We learned today via Korea Beat of an American hospitalized in Seoul, who is currently being denied the surgery he desperately needs because of his rising medical bills.

Matt Robinson, an expat teacher, recently had a bacterial infection excised from his leg. Now, he is struggling with complications from the medication, surgery and a pre-existing deep-vein thrombosis. The hospital has determined that closing the gaping wound in his leg is an “elective plastic surgery”, and, given his 16,000,000W medical bill (~$13,000.00 USD), they have refused to treat him without full payment upfront.

Because of Matt’s recent patella injury, we are all too aware of the fear one feels in a foreign hospital. We will divert any donations we receive toward helping Matt Robinson pay down his medical bills and raise the funds he needs for surgery. We urge you to donate here, or by clicking the green donation button at the top of our website. Please stay tuned for more updates as they become available. Click through to read the details of Matt’s predicament from his fundraising Facebook group.

Pulled from Facebook:

Matt Robinson is an American ex-pat who has been teaching in Korea for about 3 years. Recently, due to conflicting medications and gangrene from a previous surgery, he almost died. He was taken to a hospital in Haebonchan where he is in pain, awaiting the surgery he needs.
This hospital is threatening him. They are saying that if he does not give them 10 million won by tomorrow, they will kick him out without the surgery. This means that he will most likely need an amputation or (worse yet) he will die. He has no means to go home, nor is he physically able to get on a plane.
I know that the ex-pat community in Korea is very strong. I also know that if this same thing happened to any one of you, we would all rise up. Please do not ignore this and think that other people will take care of it. This group is a last resort. Please act quickly, even if you can only give 1,000 won. There are a lot of people on facebook. If everyone gave that, he could get the surgery he needs.
Many of you know Matt from his improv group that performs in Itaewon. I have known him for 8 years. He is a beautiful and funny person with a wonderful spirit. Please do not let this happen to him.
You can help by contacting him at 01072645447. Or, you can contact me (Sara Moore) or Lydia Cooper, who is an officer of this group.
Anything you can do will help.

Here is more info from Sandy:
Ok, just went and saw Matt:

1. The reason the medical bill is so high is much more complicated than has been posted. There are basically 2 things going on. Matt initially went into the hospital about 4 weeks ago. He had a serious bacterial infection which required very invasive surgery. The doctors told him that he had about a 50/50 chance of surviving. During the surgery, they had to remove a large portion of flesh. The surgery went fine.

However, Matt has another condition called deep vein thrombosis, for which he is taking medications. Due to complications from either this condition or the medication he was taking, the doctors were unable to follow up the surgery as they should have done. They had to wait for a couple weeks. Since the initial surgery, he has been left with a rather large open sore from where the infected tissue was removed. This is much too large to heal on its own. Because of the time that has elapsed, there is a very serious threat of further infection or even gangrene.

Sometime after the initial surgery, Matt’s leg began to swell up. This was probably due to deep vein thrombosis and possibly involves a blood clot in his leg. This leg now appears to be quite a serious problem as well and may require surgery.

So at the moment, he definitely needs plastic surgery to close up the open wound. There is also a strong likelihood that they may need to operate on his leg to remove a blood clot. If he has surgery promptly, he has been told, he should be out of the hospital sometime in June.

The biggest problem, which has allowed the hospital to refuse surgery without payment, is the kind of surgery that he needs. He has a rather large wound which requires plastic surgery to close up. I’m sure that none of you could imagine walking around with a big gaping hole in your body. However, according to the hospital’s standards, it is an elective surgery. This means that they don’t think it’s necessary. Utter bollocks, but that’s the way it is.

2. Money.
As it stands, his hospital bill is approximately 10 000 000 won (the cashier didn’t give me the exact figures). The cost for room fee and food is about 100 000 won per day. This does not include medication, examinations, doctors, taxes? and other poking and prodding fees. Considering that he had major surgery and has been in the hospital for 4 weeks with a lot of post-op care, you can see how the bill has climbed this high.

As the hospital considers the plastic surgery to be elective, and considering the problems Matt has had paying his existing bills, they do not seem to be willing to perform it unless he pays upfront. When he asked, however, they were unable to give him a quote on how much it would cost.

Also, they would not agree to put him on any sort of payment plan. Apparently, this is something that they never do for foreigners and only do in extremely rare cases for Koreans.

3. The embassy has been helping to the extent that they are able. Unfortunately, this has not involved them paying his bill upfront nor does that seem at all likely to happen. Rather, they have been in contact with the hospital and are trying to see what options are available to Matt.

4. Matt was not teaching illegally. He recently finished another job and had come back on a tourist visa. He was looking for a new job when he had to go to the hospital. His tourist visa expires towards the end of June.

Matt’s Bank information:

Bank name: IBK (기업은행)
Account #: account #:481-007433-01-011
Name on account: 매티유로빈슨 (it’s Matthew Robinson written in Korean)

This was sent to me in a message by Daniel Linaric, and it’s a great idea: For those who can’t make it to the bank during the day, there is the option of using Western Union. In Korea, Western Union operates through Kookmin, IBK and Nong Hyup banks. Paste this link and hit submit and you’ll have the list.

http://www.westernunion.ca/WUCOMWEB/staticMid.do?method=load&pagename=agentLocator

You might have to visit the bank first and register your name, but this could provide a great option for many who otherwise can’t send money.

UPDATE: Stompers in Itaewon will have a Donation Box Saturday night.

Beer O’clock in Sinchon has a donation box set up and will be helping to raise funds. www.beeroclock.ca

Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon will have a donation box set up today, as well.

And so does Gecko’s.