Medicare saved me at least 60,000 dollars in 2015

I was traveling and in a hotel and my appendix burst. Then all hell broke lose for the next few months of my life.
 What saved me financially at least was that I was then already on Medicare because I was over 65,  so I think the whole thing I almost died from cost me at most 1500 dollars in direct medical expenses instead of around 60,000 dollars in direct medical expenses.

I could not even imagine having survived this if I didn't have medicare at the time. Though I likely could have afforded to pay this if I had to I wasn't in any condition to have arranged that at the time.

The first 4 days after my appendix burst (I didn't know that had even happened because the hospital couldn't diagnose my illness and neither could I. So, I just believed I was dying and the hospital couldn't help me for the next week after I spent the night in the hospital and they told me that I had gastritis, (by the way I still am not entirely sure exactly what gastritis is either) because that isn't what was wrong with me.

So, as I went home from the hospital knowing the hospital had completely failed me I just expected to die in the hotel during the next week. I didn't tell my wife that I expected to die because I couldn't handle her watching me die. However, 4 days later after my oldest daughter's boyfriend spent two days with me (I was okay with him being there because I knew he could handle it if I died in the hotel with him there).

So, finally by about the next Wednesday I let my wife drive up and help take care of me and by Saturday they did a CT Scan and told me I would die without a laparoscopic operation (which I don't think is true presently either).

But, either way, this operation and 5 days of hospital care cost around 60,000 dollars which medicare mostly paid for except maybe 1500 dollars. So, imagine someone going through this losing work and maybe dying without medical care at all and completely freaking out while the died.

I'm usually okay with almost dying because I have a very good relationship with God and spirit and have almost died many times in my life starting with whooping cough at age 2. So, dying I can deal with. Pain is another thing entirely. But, dying I see sort of like going to sleep and not waking up anymore and that's about it. So, it doesn't scare me in this sense.

But, I'm the kind of person that likely if I was in pain that I would likely want to crawl into a hole like a wolf to die alone. It isn't something I want to do with everyone around watching me die. I've seen this sort of thing in hospitals and it is the last thing I ever want to experience.