First time asking but prayers are needed...UPDATE#3...it gets worse.

[Southern4sure]

My BIL (25) was rushed to the hospital Sunday morning with severe abdominal pain. Through out the day on Sunday, three blood tests were done (each time showed high white blood count) and an X-ray of his abdominal cavity was done Sunday afternoon. The nurse at the time told my sis (22) the X-ray would not be read until Monday at the earliest and then the X-ray tech would have a stack of X-rays to view so she could not give a time of when to expect the reading. In the mean time, BIL is still in severe pain. Monday late afternoon (3:20 pm) the surgeon decides to do exploratory surgery. Turns out the appendix ruptured sometime after he arrived at the hospital. BIL is in intensive care on a respirator now and the doctors said he will be in the hospital for 2 - 3 weeks and monitored closely.

BIL does not have medical insurance and sis just started a job that in a few more weeks she will be able to get family insurance. This is devastating for a young married couple married less than a yr. Our main concern is BIL health but I cannot help but think about the hospital bill. Are there programs available that might help pay the bill? A few weeks ago I watched a show where un-insured patients were billed upto 5 times more than what is billed to insurance companies and it is legal. I'm scared for my sister and bil.

Please keep my sis and BIL in your prayers and thoughts. I believe in the power of prayer as do my sis and bil.

 

[Mermaid02]

I know when my son's appendix ruptured they diagnosed it by a CT scan, not an xray and it was read IMMEDIATELY as it was an emergency situation (as was your bil's situation) I pray that he recovers fully. I would almost think this would be a malpractice situation if his films laid there unread by a radiologist, and his appendix ruptured in the mean time.

Good luck!

 

[mrsmom]

I am sorry to hear about your bil, he and his family are in my thoughts and prayers.
Kim

 

[stamper]

Prayers said!

Hugs to your family! How awful that it wasn't caught before it burst. But if you believe in the power of prayer, then you also likely believe that things happen for a reason and are part of God's plan. My prayer for this couple is that through this they get the chance to see God work in their lives in an amazing way.

Keep us posted!

 

[Southern4sure]

I know when my son's appendix ruptured they diagnosed it by a CT scan, not an xray and it was read IMMEDIATELY as it was an emergency situation (as was your bil's situation) I pray that he recovers fully. I would almost think this would be a malpractice situation if his films laid there unread by a radiologist, and his appendix ruptured in the mean time.

Good luck!

This is what I'm thinking also. I have not mentioned this yet to my sis but I'm thinking about driving back home and helping her fight this. I do think my bil situation was bundled from the minute he arrive.

 

[ducklite]

First of all, my prayers will go out to him and your family.

There are programs run by the state, the hospital, and other charities that can help uninsured people with catastrophic medical bills. Once he is feeling better, the patient advocate or a social worker at the hospital can help cut through the red tape to get the process started. They will most liley be left with a stack of bills, but it will be thousands rather than tens of thousands or more.

Perhaps more concerning is the level of care he is (or should I say isn't) receiving. Taking over 24 hours to read a radiograph which could assist in the timely treatment of a potentially fatal condition is utterly unacceptable IMHO. In that respect I think I'd be consulting an attorney.

I'm not of the "I slipped and fell because I didn't pick up my own feet so I'm suing you because you're rich" mentality, but in this case it truly seems that there was some negligence on the part of the hospital for not recognizing a serious condition and as such providing timely care.

Anne

 

[icebrat001]

Oh no! I hope everything turns out for the best, and a speedy recovery.

Prayers and lots of pixie dust.

 

[Pooh67_68]

Good thoughts for your BIL

 

[Microcell]

A full day to get the Xrays read?? and I thought my DD's hospital was bad with her Appendicitis! I think there might be a malpractice suit there. People are surprised that I didn't sue when my town hospital misdiagnosed her with three different things at once that she didn't have. Their gross incompetence saved her life, because they thought it odd enough to send her to the children's hospital to be monitored. Half an hour there got us the right diagnosis, so I always say, do not go to the town hospital named after the town I live in *cough* Lees Summit, Missouri *cough* but thier huge mistake saved her. If not for a bad xray that they thought was pneumonia and a mistaken Urnary Tract infection (when in fact her bowels were shutting down because she was DYING!!!!) we wouldn't have our wonderful girl. I won't sue.

I do think your family should look into it. My DD had a 14 hour delay in treatment that almost killed her, and it sounds like your BIL had a ruptured appendix for over 24 hours. I would take that very seriously, because as I am sure your sister in law can attest, they will not give a prognosis because for the next two weeks, he is not out of danger at all. They have to do IV antibiotics because it ruptured, and the leaking pus could reform together an abcess and cause a poison like effect that they have to watch out for, that could still seriously harm him. They might have to do surgery to take out the abcess.

Trust me, there is no worse feeling in this entire world than to ask point blank, "will she live" and not be given an answer. I will never forget the surgeon looking me straight in the eye and saying he wouldn't speculate. It taught me that I know true love though. I would have died to spare her even a moments pain.

The white blood count alone should have given rise to a CT Scan, especially if they didn't have the staff to look at the xray!

I don't want to add to your worries, but I will give you a ballpark of what they might be facing-my DD's 10 day hospital stay was $26,000 dollars. You might be able to fight some charges, like my DD didn't eat until the last day there, a bowl of jello. They gave her a Sprite just out of surgery that she didn't drink too. They still charged for meal services the whole time, even though she couldn't eat. I would have fought it, but we were so tired and had to take her to Disney the next month, so we were focused on that. We also had insurance and only had to pay $400.00 out of pocket.

I would look into fundraisers and things like that maybe too. Good luck.

 

[nliedel]

The delay in reading the X-ray for what, to me and I am not a doctor, sounds like an appendix problem is negligent at best. I am not a sue happy person but in this case I would get an attorney. I was in recently for abdominal pain and they did a CT scan immediatly. This was terrible.

Prayers to your BIL

 

[floridafam]

OMG.

My DD had her appendix out a year and a half ago. It was also diagnosed by a CT scan and read immediately!! She did not present as an appendicitis at first and was sent home for about 12 hours because of a disagreement among the Er Doc and Surgeon. So, sometimes, things happen and they are not operated on right away.

Still, it sounds as if the x-ray should have been flagged to be read at once.

What the heck were they thinking?

ducklite is correct. There are special programs to help the uninsured. Also, some hospitals adjust the bill to what it would be if the patient had insurance-for example, an insurance company may pay a hospital only $3 for an aspirin but someone with insurance pays the actual charge of $10. Some hospitals adjust to the lower rate but you may have to ask them more than once.

Anyway, I'm sure that's not the most important thing right now.

I'm sending lots of hugs and prayers. I hope you are able to find out exactly what happened.

 

[Poohgirl]

How awful! Prayers for you Bil and sister. After the scariest part is over, I would be fighting mad...

 

[catherine]

Prayers and best wishes for your BIL and SIL.

I can't believe that he wasn't scanned right away and prepped for surgery, especially with his blood tests showing a high WBC count. Did a surgical consultant not see your BIL? It seems to me that someone was negligent.

 

[Southern4sure]

I just talked with my sis. Bil was in so much pain when she brought him to the hospital that he was moaning and couldn't really talk. Sis kept asking for them to give him something for pain and they refused at first. Nurse was rude and said he had a stomach virus and they already sent home 3 for this. Bil arrived at the hosp at 6:12 am Sunday and by 8:30 am the first blood test showed a high white blood count. Eventually they did give him some morphine Sunday afternoon. They took an X-ray of his chest to rule out the flu...... At 8:30 pm he had a CT scan but that was not read until Monday afternoon. Also, the hospital has the wrong admit date. Sis is trying to get them to change it but they act like she doesnt know what she is talking about. They have him arriving on Monday morning. I do not want to jump to conclusions but sounds like the hospital is trying to cover up.

Thank you all so much for the kind words, prayers and pixie dust. I will keep updating as I get more info.

 

[floridafam]

This is just unreal. I'm not the sue happy type, either, but it certainly sounds like something went really wrong here.

Make sure they change the admit date.

I would suggest consulting with an attorney and perhaps asking to speak with a higher up administrator at the hospital.

 

[LoraJ]

Hugs to you and your family.

I just posted a message a week ago about something similar. My boyfriend's father has been in the hospital for a week now. I still hardly know what is going on. I do know that his colon ruptured, holes in stomach and has a tumor somewhere in there which can't be removed or it would instantly kill him.

He doesn't have insurance either. The hospital social worker came by a few days ago and wants him out of the hospital ASAP. But that's impossible. He's getting worse as the days go by it seems.

Last night they said his oxygen levels were low and suspected a blood clot or pulmonary embulism. The chest ultra sound was fine, but don't know about the blood clots since there was no one around in radiology to look at them. Not sure if anyone has yet.

He had blood in his stool a month ago and went to the emergency room. They told him he had hemmeroids.

I fell like he is getting such crappy care because he doesn't have insurance ( he freelances and didn't have work for months). Sucks when you have to choose between child support and health insurance.

Hopefully your BIL will recover quickly and hopefully they will be able to find some sort of financial options.

 

[C.Ann]

I just talked with my sis. Bil was in so much pain when she brought him to the hospital that he was moaning and couldn't really talk. Sis kept asking for them to give him something for pain and they refused at first. Nurse was rude and said he had a stomach virus and they already sent home 3 for this. Bil arrived at the hosp at 6:12 am Sunday and by 8:30 am the first blood test showed a high white blood count. Eventually they did give him some morphine Sunday afternoon. They took an X-ray of his chest to rule out the flu...... At 8:30 pm he had a CT scan but that was not read until Monday afternoon. Also, the hospital has the wrong admit date. Sis is trying to get them to change it but they act like she doesnt know what she is talking about. They have him arriving on Monday morning. I do not want to jump to conclusions but sounds like the hospital is trying to cover up.

Thank you all so much for the kind words, prayers and pixie dust. I will keep updating as I get more info.

-----------------------

They are definitely trying to "cover up" their gross negligence.. Coincidentally, my DD and her DH are right now in the process of filing formal charges against a hospital ER and her Primary Care Physicians office for a serious situation that arose over the weekend as a result of a car accident she was in on Friday.. Can't go into a lot of details, but everyone involved was attempting to "stall" our attempts to receive written confirmation of the series of events until we hired a lawyer yesterday.. Within 2 hours we received a phone call to come to the hospital and pick up the ER report (which was supposed to take a minimum of 7 to 10 days) and so far we have been contacted by the Office Manager of the Primary's office; the Medical Director of the entire chain of offices; the Administrator of the hospital; and the hospital lawyer.. My DD's lawyer is working on obtaining other pertinent facts today and is in the process of filing formal complaints with the proper channels at the State Department of Health..

Your BIL could very well have died - and still isn't out of the woods.. If at all possible, it would be of great help to your sister if you could drive home and help her pursue legal action before records suddenly "change"; are "lost"; become "unavailable"; etc..

Meanwhile I will say a prayer for his recovery and as ducklite has suggested, contact the patient advocate at the hospital to find out what kind of financial help is available to your sister and BIL..

 

[ugadog99]

I will definitely keep them in my thoughts and prayers. I am sure this is a very scary time for them. Please keep us updated when you can.


Melanie

 

[bananiem]

If they have you in ER for an extended period of time then he probably wasn't admitted. It very well could be that he wasn't admitted until just before surgery. I still think the hospital was severely negligent, but the admitting date may be correct even though he was in the hospital Sunday.

 

[nliedel]

You need an attorney and you need one now. This thing with the admit date, it's a mess. She needs to go right up the line right now. To the director of the hospital if she needs to. The admit date can be sorted out with the dates on the X-rays but do it now. TODAY. Please. Help if you can.