"My jaw was dropping down," said Dag-Are Trydal, as he described his
reaction to the medical bill for treatment after he was bitten by a
rattlesnake.

Trydal's bill made headlines in Norway, where his
insurance provider was quoted as saying the charges from Scripps La
Jolla Hospital were the highest they had ever seen.

Trydal, an
exchange student studying cybernetics at UCSD, was walking to his car on
April 26 when he felt a sharp pain in his foot.

"I stepped two
steps back just immediately and I was seeing that a snake was sitting
right between my flip flops," he told 10News reporter Allison Ash. "I
was really scared, because I don't know much about the snakes here and
how dangerous they are,"

When a passerby told him Scripps Hospital was right across the street, he decided to walk there.

"As
I was walking over, my heart started thumping and I could feel a
tingling in my body and a metallic taste in my mouth," he said.

Trydal
was admitted to the hospital and given four doses of antivenom over a
24-hour period. He was thrilled that the treatment worked and he could
get back to his studies, until he heard from his insurance company.

That was when Trydal learned what his visit to the hospital cost: $143,989. He was shocked.

"I thought maybe $10,000," he said, noting that if he'd had the same treatment back home in Norway "it would have been free."

Trydal
agreed to let the hospital release a copy of the bill to 10News. In it
there are two separate charges for antivenin croatalidfab. The first
charge is for $102,440 and the second is for $25,610. That is a total of
$128,050.

"This is way too much, at least for a person that doesn't have good insurance," he said.

Trydal
admitted he was glad he bought an insurance policy to cover him during
his six months in the United States. When asked what would happen if he
had not, Trydal responded, "That would be very, very bad. I try not to
think about that."