On 27 NOV 22, Wesley Crawford was taken to ER at Tennova North by his wife, Colleen. He was unresponsive and the Knox County firefighters assisted her in getting him to the car. ER personnel took him out of the car, but he couldn't answer their questions.
His wife told them she suspects it's food poisoning because only two people ate something served at a Thanksgiving dinner, and both people got sick.
More than 11 people tried to do life saving techniques on him but they gave up trying to get an IV started. They told Colleen it would take a specialist, but there was only one available who was serving all of Knoxville.
Wesley was left alone in the hallway of Tennova, right in front of the ER desk, dying from dehydration. Colleen recorded Wesley being left on a gurney.
The nurse assigned to him was offended that Colleen didn't know she was a nurse, and snapped at her when she asked when someone will be back to help him, and put an IV in. Wesley was throwing up, and Colleen was asking for help, but no one took care of him.
He was like this for hours before the specialist arrived to put in an IV but it blew out the vein shortly after, not getting any fluids, Wesley wasn't responding and no one was tending to him.
He was moved to a room in ER about the time the staff was changing shifts and a young nurse asked the older nurse how much fluid Wesley got. The older nurse was the one offended that Colleen mistook her for an aide and not a nurse. She couldn't answer the nurse's question about fluid, and there was an argument between the two.
The younger nurse went and got the ER doctor and showed Wesley's IV bag to him, and then both of them got angry at the older nurse. She couldn't tell them how much fluid was given to Wesley, so Colleen answered and told them just the top of the bag made it through the IV. The doctor was angry and so was the young nurse because Wesley's kidneys were shutting down from severe dehydration.
The young nurse opened 2 IVs at full speed and the three of them went out in the hallway disputing.
The older nurse told Colleen she was exhuasted and the hospital is short handed. Colleen asked the nurse if she brought her husband to the wrong hospital and the nurse responded all the hospitals were this way.
The staff was complaining in the halls that they were tired, unhappy, overworked and stressed. One of the nurses even asked Colleen if Wesley's employer was hiring!
Colleen and her sister kept telling the staff to check him for food poisoning, but the ER doctor said "impossible" and wouldn't order the tests. Instead, he kept ordering all kinds of other tests.
Colleen told him, and several of the staff treating Wesely that two people got sick and they were the only ones that ate a dish with tuna, mayo and a few ingredients, but he still wouldn't order food poisoning test.
Colleen told the staff they had to pay cash and couldn't afford all of these tests and she just wanted a food poisoning test done, but they wouldn't listen to her or her sister, whose daughter was the other person that got very sick.
People kept coming in to Wesely's room doing one test after the other, running up the bills. What Colleen was told was that Wesley's kidneys were shutting down, so they were just going to treat him using different atibiotics to see which one would work, all the while ignoring Colleen's request for a food poisoning test.
On the third day, they released Wesley, not knowing what was wrong with him, but the ER doctor said maybe it was food poisoning. He was still so sick that Colleen took him to the Anderson County Health Clinic, and they tested him for food poisoning.
Wesley had a very deadly food poisoning called shiga toxin, and this specifically targets the kidneys, but Tennova's arrogant ER doctor refused to test Wesley for food poisoning.
Colleen began disputing the hospital bills on 05 DEC 22 because of what the staff did in ER to run up the bills. An email was sent to the COO of Tenneva, Drew Grey, via a valid email: drew.grey@tennova.com who then brought in Carol Lilly who used the email: carol_lilly@chs.net.
Carol took over communications, however, Colleen continued copying both of them in every email. The hospital reduced the amount of the bill considerably, but is refusing to turn over records that are needed for a lawsuit.
Colleen requested the ER videos and proof of testing for food poisoning.
Carol Lilly only responded back saying that there bills would be turned over to an in-house collection agency even though she approved a $25 / month payment. Upon research, Colleen learned that it is not an in-house agency, but rather a 3rd party bill collector who might file a hospital lien and ruin Wesley's credit.
Colleen wrote back to Carol telling her she lied about the in-house collection and that it would be a 3rd party debt collector and not Tennova. Colleen has been faithful in making the $25 payments but Carol is breaking the agreement.
She is also denying Colleen's request to see the proof that a food poisoning test was ordered. Colleen also asked for a breakdown of every contractor's bills and identify which of those bills is a result of food poisoning testing, and which are bills created by the ER doctor who was just guessing what might be wrong.
Colleen emailed Carol and Drew a copy of the test results that showed Wesley did indeed have food poisoning, in addition to c. diff. and has been asking for hospital records, but none have been provided.
On information and belief, no food poisoning tests were ordered and this is why they won't respond. Wesley and Colleen have 7 bills to pay. One is for Tennova, and 6 for contractors, but Tennova will not release itemized breakdown of the contractors.
There are several emails involved in this claim; and a video of Wesley being left unattended because Tennova's staff didn't know how to put an IV in a patient whose veins collasped because of severe hydration, so they left him alone for several hours while his kidneys shut down.
Current jury size: 32
Eligibility: Member of the public | 500 Lawyers member | Mediator | Doctor (MD) | Hospital Administrator | Medical Claims Specialist