Woman Billed For Medical Screw Up

According to 'The Daily Mail' a Woman, 60, who almost died from fungal meningitis after being injected with MOLDY MEDICINE is suing the Tennessee hospital who billed her $500,000 to fight the very infection they gave her



I realize nobody's perfect, but I don't expect others to pay for someone else's screw ups. I do respect that it may not be the hospital's fault directly. It was the pharmaceutical firm's. However, at the food plant where I worked we checked all the ingredients coming in before we mixed them and put them out under our brand on the grocery shelves. I would expect at least the same kind of care when it comes to injecting ingredients into the body of a patient.

The right thing to do would be to treat the patient they infected w/o penalty. Then try and recover the costs from the guilty party, the pharmaceutical manufacturer. In this case the manufacturer declared bankruptcy. So the hospital preferred instead to stiff the patient. Had they properly tested the medication in the first place, all of this could have been avoided. So yes they have a responsibility in all of this. It defies all logic that they should profit off both their and the pharmaceutical failures.

I'm all for patients assuming financial responsibility for their treatment, but not when a hospital created a condition that didn't exist prior to a patient's arrival. It as if a car mechanic poked a hole in a gas tank while repairing the fuel pump and the car burned up. OR a plumber came in and flooded a house while replacing the bath tub with bad parts.

Screw ups happen because we're all human. I understand that, but I very much resent the medical community thinking they should get a pass when other professions are granted no such immunity. It's a shame that this woman will suffer both medically and financially under the legal system for the next 10 years through countless appeals in which she may never be compensated..

Above each classroom's chalkboards at the old Central Jr. H.S. in Allentown, where I went to school, was a sign that read 'Personal Responsibility'. I must admit I didn't have a lot of things that stuck with me after leaving school, but that saying meant more to me as I went through life then any other. I don't know why it was, but that has always remained at the forefront of my thoughts in dealing with others throughout my life above all else.

Those signs are no longer there. Apparently 'Personal Responsibility' these days isn't either.