Can I hold the hospital responsible for extra costs?

When you sign into the hospital (whether your mom signed herself in or someone did as POA) the documents you sign indemnify the hospital from these types of lawsuits. Check your intake paperwork, I guarantee that if you accepted care, you waved your rights to these types of lawsuits as they tell you...there is risk to being in the hospital.

Plus there is no way to prove that the MRSA came from their hospital, or was already dormant in the patient and bloomed due to the other issues. Even if you didn't sign intake papers... you would still have to prove the exact moment that the infection was "caught" and what the hospital did/didn't do.

Angel

It's like when they are on Medicaid and fall and break a hip, or something similar - the family sees a 'big payday' and plan to sue the nursing home. Then they learn they have to prove negligence on the nursing home's part. Then they learn monies awarded go to MEDICAID, not them. That's what I was told.....anyway, there is good useful advice from others here.

Any attorney taking on a case like this should be doing it free of charge to you (think ambulance chasers) - if they feel it is "winnable" they collect 30% or more (fees etc) of the winnings. However, although this might be won, in the meantime you do have to consider that in the "fine print" of hospital paperwork is the blurb about how YOU (in this case mom) are responsible for the debt, NOT the insurance company. Doctors and hospitals allow you to use insurance they accept and bill, but ANYTHING LEFT OVER they consider to be the PATIENT's debt. Working with their financial people may be helpful. Sometimes they will reduce costs and/or allow payments over time, but READ the fine print, especially if there is any interest being charged.
Please see my response (copy/paste this if it doesn't show up as a link) in the agingcare regarding debt:

https://www.agingcare.com/questions/parent-needing-extensive-medical-care-keep-up-with-credit-card-bills-too-428290.htm

grzmot, I am so sorry to hear this! There's good advice here; also, this is what insurance companies are for, to pursue this kind of stuff, so put them to work on it! Hope your mom rests comfortably.

Let Medicare know. I believe hospital acquired infections are something the hospital has to cover.

Thank you so much for the hint to request Financial Aid!

We all carry staph on and in our bodies. It's an opportunistic infection. Your mother's intestinal obstruction in addition to her age probably weakened her immune system causing her to become vulnerable to the infection. Unfortunately it happens and not just with MRSA.

It usually doesn't cost anything to consult a lawyer but if a lawyer would take your case it will cost you a lot more than you'd pay in healthcare costs.

When you get the first hospital bill call their office and ask for financial assistance forms. Get them filled out and sent back. Because of your mom's age they may forgive the bill. Something a lawyer would never do.

Mom was living at home with a 24X7 caregiver. I feel she contracted it when 3 attempts to insert a NG tube were made. She never had MRSA. I doubt the obstruction caused it as it did not involve the circulatory system.

I would not think so. She is 97 and as they age they become much more susceptible to so many things. If she has ever had MRSA she is much more likely to get it again. MRSA is often found in facility living and hospitals. My stepdad got is when he had a pocket watch size cyst removed from the bottom is his foot. Led to amputation of a toe. Was she living in a facility when she got the obstruction? Could the obstruction have caused the MRSA? If she was living in a facility maybe the infection was picked up there.

Many people have MRSA in their bodies. Just takes a change in health status for it to become active.