What can I do for Medical Misdiagnosis in TX?
On May 23rd I went to the ER for pains I was having in my upper right ab. I was in real bad pain and was just vomitting. I described my symptoms to the nurse that was taking my temp and blood pressure. I was put in a room where I waited about 30 minutes for the Dr. When the Dr. came in I told him what was going on. He touched my stomach and requested that I get a pregnancy test, urine test, and x-rays done. After the x-rays the Dr. came in with a nurse and said the x-rays showed I was very constipated and I should just go home and drink magnisium citrate. The nurse was as rude as rude can be. She told me that I should be ashamed of myself for going to the ER for constipation. I was going to pay more for my ER visit when I could have have just bought an over the counter constipation relief medicine. She was literally laughing her off about this. She went on and told my husband that now he had a reason to make fun of me in front of other people. So I was really at the ER for about an 1 1/2. I was literally force to pay part of my copay before I left. The guy would not discharge me until I paid something. Then he told me I had 3 days to pay of the remainder of my copay. I ended up having to go to my PCP May 26th because my pains had gotten worse from when I went to the ER. My Dr. immediately requested that I have a sonogram done because from the symptoms I was telling him he thought I might have gallbladder issues (HE WAS SO RIGHT). I ended up paying $30 for my PCP office visit and $300 for the sonogram. (SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN DONE AT THE ER FROM THE VERY BEGINNING). Turned out I had gallstones and my gallbladder was very infected and swollen. My PCP recommened me to have surgery. That following week after I went to the Dr. I ended up going to the ER again but at a different hospital. The pain was more intense and the vomitting was non stop. I ended up having emergency surgery done to get my gallbladder removed because the Dr's were scared that it might rupture. I called the Director of the 1st hospital I went to complain of the service I received at the ER and how I ended having to pay for someone else to tell me that I had gallbaldder issues for having to pay for a sonogram when they could have done it there. She told me she'd call me back. A week went by and she did not call me back. I called her and she told me she'd call me back again. So after a couple of days I called her again and she told me that she was sorry for the way the nurse acted but that what the Dr did at the ER was right. I told her if he was a Dr then he should have done more testing and that my DR immediately knew of what was causing my pains. She said the director of the physicians was going to talk to the ER Dr and tell him that in cases like mine he needed to investigate the problem further than just recommending someone to take magnisium citrate and sending them home. I asked the director if she could wave the $100 for what I experienced at the ER and for me having to pay money else where to get the proper diagnosis. She declined to do so. So now I am receiving calls from them asking me to pay them the $100. I tried to negotiate payment paying them $10/month since I have the surgery bill to pay. They declined to do so. I told them that I was trying to negotiate this with them before I decided to take exercise my legal options. The girl in billing told me that I needed to talk to their attorney and mentioned that the lady I had talked to was there attorney and I asked her when did she become and attorney because the last time I had talked to her she told me she was the assistant director of the hospital and the girl went on to tell me that I could pay $25 in 4 payments if not I could forget about paying them and they would send it to collections. What can I do? Should I report them to the Texas Health Department or seek to speak to an attorney?
