How would you feel after being billed to donate your own son’s organs minutes after his tragic death? Flustered, confused, angry, maybe?
Carmen Foucault, mother of a 23-year-old son, James Foucault, who died in a tragic motorcycle accident last week, Wednesday. The officers informing her of her son’s accident drove Foucault to Mercy Hospital. Minutes after arriving, doctors were suggesting that she keep her son alive just long enough to donate his organs. That with the brain damage caused in the accident, there was no way he would regain full consciousness. He was barely alive then. Foucault stated, “I knew it’s what he would want. He was always helping other people, so I agreed.”
What upset Foucault most was that after staying at the hospital until the afternoon after, the nurse just told her it was over with and she should go home. “They had him all cut apart, just butchered him. They didn’t say it was going to be like that. Then they didn’t thank me or anything. Can you believe it? My son dies, they take his parts, and then they send me a bill.” Foucault said very confused and angry.
Mercy Hospital billed Foucault $41,000 for keeping her son alive for an extra day while they took his organs. She was not informed of this at all before the procedure was started. Later to find that the hospital put a lien on her son’s house to ensure that they got paid the money. This caused Foucault to be unable to pay for a proper funeral and burial of her own son.
After hiring an attorney, Foucault was informed by the hospital’s chief administrator, Irwin Greenhouse, that the bill was a complete mistake on the hospital’s end. It was to be originally sent to the Division of Transplantation for review. Greenhouse stated, “It’s embarrassing, and we’ve already had our attorney remove the lien, told him to make it his number one priority.” The Division of Transplantation has now taken the liberty of paying Foucault’s cost of normal emergency care.
Now Foucault only wants to meet whoever got her son’s organs. She would “like to meet them, touch their chest and see who Jimmy saved.”
Wonderful job! Your story had me reading and interested until the ending. I liked the fact you used a question lead for your story. Remember though to try and answer the question in the lead as well. Otherwise your information was in perfect order and you added the quotations at just the right points.
ReplyDeleteBrittney! You wrote your news story very good. It covered with a lot of details. You have direct quotations and indirect quotations. They helped your news story more interesting.
ReplyDeleteVery nice job! I liked how you used an unusual lead and starting the article with a question. Your use of quotations added a lot to this story; instead of being redundant, they further explained the mother's frustration and anger. Also, I really liked how you chose to wrap the story up---end on a positive note and a smashing quote.
ReplyDeleteNice job!! I loved the deatil you put into your story.
ReplyDelete