Went to ER based on bad test results at Urgent Care

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Went to ER based on bad test results at Urgent Care

My 10 months old son got sick recently, very high fever and no other symptoms. We take him to an urgent care facility. They did some tests, and drew blood nurse taking blood from finger clearly inexperienced with dealing with small children, took too little blood. The doctor review results of all test and says nothing is wrong with him sent us home and told us to give him fever medicine. Ok fine we go home. Later that evening after the baby was already sleeping, urgent care doctor calls us and says she took another look at his blood test results and she noticed his hemoglobin was very low to a point he might need blood transfusion and tells us to go to the ER ASAP. Needless to say we wake up the baby and rush to the hospital. At the hospital my poor baby goes through horrible experience with a bunch of needles being stuck in him i never heard him cry like this they put the useless IV in him, which we found later. Anyway, they draw blood from his vain and it goes to the lab. About an hour later doctor comes in and tells us his results are perfect, nothing wrong with his blood absolutely. We are releaved, we go home at 4 am. Now the hospital bills $4500 to my insurance which 2500 is my responsibility. I would have never gone to ER if it wasnt for bad test results that urgent care got from their machine due to nurse drawing too little blood. Do I have any type of recourse again the urgent care, they sent me to ER and now I’m stuck with the bills. Can they be held responsible for these bills?

Asked on September 5, 2017 under Malpractice Law, Kentucky

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 6 years ago | Contributor

You may be able to hold them responsible for the results/costs of their misdiagnosis, since it appears to have due to negligence or unreasonable carelessness (i.e. not drawing blood properly), but it's not clear that it is worth doing so. If they will not voluntarily cover some or all of the cost, you'd have to sue them for malpractice; to bring a malpractice suit, you *must* hire a doctor or similar medical expert to write a report and, if necessary, testify in court about how what they did was negligent or not up to current medical standards--only a medical expert can testify about this. You can't get the cost of the expert back in the lawsuit; you have to bear it. And such experts can costs nearl as much or as much as the $2,500 you hope to get back.


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