Guaranteed Healthcare

When my mother was going in for scoliosis surgery by a top doctor at a top NYC hospital, we expected the best treatment. The hospital's treatment of my mother was not anything that we expected when we received the pleasant surprise that her surgery would be performed at a hospital which is known for its international fame and the 'clientele' it draws. Unanswered calls to nurses during a an excrutiatingly painful and difficult recovery from having a metal rod screwed into her spine, missed meals, and an overall apathetic treatment were the standard during her time there. We have always attributed apathetic behavior of the hospital staff to her insurance (Medicare).

The scariest problem that we had, however, began as a simple medical request. Though we requested the drawing of blood for compatibility between myself and my mother, we were told repeatedly that this procedure was not covered by my mother's insurance. For some odd reason, there were added costs or expenditures for her insurance for a BYOB (bring your own blood) case. We were told she could only receive a transfusion from the main blood supply.

Well, her first transfusion was given without a problem, but she suffered a violent allergic reaction to the second. Not only was she made seriously ill, but it was half an hour before her repeated requests to have the transfusion stopped were heeded, and the supply was switched. By this time, my mother was suffering serious pain at the trasfusion site and in her chest. From that moment through well after her surgery and her return home, she suffered a period of malaise that has gone unanswered.

A year later, she is now many times more prone to viruses and bacterial infections than she had ever been before her surgery. Due to the violently sick feelings she suffered during that transfusion and her feelings of being ill following that moment, which have remained, we have always attributed them to a transfusion from an unhealthy donor, whose medical history we are not entitled to learn. All of this could have been avoided if her insurance had accepted my offer to my mother, of my own blood, which would likely have been more compatible., nor how a simple test to see if it was would have been an unreasonable cost to that insurance provider (Medicare). I still do not understand how supplying her with my own blood would have caused anyone an added expense. It was mine, as is my mother my own.