This is a long story, and I hope those who read this go elsewhere if their children have medical problems as all what Im about to describe is a pratice that cares only for the buck and bleed insurance instead of really caring for the child.
Lets start from the beginning. On october 24th wife went in for a routine ultrasound at about 4 months into her pregnancy. It was discovered then that the baby had water in the kidneys which was termed severe hydronephrosis. This was in both kidneys and can be caused by any matter of things from clogged tubes, small openings from the kidneys to the bladder, bad valves, or so was explained to us.
We were sent to a counselor who gave us a few options, one of them abortion which an appointment was actually made. This was done due to filled calanders and time andbecasue so far, the damage looked bad and it was a very hard decision to either go through the pregnancy and have a child that may not live, or live a crippled life or just abort. After talking with several people and lots of phone calls we were put in contact with the above named doctor at the above named clinic.
We met with the doctor and his assistant who talked to us more by rote then by what they actually saw in a tape we brought with us. More of the decisions were made by what my wife and I repeated then by what was seen on the tape which the assistant watched with us not much lator on. We were seen by the doctor, given all this false hope, why to continue with the pregnancy, how and whats possably causing the problems, and what can be done to fix it. A set scedule was set on ultrasounds to be done prior to the birth and after.
Now for some more info, as stated in other posts I have made, I nor my wife cant drive, its a disability, so either we take public transportation, or with enough time, scedule whats called paratranset. Both the Hospital and doctor knows this, and let me tell you, the trip is long, and I even set a window of 6 hours in case anything else is needed at the childrens hospital. Guess what? The appointment calls never came, I had to call several times to get them made myself for the dates the doctor required. Worse, these and other appointments would be canceled without a single call to find out once we got there that theres been a rescedule. Ok, I as well as anyone else knows emergencys happen, and a doctor wont be there. This happened to many a times. And Ill tell you lator why.
Now the babys born. Happy and almost fully healty baby boy. What was suppose to happen, didnt. The hospital where he was born did an ultra sound, and what we were told was we had an appointment at ucsf for one that was more advanced. That didnt happen. What happened was we went there, and were left in the waiting room for 3 hours. People who came after us were admitted ahead of us. (No, this isnt a case of more in need first, or different procedures, these people were deliberately let to cut in front of us) The people at the desk said there were people from other parts of the building using the same procedure room, so we had to wait. This was BS, and untrue, and also the wife and I were like What procedure? It was then we were told an ultrasound wasnt being done but another procedure.
When the time came, 3 hours lator, we were put in a room with a machine that worked similer to an xray, which is used to pick up dies injected into the person being tested. There was this odor in the room, sort of like stale urine that you find in one of those not to kept clean bathrooms? I noticed several items in the room that were caked with what smelled of dry old urine and not cleaned. It was quite disgusting. The test/procedure finally done, we get put in a room and told the doctor would be with us in a moment. That moment was 2 hours, and I had to get several people who kept saying "your still here? You havent been seen yet? Ill go find him." Basically the doctor was in a room having a chat with one of those drug sellors, the type that leave doctors samples in hopes the doctors will sell their products not to mention get kickbacks from? What the doctor didnt know nor the person who went to get him was I was outside his office when what I believe was the doctor told the assistant "With their insurance, they can wait"
It took me a lot to not go barging in their and take the doctor and drag his butt out. Our babys life is in this guys hands? It was starting to click, all those times we thought it was his assistant forgetting to scedule, canceling, or not getting back ever to us when in fact its the doctor?
The doctor came to our room, and talked with another assistant a moment, and it was very clear he had no clue who we were or what was wrong with our baby. He even had the diagnosis completely wrong which I corrected and this guys helping our baby? He even said his assistant was going to call us, to scedule an appointment for another procedure as the babys condition was worse. The appointment was for an ultrasound by the way, in which making a baby wait a month and a half for something seriouse is a bit strange, and yet the assistant didnt even bother getting back anyways, despite our calls.
I explained what was happening to our pediatrition (sorry for bad spelling) who put us in touch with another center who has been quite awsome with our baby and sceduled in days what ucsf has taken 2 months to not scedule? It gets better.
It was like pulling teeth to get medical records from ucsf, and I had to threaten malpratice and that I was going to bring a sheriff and have arrests made for endangering our babys welfare. It finally came out why we had trouble, they had almost absolutely no records what so ever. Other then a copy of a fast written report sent to our childs pediatrition which they were asked for a few times and the film from the procedure, there was no record of what or how they came to decide on what the babys problem was, or even a diagnosis. All UCSF has been doing is milking our insurance, asking us to sign papers which would give them more ways to collect more money and for what? Doing absolutely nothing and putting our babys life at risk of dying while they make money.
Right now, the new place were using cares for children and has proven themselves so far 100 fold. Everything thats been done over the months by ucsf miling the insurance is being done in days by the new place. All I can say, is if your using UCSF and having similer problems as we were, go elsewhere. Your childs life is more important.
0 comments