Know Your Rights
Is there any avenue of legalities outside of medical malpractice should you need to pursue it? A man in Bangor, Maine has filed a lawsuit against Mayo Regional Hospital not for medical malpractice, but under a labor law.
[Robert] Olszewski claims he went to the hospital’s emergency room twice within 17 hours on Aug. 6, 2007, for pain in his chest, headache and fever and was not given appropriate medical screening. He later went to a Bangor hospital where he was admitted for a mild heart attack.
Attorney Michael J. Waxman of Portland, who is representing Olszewski, said the lawsuit is not a medical malpractice suit, per se, but triggers a federal statute called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. The labor act initially was passed as an anti-dumping statute since hospitals were then turning away people who didn’t have insurance or money, Waxman said Thursday. When someone goes to the emergency room, the hospital must do an appropriate medical screening to determine whether the person is in fact in an emergency condition. If so, the patient cannot be transferred until stabilized, he said.
This is a great situation when it is very helpful to know what your rights are. If you go to an emergency room seeking treatment, you must be treated.