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Middle Tennessee | Here's an example: About the time of our son's birth, I was in DC and Momma was in NYC, that was when I got warmed up for the many long weekend drives to come. Anyway, due date was a couple weeks away, pregnancy was going great, I'd figured out how to get fishoils into the diet without the heavy metals associated with some seafoods (sardines are the answer!), we were nervous, but excited. I get a call at work, "doctor says baby has gestational diabetes, so we should induce pregnancy before the baby becomes bloated." I was immediately skeptical, begged her not to do it, to get a second opinion, or wait until I got up there. Nope, she wouldn't resist the doctors orders, and by the time I got off the car, got home, packed a bag and got to NY, she was checked in for induction (Columbia University's fancy research hospital on the upper West Side).
She was several hours into the IV pitsoin treatment when I arrived. It was supposed to take 12 hours or so, but she wouldn't dilate. So every 12 hours, they just kept upping the pitosin dosage, pumping that crap into her and our baby. Then they wanted to C-section, but I resisted that. So, something like 2 days later and 20 times the amount of pitosin they thought, our boy popped out, I cried, and cut the cord. But our boy was skinny as a bean pole, not bloated like they told us he was when they recommended the induction, the entire justification for the induction was false. We went home, everything was great. Induction total bill was 50k probably, I can't recall.
But then our boy got jaundiced, and when we went to our follow up with the pediatrician, they waited another 12 hours to get back to us with results, RUSH HIM TO THE HOSPITAL. Billarubin levels were 1 in 10,000, near the threshold where catastrophic brain damage is a risk. As it turns out, induction and pitosin are linked with jaundice. When we got him to the NICU, they insisted a blood transfusion was necessary. That went well, right through the belly button umbilical cord, probably another 50k. Jaundice went away, but it kept coming back. Thousands billed to us in repeated blood tests, recurrent pediatric visits etc...What they didn't tell us was that all you need to check the jaundice is sunshine, wow that would have been cheap. Better yet, skip the induction, probably would have been no jaundice. When we finally figured it out, we could stick him in a window and watch the orange color boil off right in front of our faces.
Anyway, I believe the world-class medical staff involved were motivated by billing, and their own expediency. They caused our family hardship and expense. They were paid handsomely. I do not think it is an exceptional case. | |
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Liquidity Supernova
