An image of an elderly Italian man who was asked to pay for the ventilator that he used for his recovery.
"The image has a close-up of Bill Moore, a Colorado-based war veteran, and a text which erroneously identifies Moore as an Italian who was asked to pay for the ventilator charges after recovering from the disease. According to the text, he gets emotional for being able to breathe natural air throughout his life and taking Gods gift for granted. The photo along with the text is viral in the backdrop of the novel Coronavirus outbreak in the country and the increasing death toll.", Moore\s image has been shared with the same narrative as a caption on Facebook. An excerpt from the caption reads, "After  the 93 year old man in Italy got better in the hospital, he was told to pay for  the ventilator for one day, and the old man cried. The doctor advised him not  to cry over the bill. What the old man said made all the doctors cry. Old man said, "I don\t cry because of the money I have to  pay. I can pay all the money." *I cry because I have been breathing God\s air for  93 years, but I never pay for it. It takes €500 to use a ventilator in a  hospital for one day. Do you know how much I owe God ? I didn\t thank God for  that before.*, The post is archived here., The text along with the image is viral on Facebook., , Moore\s image, along with a screenshot of what appears to be an Instagram caption with the similar narrative was also tweeted by Bharatiya Janata Party leader and actor Paresh Rawal. His  tweet reads, "Hope we the human race understand!", Hope we the human race understand! pic.twitter.com/zrwG76LWXs, The tweet is archived here., "Subhanaallaah...The things we take for granted. May Allaah grant us the ability to be grateful to Him, for everything we have, and dont have, the way befitting His Majesty. Aameen pic.twitter.com/ekL2nMjJLX", The tweet is archived here., Italy declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 outbreak January 31, after two confirmed cases were reported. A whooping 19,468 deaths and 32,534 recovery were reported in the country till the time of writing this article., Also Read: No, A Temple Was Not Turned Into A Quarantine Center For Muslims In AP, , , Fact Check, BOOM ran a reverse image search and found that the image is  at least five years old and has no connection with the recent rampage of COVID-19 on Italy., The original image was uploaded in an ABC news report from March, 2015. The nonagenarian in the photograph is Bill Moore, a Colorado based Second World War veteran. He was emotional after being told that a letter written by him to this fiancee during the war time had been found., , "Bill Moore was 20 years old in 1944 when he wrote a letter to a  young woman named Bernadean that he met while on furlough during the war, not  knowing that he would go on to marry her. The letter was found in the sleeve of a record  that was purchased by a stranger in a thrift store. The stranger went on a search to  reunite the letter with its author. His daughter was contacted shortly  before Valentine\s Day this year by the person who unintentionally bought the  letter, and Moore was overcome with emotion when he read it for the first time  in 70 years," reported ABC news., At 52 seconds time stamp of a video from the report, Moore can be seen breaking down., The same article was followed up by People. It is unclear if Moore is still alive., "An article published by Commonwealth Fund states, Italys  publicly funded health care policy under the  National Health Service (NHS) covers universality and automatically all citizens  and legal foreign residents fall in the category. On the other hand, according to reports, private health insurance  plays a limited role in the health system. In Italy private health insurance are two types  corporate, for which companies cover own employees and sometimes their families,  and non-corporate, where individuals can buy insurance for themselves or their  families. So there is little chance that patients could have paid personally  after availing health care services in Italy.", Also Read: Dated Photo Showing Rows Of Coffins Shared As Coronavirus-Hit Italy, , BOOM’s WhatsApp Helpline, Need Help To Verify An Image Or A Video? Send It To Us On +91 77009 06588, Boom is now available on Telegram, Click here to read our latest fact check stories and other updates.
War Veteran's Image Shared As Recovery Of Old Man From COVID-19 In Italy