This is one scary story – this guy needed open heart surgery and wracked up $830,000 medical debt, after he got an infected tooth!

@baker.reads told his followers on TikTok: “About five years ago at this point I was at work when all of a sudden I felt as sick as I had ever felt in my life. I was fine all that morning. I’d driven there, everything was okay. Maybe I was like down for the count. I somehow made it home and I went to the doctor and they diagnosed me with the flu. I’d never had the flu that intensely before but they said basically, you know, it’s a really bad flu a year it’s the flu you will probably get over it.”

But it sure wasn’t the flu!!! This story is unreal. Note to self. Get dental check up!

He continued: “Over the next three weeks I proceeded to lose about like 40, 50 pounds because I could not keep anything down. I had a constant like 100 plus fever. Literally I have never felt that way in my entire life and never want to feel that way in my entire life again.”

After numerous medical trips, he wound up in ER and the next bit is just unreal!

He continued: “They pulled some fluid from my lungs and then sent me to the ICU where they yelled at me because I wasn’t breathing properly and threatened to intubate me. Um, and then eventually they sent me up to the state hospital where pretty much right away they found that I had a severe full body near septic blood infection and that I needed like all of the antibiotics pretty much immediately.”

Surely that’s the worst of it? Eh. No. If you’re afraid of the dentist, you especially need to read this…

He added: “I felt a lot better but they wanted to monitor me for a little while just to make sure that nothing else happened because I was like near death and unfortunately they found a massive infection on one of the leaflets on my mitral valve. So I spent like about like 10 days or so at that hospital, then was sent home to be on at home antibiotics for about six weeks.”

Did you read that? Open heart surgery. Over a tooth!

How is this guy still smiling?

He added: “I racked up about like $830,000 worth of debt. And you want to know what caused it and like what made me that sick to begin with about a year before I got sick, I broke a tooth and I didn’t have very good dental insurance because I didn’t have a very good job and I couldn’t afford it.”

Now, this is such an argument for free healthcare. That poor guy. Not okay!

Watch the full clip below:

@baker.reads

#stitch with @Susi #Inverted

♬ original sound – Brandon Baker • baker.reads

He posted a follow up video that talks more about the ordeal:

@baker.reads

#Inverted @Brandon Baker • baker.reads

♬ original sound – Brandon Baker • baker.reads

Here’s what people thought of this scary health story:

There’s a name for it!

More of an explainer for those in the back.

Yeah, that bill is insane and there’s no way it’s okay!

What a wild story.

Glad he’s okay!