A Cultural Shock: My first encounter with the US Health Care System 1/2

To My Husband Jorge
It all started when I ran into a metal bench while riding my bike across campus. My forehead crashed into the bench and I was completely knocked out. I quickly came around thinking that everything was fine, that I could just pick up my bike and keep going. Suddenly my face was completely covered in blood. I had a wide-open cut on my right eyebrow and also a crew of people surrounding me. It was certainly not a good time for this to happen as I was getting married in 2 weeks. I was thinking to myself: "What should I do now? Should I just push my way through these people and just walk to the nearest hospital?" It was certainly a short walk. The university hospital was just 2 blocks away from where I was. But one guy called 911, another started asking me how I was feeling. To be honest, I was just feeling embarrassed. They also asked me who they should call. I realized that there was nobody to call to except for a very close friend.
Soon after the accident, a big red ambulance made its way across 20th street south. The siren was loud enough for everybody to realize that something had happened. I really didn't need any bigger audience, but now it was inevitable. The first crew of paramedics climbed out of the ambulance and approached me. They did clean my face and put some pressure on my eyebrow which I really appreciated. I knew eyebrows could bleed a lot. I just never imagined that it could be that much. After the bleeding was controlled, the questions started. I went through the traditional questions regarding my personal information. Name and date of birth were not a problem for me but I had no clue what my health insurance number was. They asked me about it in several ways. I guessed they thought I was having trouble understanding them but I just did not know it. A few days after the accident I found out that my health insurance number was the same as my social security number (SSN); that was convenient! Well, this would not have made any difference because I had not memorized my SSN by then. I had just arrived to the US and I was not used to the idea of being a number yet, as I am now.