In England, I got a retinal detachment. I went to a high street optician at 3pm that day, who diagnosed the condition for free using computer scans. They told me I needed to go immediately to the hospital. I was seen by a surgeon at the hospital two hours later. He told me he was going to operate the next morning. At 8am the following morning, I was operated on by a specialist eye surgeon (an Iraqi) and a younger colleague who looked like a movie star. The procedure lasted an hour and a half. You're awake throughout it all, I could see everything, including a suction drill inside my eyeball.
I recovered for two hours at the hospital with free tea and biscuits. I went home and had four follow-up checks over the next four months, which included numerous different eye scans and two sets of eye medication. The eye is fixed and all is well. They saved my sight. There was no invoice, there was no check on my financial situation. I shook the surgeon's hand and thanked him. He said, "It was my pleasure."
