Dealing with and treating epilepsy is a considerable burden for both the patient and their caretakers. One particular New York parent would undoubtedly understand how this is, as their 7-month-old infant son has severe epilepsy and needs medication from a specialty pharmacy. The medicine, ACTH, costs around $100,000 and takes weeks to procure. The epileptic baby’s hospital in NYC told the parents to bring their own ACTH for treatment, which they did. However, after confiscating the medication and storing it away, the hospital staff shockingly told the parents they threw away the expensive ACTH by accident. Just, how?
“I’m so frustrated and also heartbroken because we love our doctors here,” the infant’s parent said, feeling betrayed by how carelessly the hospital handled the costly medication. “They believe they were accidentally discarded,” they explain. “So we’re essentially stuck in the hospital while my son tapers back off the medication.” So now, not only are the parents stressed under watching their baby son react to the strong epilepsy medicine, but they have none left to take home because the hospital pharmacy staff clearly didn’t know what they were doing and tossed it out.
The top commenter, along with multiple other Reddit users, advised the epileptic’s parent to document everything that happened, including the names of the staff who handled the $100,000 medication. “This is a pretty big failure on the hospital’s end,” and being let off with a slap on the wrist wouldn’t be right. The facility should be willing to replace the ACTH, as well as make sure it gets to the infant patient as soon as possible. Although OP made it clear they want to pick another hospital to take their son to, “not leaving is part of the fight,” a user says. After all, there’s no guarantee insurance will “cover a re-admission that was unnecessary, [and] that’s not an insurance battle you want,” a Redditor explains.
Plenty of users encourage the parent to make a big deal out of it and “Complain to EVERYONE.” Getting a lawyer involved or taking the matter to a state department would be ideal if the hospital tries to brush it off and refuses to take accountability. “They done f***ed up” and deserve to pay for the grave mistake. Hopefully, the parent with the epileptic son is able to quickly get things resolved, as well as have the $100K medication replaced ASAP. And whoever ‘accidentally’ threw out the ACTH needs to have a serious talk with the hospital’s HR.
