Doc defends ‘substantial bill’

Romana Longrigg hurt her back when she fainted on an aeroplane . A doctor who attended her billed her for R1 500. Picture by: Jeffrey Abrahams

Romana Longrigg hurt her back when she fainted on an aeroplane . A doctor who attended her billed her for R1 500. Picture by: Jeffrey Abrahams

Published Dec 12, 2010

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A second Cape Town doctor has come under fire for sending a substantial bill to a patient treated in an emergency.

Last month Weekend Argus reported how Sea Point doctor Jules Lusman billed motorcyclist Marc Peeters R580 for stopping to help him at a Camps Bay accident.

Retired architect Romana Longrigg, 80, says she was asked to pay R1 500 by Dr Frank Tyga, who treated her on board a Turkish Airlines flight earlier this year after she fainted and hurt her back.

Longrigg, of Newlands, who was travelling with her husband, Thomas, to Venice, said all Tyga had done was take her blood pressure.

“He waited about five minutes and took it again and put a stethoscope on my chest. He also helped me off with my cardigan.”

Later he went to their seats to ask for her name and address as he said he had to fill in a form for the airline.

Once in Venice, Longrigg spent four hours in a hospital where she had an ECG and was examined by a cardiologist and an orthopaedic surgeon. She wasn’t charged a cent.

“When I returned to Cape Town, I phoned to thank the doctor and he said he would be sending his bill and would like me to pay it at once by credit card, which I did.”

A number of her doctor friends were shocked to hear what had happened.

Longrigg’s travel insurance reimbursed her, but she felt the amount Tyga charged her was grossly inflated.

Afterwards, Longrigg wrote to Tyga saying: “I am amazed by your demand for the astronomical fee you charged for the minimal treatment I received from you on the Turkish Airline… However, as I am not out of pocket, may I suggest that after you have deducted a reasonable fee for the treatment, you might like to contribute the remainder to Médecins Sans Frontières, or a similar organisation.”

She did not receive a reply.

But a furious Tyga, an emergency doctor at the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital, said he’d checked with colleagues, who said he had every right to charge.

Tyga, originally from Belgium, said he’d been woken after just 30 minutes of sleep to go to Longrigg’s assistance.

“She had no blood pressure and I had to do an examination. The whole thing took about 45 minutes because I also had to find the pilot, who was asleep in a bunk behind the cockpit, to do a report.”

After the consultation he had not been able to sleep. “I could have had an accident the next day because of fatigue, because I had to drive,” he said.

Tyga told Weekend Argus he was a “good Samaritan” who did pro bono work and had recently helped a Big Issue vendor who had collapsed.

He added that airlines should have doctors on board to treat passengers, or they should let doctors fly for free.

Earlier, Lize Nel, spokeswoman for the Health Professions Council of SA, said a practitioner was obliged to attend to a patient in an emergency and there was nothing in the regulations that forbade him from charging the patient, as long as he charged for services rendered. - Weekend Argus

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