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Doctor lied in medical record

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PennyLane19

Junior Member
I understand this isn't exactly medical malpractice, but this is the only place I thought was close to appropriate to answer this question.

This may be a bit lengthy, but I want to be as detailed as I can be.

In July of 2014, I was 26 weeks pregnant with my son. I was having issues with my blood pressure and went to Ruby Memorial in Morgantown, WV. When I arrived, there was a urine drug screen preformed on me. Shortly after I was admitted to a room, a resident and nurse came in demanding I admit to withdrawing from Subutex and Methamphetamine. I have never seen these drugs let alone ever used them. I kept trying to explain to them there had to be a mistake. My mother and husband were also in the room with me trying to explain to this woman that I didn't have a drug problem and there was no way that this test was accurate. The resident was increasingly rude to me and continued to demand I admit to my drug use. After a few minutes I finally convinced her to retest me. According to the labs I have from that night, the first urine drug screen they did (the one that came back positive) was taken at 6:25PM and the lab received it at 6:30PM. The second urine drug screen was preformed at 9:52PM and the lab received it at 9:55PM. My son was delivered via emergency c-section at 10:48PM. Sometime after he was born (I can't give you an exact time because I actually WAS given some medication at that point), my nurse informed me that the drug screen I requested had came back negative and that everything was fine. A few days later, another resident came in my room to talk to me. I had met him before during one of my blood pressure episodes and really liked him. He sat on my bed and talked to me for a while. He told me that what had happened with my first drug test probably had something to do with all the medication that had pumped into me trying to get my blood pressure to go down. Sometimes that can interfere with the drug screens and they can get a false positive. I believed him and the nurse and thought that everything was okay.

My son spent 3 months in the NICU. At one of our routine check ups at the beginning of 2015, I learned that the NICU had sent his pediatrician documentation stating that I tested positive for Subutex and Methamphetamine. This absolutely infuriated me. I contacted patient advocacy at the hospital and attempted to get to the bottom of this. At the very least, I wanted my records amended. The attending OB that night refused to do anything and had no explanation as to why she told the attending neonatologist who was on call that night that I tested positive for those two drugs without informing him that there was a second drug test preformed that came back negative. I spoke with multiple patient advocacy representatives as well as the manager of the maternity floor and NICU floor. No one cared. I was told "Just carry your lab results around with you to show doctors. That way you can show them you aren't a drug addict". Defeated, I gave up.

My son still has some delays and requires therapy. I currently live in PA and they have a loophole for medicaid. If a child has a disability, you can receive medicaid regardless of income. When I went to apply to help with the cost of his therapy, I needed to get his medical records from his pediatrician. As I was looking over them, I saw page after page.. "Fetus/infant affected by maternal use of Subutex". I got furious all over again. And then I had questions. Because even less of it makes sense now. If I tested positive for both of these drugs, then how did only one of them affect him? I kept looking over his records. They just so happened to include his cord blood testing. It came back negative for any and all drugs... yet he was "affected by maternal use of Subutex". How are they getting away with this?! So, I call patient advocacy again towards the end of August of 2017. They send me the amendment form to fill out and all that happy stuff. They also sent me another lab report from that night. This time, I learned of a THIRD drug test that was preformed that I didn't know about before. This drug test was preformed at 3:00AM and the lab received it at 3:40AM. It also came back negative. But I don't understand how that one did because I had been on a Dilaudid drip for a few hours by that point due to my c-section. I don't know if they take that into account and don't test for that? Maybe you can educate me on that. Anyways, I sent my amendment form to the patient advocate on 9/5/2017. I didn't hear anything for about a month, so I tried to contact her. I finally got a hold of her on 10/11/2017. She informed me that she was waiting to hear back from someone in the health resources department. Once she did, I would know something. I still had not heard anything on 10/18/2017 and decided to call the hospital administration. The secretary took my information and said she would pass it on to an administrator. Well, the administrator just passed me back to patient advocacy because I got a call from the supervisor who informed me that the advocacy rep handling my amendment didn't bother sending over anything until 10/11/2017 because "it was in her spam folder and she didn't think to look there" and "I don't think I would have even thought to look there". It's 2017. Do you know how to use e-mail? I gave it a little over a month. I called this woman in health resources to see where we were on 11/16/2017. She said she was waiting to hear from "a physician" and then I would know something. And now, a month later, 12/15/2017, and I haven't heard a word and I know absolutely nothing. From what I've read, a doctor has 60 days to respond to the amendment even if that means saying "hey, I need more time". Well, I mean, it's been well over 60 days now..

I just want to know what avenue (if any) I can take to have something done about this. It's just not okay that they've done this to me and my son. I was in an extremely abusive relationship 6 years ago. He actually was a drug addict. So, for me to be labeled as one after I was almost killed by one.. it's a little more than degrading. Thanks in advance for any help.
 



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