CHICAGO, IL — Mike Herman is very grateful to be alive and healing, thanks to accessible and superlative medical care. Here’s what he said happened.
“On June 20, 2025, my buddy brought these big electric scooters to our house in southern Delaware by the beaches. We were riding close to the house, took a shortcut down a road, and as we turned right onto it, there was a little speed bump. I couldn’t stay on the scooter and flew slamming into the asphalt. I think I was out just for a few seconds. I remember waking up and screaming in pain.
They took me to the local hospital in southern Delaware. After imaging they said to me, ‘Hey, listen, this isn’t for us. We gotta send you up to Christiana Hospital because it is a trauma one center.’
They helicoptered me for the half hour ride to Christiana Hospital in northern Delaware. I remember they must have really drugged me when they put me on the helicopter. It was a half hour ride that cost $93,000. I don’t remember any of it until about three minutes before we landed on the hospitals’ roof when looked from my face-down gurney. There were glass windows underneath me. I looked out and thought, ‘Oh my God, this is so cool.’ There was no pain then – I was just a drugged-up guy.
It turns out that I broke ribs 2-10 on my right side. The ribs punctured my lung. I had several fractures in my pelvis including the acetabulum, the part that supports the hip joint. This caused a lot of blood and fluids to collect in my lung lining. They ended up putting in two chest tubes. I woke up being intubated and it lasted for a day and a half. It scared the hell out of me.
The surgeon at the trauma one center told me that, ‘If you didn’t have a helmet on, we wouldn’t be talking now.’ It’s certainly a message for my grand-kids to wear a helmet. It literally saved my life.
The interesting thing is when I saw the helmet, I expected it to be destroyed, but it was just the hard foam that was sticking down the side that took the impact and had a crack in it that separated a little bit. Kudos to the people who make those bike helmets.
When the drugs wore off, I spent five days in ICU and nine days in a stepdown unit. I’m surprised that in the last week or so, the progress really picked up significantly. I’m very pleased with that.
Oh my God, it was scary. It really was. Remembering it still gives me chills. I replay over it and over in my head.
About a week home from the ICU and the trauma stepdown unit, I received my first EOB from Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware. It was a denial. It said, ‘The patient’s coverage provides for air ambulance transportation services only when medically necessary. Therefore, no payment can be made for this service ($93,000). If my situation wasn’t medically necessary, what would they consider medically necessary?
I like to make these things public. For me, it’s about, what we’re going through. This is an absolutely horrible time in our lives. When you need it most, your insurance company causes all this stress by saying ‘We’re not covering that.’
About Mike Herman: At age 51 in 2013, Mike Herman was diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer and given four years to live. He is now in complete remission.
Kathy Powers is a lifetime Chicagoan. At 50, Kathy speaks out as the voice of the people. She became a revolutionary activist whose lifelong fight raises unheard voices. She is the Health Care Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board.
