CLIENT STORIES

Our son sustained a severe brain injury in a car accident in 2014. During his stay at the hospital critical care unit he was incubated, sedated and unable to talk. My wife and I were with him at all times. Very few times we had to leave at night. One night while we were getting ready to leave and saying goodnight to him, we noticed that his blood pressure and heart rate went up drastically. We asked a nurse what was happening but they couldn’t give us an answer. We couldn’t leave, as we knew something was wrong with him and he couldn’t tell us what was the matter. After a few hours my wife suddenly asked him if he wanted to pee. He nodded his head and we rushed to look at his catheter. To our huge surprise we saw that a nurse forgot to unblock his catheter. His bag was full of urine and now the urine was filling his bladder. We immediately called the nurse who unplugged the catheter. He was immediately relieved. His blood pressure and heart rate went back to normal. I’m just asking myself what if we left the hospital that night without noticing his changed condition; it would have been devastating.  After we complained to the nurse and staff they just gave us excuses and accused us of interfering with their work, as we supposedly distracted them from their work. That was not true, as each time they had to do something with our son, we went to the waiting room and returned when they finished. We can only suggest to anyone else to be there for their loved ones because you never know what type of quality of patient care service you will receive.

My father sustained multiple fractures from his car accident in 2013. He was just about to be released into a rehab facility when the sitter, who was supposed to make sure he doesn’t get up from the bed on his own, fell asleep sitting next to his bed. He fell from the bed and injured his head badly and was taken to urgent head surgery. I hope nothing like this will happen to anyone else.

My car accident was in 2010. Approximately a year after my accident I was sent to be examined by the insurances’ psychiatrist. I spent about 2 hours with this doctor and answered all their questions about my life. As a part of my story was a detail when I was temporarily separated from my parents as they travelled for work outside of the country. I was about 7 years old at the time and that happened about 35 years before my accident. I was very much surprised when I read the report written by the psychiatrist in which he stated that my present back pain is directly caused not by the car accident but because of that physical separation from my parents. Oh my God, can you believe that?

Insurance company wanted me to be examined by their orthopedic specialist. My accident was in 2012 and this examination was in 2014. I went to this doctor’s office where I waited for more than an hour and a half. After the long wait the doctor came out and asked me to go to the change room to change into a hospital gown. He told me that after I changed to go back to his room to be examined. I came back to his examination room and he just took a measuring tape and measured both of my thighs. Then he said, “That’s all. You can go.”  I couldn’t believe it. A few weeks later I received his report. In his report he mentioned that besides the examination that he did he also examined the video surveillance material supplied by a private investigator hired by the insurance company and who followed me on several occasions. He said that he noticed in that video surveillance footage that I was smoking. From that he said medical studies confirmed that smoking can cause back pain and that my back pain is not related to my accident at all. That was hilarious. I asked many doctors after that about smoking causing back pain. Every doctor was laughing. But guys, this is not the end of my story. The fact is I was not a smoker. He obviously lied. I couldn’t believe it. I asked my lawyer to give me a copy of that video surveillance. I got 4 DVDs and asked my wife to watch these DVDs and tell me if I was smoking or doing anything similar to that. But there was nothing at all. I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t crazy. I hope you’re never going to be examined by anyone like that guy.

I was with my son at the hospital after his motorcycle accident. He couldn’t move, had breathing and feeding tubes, and was under sedation. One day I thought he wanted to say something to me but obviously he couldn’t speak because of the tubes. I wanted to massage his back and I felt something under his back on the bed. It was a pair of scissors. The stupid nurse forgot the scissors when she was cutting gauze. My poor son was in pain and was helpless.

Several months after I got discharged from the hospital, I was at home recovering. Someone rang the doorbell and when I opened the door I saw a delivery a guy holding a box. He said he has a delivery for me and he mentioned my full name. I confirmed that it was me and then he asked me to provide ID. I went back inside to get my driver’s license. When I came back I noticed that he was holding a small camera underneath the box. When I asked him what that was he just dropped the box on the floor and ran away. I opened the box and there was a used sport magazine inside. Obviously that was a private investigator that was sent to film me from the insurance company. I spoke with OMVIA and they sent a man who told me many valuable things that I guess everyone who was in car accident should know. Thank you OMVIA.

I went to a psychiatrist appointment arranged by my insurance company. I was hurt as a pedestrian so they wanted to check if I had any psychological problems from the accident. I remember 1 very interesting moment during that examination. At 1 point the doctor gave me a blank sheet of paper. He asked me to fold it in half and put it on the floor. I did it and he never asked me anything about it throughout the interview. It felt very strange and I should say stupid, as I didn’t know the purpose of that request. About a year after I had the opportunity to talk to 1 of OMVIA’s mentors who was in a car accident as well. He explained to me the purpose of that strange request of folding the paper and putting it on the ground. I guess insurance doctors have strange ways of examining.