Robert
Rochester,#2Consumer Suggestion
Sun, April 10, 2005
First off, Im a Registered nurse and used to work in an Emergency Room. You stated that you "hit your head." You also stated that you were experiencing strange smells. Those two things warrented a CAT scan. The CAT scan was to rule out a subdural hematoma. This is bleeding into the brain and could lead to a stroke. You also would have no idea whether you had a fracture or not. You could have had a skull fracture and not known it. The CAT scan and xrays had EVERYTHING to do with making your diagnosis. If the CAT scan showed a subdural, then there was a good chance that you may have needed surgery to correct it. As far as leaving against medical advice, that is correct. Once you are signed into the hospital, the doctors are responsible for making sure that you are examined, diagnosed and treated appropriately. If they had not, THEY would have been guilty of malpractice. You would have been ripped off IF THEY DID NOT DO THESE TESTS. You could have left at anytime, however, if you did, YOU and not the hospital would have been responsible if you had a stroke on the way home. I have to ask, if you only wanted something for the soreness, then why did you go to the emergecny room? The emergency room is NOT a walk in clinic. Did you have insurance on your car? Did the lady who hit you have insurance? I don't know about Florida, but in New York, you are required to have insurance on your car and it should have covered the ER expense. You can also sue the other lady, IF it was her fault, in small claims court for the hospital expense. I'm sorry you feel this is a ripoff, but if you came into the ER when I was there, we would have done the same thing. Hospital care is expensive. Yes, it's too expensive, but from your report, the doctors did everything right.
Cyd
Las Vegas,#3Consumer Suggestion
Sun, April 10, 2005
I am sorry to hear you were in an auto accident and have no medical insurance. I too was in an accident 18 months ago and also have no medical insurance. I can understand your frustration at the expense of tests that ultimately showed no abnormalities. These tests were necessary to rule out more serious injuries based on your description of your injury (i.e. hit your head)that you may have received in this accident. Even at the slow speed of this accident serious head injuries can occur. The doctor would have been negligent had he not ordered these tests, especially if the reason for your pain was a brain injury, or a subdural hematoma. Do you realize that these can kill you and may not be evident immediately. My grandmother was involved in an accident and her complaint upon entering the hospital was hip pain. She never even mentioned that she hit her head. Within 12 hours she was unconscious due to bleeding in her brain. She lived for many weeks on life support, but upon determining that she was "brain dead", life support was stopped and she died. Had the doctors known she had hit her head and done a CAT scan (Just to be on the safe side) she may have lived for many years beyond this accident. Five years ago, my daughter also died from hitting her head in an auto accident. Unfortunately, the severity of her injury and the delay of medical treatment (the accident happened in a sparcely populated area far from a trauma center)contributed to her death. I don't work in a hospital now, but did many years ago. I have seen way too many head injuries result in death or serious permanent impairment. Even the simplilest of things can cause these tragedies. One particular case I will never forget was a boy who simply fell off his skate board and bumped his head. He told his mom it was just a bump. He was gone by the next morning. Your children need you and your doctor performed what he considered to be medically necessary tests to make sure you would be ok. Luckily for you, you only had a concussion. I suggest you contact your auto insurance company and/or the other parties company and file a claim for your medical bills. While you may not want to sue this person, you may need to in order to recover your out of pocket expenses. You and your children should not have to suffer financially if the accident was not your fault. That is the purpose of auto insurance. I hope you are feeling better and good luck.
Cory
San Antonio,#4Consumer Comment
Sun, April 10, 2005
This is one bad post. If you were so sure nothing was wrong why did you bother to go to the hospital and not some med clinic? If the other person was at fault, her ins. co. ought to be paying for your med. bills. "I told them in no uncertain terms and in advace that nothing was broken". "I was given a diagnosis of a concussion ... and soft tissue damage....". "With a concussion, I could hardly make a good decision or think straight" I think that if you had gone to a med clinic, they would have called EMS and sent you to a real hospital for all the tests and your bills would have been even higher. I can just see the headlines now, hospital fails to treat "single mother of four" and is sued for millions. You'd be an attorney's dream. With a post like this, I think you're still not thinking straight. You could have checked yourself out of the hospital at any time, by signing a release form.