Bills shock
Ehime Maru
survivors

But an official says the
U.S. government will
pay all medical bills

By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

An apparent mix-up over medical bills has upset the families of some of the nine students who survived the collision between the Japanese fishing trawler Ehime Maru and the nuclear submarine USS Greeneville on Feb. 9.

Twelve people were treated at Straub Hospital and Kaiser's Moanalua Medical Center and then at Kaiser's clinic on Pensacola Street a few days later.

Jan Kagehiro, Kaiser spokeswoman, said the bills for eight people -- four crewmen and four students -- were paid by the Navy yesterday.

Four others were treated at Straub. Claire Tom, spokes-woman for Straub, said she was checking into the report.

Lt. Col. Dewey Ford, spokesman at Camp Smith, said the U.S. government is committed to paying all the hospital costs, and officials are investigating the complaint.

An Ehime Prefecture spokesman said authorities heard of the bills from staff at the Uwajima Fisheries High School in southwestern Japan, whose students and teachers were aboard the training vessel. Nine students, teachers and crew members are missing.

Most of the 26 people rescued, soaked in the diesel fuel fouling the water they had bobbed in, were taken to two hospitals with minor injuries.