This is ridiculous! I hope some serious action can take place so this cannot be repeated. I can imagine the fear of this poor lady! And this is NOT the first time that this happens.
QUOTE |
Elvira Tellez of Tucson said she called her son in a panic, and he told her to call 911. Pima County sheriff's deputies arriving at the oncology office had her unlock the office door to let them in, said Deputy Dawn Hanke, a department spokeswoman. The deputies contacted the office manager, who was not aware of the situation. Tellez was taken to a hospital as a precaution, then released early the next day. Tellez said she's had trouble sleeping since last week's incident. She and her family said they want an explanation from the medical office, Arizona Oncology Associates, but have yet to receive one. She said the technician who apparently forgot about her and went home did call to apologize the next day. "I don't know what to think," Tellez said in Spanish. "I think and think and think, but I can't understand it." The executive director of Arizona Oncology Associates, Sonya Hohm, was in a meeting Friday morning and not immediately available for comment, her assistant said. She said no one else at the statewide medical practice was authorized to comment. Diagnosed with bone cancer, the 67-year-old Tellez had been sent to the clinic for tests to see if her cancer had spread. A technician placed her inside the large machine at about 4 p.m. on Sept. 19, dimmed the lights so she could relax and told her not to move during the 25-minute procedure. "At some point, my mom lost track of time and felt like too much time had passed, but she couldn't look at a clock or anything because it was dark," her son Ariel Tellez said. After calling out, then screaming for help, she spent several hours trying to free herself from the machine. Finally, she wiggled out from under a heavy blanket and out of the machine. By the time deputies found her, it had been five hours since she was placed inside. |
This is horrifying! It's bad enough that this poor woman is going through all the trauma already associated with cancer without having to be terrified by being forgotten and left in this machine!
Sadly it takes cases like this for improvements to be made in the system, but I really feel for this poor lady.