That may have had nothing to do with money though. Maybe he just didn't make it.
I had a cousin in a rural town who drove himself to the hospital 40 miles away in the middle of a heart attack. Because there wasn't anybody else. He could easily have ended up the same way.
Nope. It's one of those little towns in western Pennsylvania where there are no jobs and the young people move away as soon as they can. By now the average age must be over 60. There must be about 50 people living there, though there were thousands a few generations ago when it was an oil town. In theory there are ambulances that cover the county, but there's really no point in waiting 40 minutes for the ambulance to get there so you can wait another 40 minutes as they drive back.
Anyway, he probably could have gotten a neighbor to drive him. Not sure why he didn't. Most likely the neighbors were drunk, since once hunting season is over that's what passes for entertainment. Not that they don't get drunk while they're hunting. Probably the only thing worse than driving yourself to the hospital during a heart attack is having your drunk neighbor crash the car in which you're having a heart attack.
The funny part of the story is he got someone to call ahead so the hospital was expecting him. He gets to the emergency room and the ER nurse (there's only one) says "Have a seat. We have an emergency case coming in any minute." He sits down wondering what kind of shape you have to be in to bump a heart attack patient. But he figured after 40 minutes he was still alive, so it probably wasn't going to kill him. He's kind of a stoic guy, too, so he didn't protest. Just sat down.
Five minutes later the nurse runs back into the waiting room with wide eyes, points at him and says "It's you!"
I had a cousin in a rural town who drove himself to the hospital 40 miles away in the middle of a heart attack. Because there wasn't anybody else. He could easily have ended up the same way.