However, two years later they received a bill that left them gobsmacked — the hospital was demanding US$18,836 (NZ$27,500), including a $US15,666 fee for "trauma activation".
This type of charge is applied when hospitals gather a team of medical professionals to meet patients with potentially serious injuries in the emergency room. These "trauma" fees are applied seemingly arbitrarily and vary hugely across different hospital in the US.
Unfortunately, while the family did have travel insurance, it would only cover US$5000 of the bill — leaving them facing huge financial strain.
"It's a huge amount of money for my family," Jang said. "If my baby got special treatment, okay. That would be okay. But he didn't. So why should I have to pay the bill? They did nothing for my son."
A spokesman for the San Francisco hospital told Vox that while Park didn't require extensive treatment, being trauma-ready is expensive and that's why they received the sky-high bill.
"We are the trauma centre for a very large, very densely populated area," the spokesman said. "We deal with so many traumas in this city — car accidents, mass shootings, multiple vehicle collisions. It's expensive to prepare for that."
