be severely injured and wasn’t bleeding, he remained upset.

So, as a precaution Jang and her husband decided to get an ambulance to take their baby to Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital.

Here, the doctors came to the conclusion that Park had not suffered any serious injuries from the fall.

According to People magazine, the baby was discharged after three hours and 22 minutes and in that time took a nap and drank some infant formula.

Now, two years later, the family finally received their bill only to discover that they were being slugged for exactly US$18,836 (AUD $25,351).

A large amount of the bill, US$15,666 (AUD $21,084) was attributed to “trauma activation” – the cost of activating medical professionals to deal with potentially life-threatening injuries in the emergency room, People reported.

“It’s a huge amount of money for my family,” Jang told Kaiser Health News. “If my baby got special treatment, OK. That would be OK. But he didn’t. So why should I have to pay the bill? They did nothing for my son.”

Kaiser Health News received comment from a spokesman for the San Francisco hospital explaining that although the child didn’t require extensive treatment being trauma-ready is expensive – hence the fee.

“We are the trauma centre for a very large, very densely populated area. We deal with so many traumas in this city – car accidents, mass shootings, multiple vehicle collisions. It’s expensive to prepare for that,” the spokesman told the health news site.