child dies after workers refuse to fix his medicaid record

[NGSamson]

the whole myth that the child died because he was denied treatment is false. She could have taken him anywhere and gotten treatment. She didn't because she's either brain dead, or drugged, and attorneys latched onto it.

She was trained through a system of generational welfare to depend on the system to address her needs. This gos back to the beginnings of welfare programs. As the economy gets tougher, and food stamps get harder to get, you will see similar cases involving starvation. In a way, the child and to a lesser degree the woman are victims of the system. This is the system our current President wants for all of us. Think about that when you pull the lever at voting time.

 

[koshergrl]

thank you, I already remarked on that.

 

[NGSamson]

No sweat.

 

[frazzledgear]

Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post

but as we know, america has the best health care system in the world!

If only this 9 year old had worked hard in school, got a real job, etc then he wouldnt have been in this position!

If it would have been my child, I would have been arrested for chocking out the pharmacist. The ensuing media coverage would have gotten the problem resolved.

Sometimes you just need to kick the table over to gather peoples attention.

Why clock the pharmacist? They file by computer and are immediately told if it is covered or not and what if any co-pay exists. Pharmacists don't decide if its covered or not -they are TOLD whether it is. They aren't slaves obligated to eat the cost if someone refuses to pay for it or insurance refuses to pay for it. Most are just another employee working for some company and would be fired for theft for handing out merchandise or drugs to people for free. I do not agree that a pharmacist should be willing to get fired or deserves to be punched out if he or she refuses to hand over drugs for free to anyone with a good sob story. But I do agree with your real point here -any normal parent would make sure there was hell to pay until that mistake was fixed! But where the mistake was actually made -not someone else caught in the trap of that mistake too.

Some people here going on and on about the failure of companies, government, insurance, the pharmacist etc are totally off the mark on this one. This is an issue that addresses basic parental responsibilities and a lot of people really don't understand why they should be loudly condemning this woman instead of wasting their time sympathizing with her. She is NOT a sympathetic person but someone who should have been charged with a crime.

Everyone pretend this identical error happened to you personally. Not your kid but to you alone. You go to get your prescription filled for a critical medication, one you know for a fact is covered and one that if you stop taking it will sharply increase the risk you will die very soon. You are told by the pharmacist your insurance or your Medicaid refuses to cover it. What would you do in that event? Would you shrug and walk off deciding the bureaucratic "nightmare" just isn't worth the time it will take to get it straightened out? Go home and just wait to kick the bucket even though you know for a fact your medication really is covered? Or are you going to find where the screw up occurred and get it fixed so you can get your medication so you won't die? No one in their right mind is just going to walk off and forget about it and wait to die even though they know for a fact that medication is actually covered. Just not going to happen, is it? No matter how much a pain in the ass it will be, each of us would talk to whoever we had to, go wherever we had to go in order to get the mistake fixed so we could get that vital medication again. We all know it without a doubt.

But what liberals in particular don't get is this:

Every single parent owes their child at a minimum that IDENTICAL level of care. Whatever they would do for themselves, they OWE their child -because the child cannot do this for himself. The child is helpless if a parent refuses to do it which is why this is a fundamental moral parental duty, responsibility and obligation -one that has been recognized for THOUSANDS OF YEARS. Every parent OWES their child to do AT LEAST as much as they would have done for themselves in the identical situation as the very minimum level of care. PERIOD. Because the child can't. The parent speaks for himself -but also MUST speak for their child because the child cannot. We all know she would never have just walked off and not bothered to get her OWN life-saving medication knowing it really was covered and someone screwed up somewhere. She would have raised holy hell to get HER critical medication and get the problem straightened out. We all know that because it is what each of us would have also done and it is what any reasonable and normal person would have done. She doesn't claim to be mentally incompetent.

But in spite of the fact most of us would have been even MORE demanding and aggressive about fixing the mistake that denied our child his critical medication than if it had been our own - this woman refused to give her child the same level of care we all know she would have done for herself. That means she was negligent in the care of her son and her negligence led to his death. Her kid died because she couldn't be bothered to provide the required minimal care she owed him -care she absolutely would have made sure SHE got if that same error happened to her. SHE belongs in jail for that. Not in front of a jury demanding she be enriched at taxpayer expense for denying her own child the minimal level of care she owed him.

 

[AnnieInMexico]

Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post

but as we know, america has the best health care system in the world!

If only this 9 year old had worked hard in school, got a real job, etc then he wouldnt have been in this position!

No, if the mother wasn't such a twatwaffle her child would still be alive. I would work street corners if I needed meds for my child if that is what it took.

So it seems the single parent just sat back until little Zumati died because Wallgreens refused to fill her prescription? The mother needed a prescription for motivation for Gods sake. Figure it out while the child is alive.

Oh please. Have you ever tried to fight the medicaid bureaucratic nightmare?

This kid died because a pharmacy wouldn't fill his frigging albuterol inhaler.

That's just absurd.

But blame the mother. Why not? I am sure it's all her fault. If only she could have been able to afford private insurance, she wouldn't have had these problems!

Actually an albuterol inhaler is about $10 at Costco.

and explained her issue and gotten the drugs wich most doctors have tons of as samples to hand out to people in her situation ? The system did not kill her child so much as generational welfare did. This woman was trained to depend on the system.

And that is the real key. She is trained to depend on welfare.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post

but as we know, america has the best health care system in the world!

If only this 9 year old had worked hard in school, got a real job, etc then he wouldnt have been in this position!

Medicaid is a government program, so really, if you support single-payer, you're telling us that the REST of America needs health care like this kid!

 

[Sunshine]

What doesn't jive is some did not go to the link and read what actually little boy.

What happened to him was death by computer glitch at Walgreen's.

My heart goes out to that mother who, from all appearances, followed up over and over with the same result from Walgreen's each and every time--computer sez this and computer sez that.

She lost her beautiful young son, and there was no excuse for a pharmacy treating her so arrogantly as to not care about her and her little boy's life-threatening asthma.

You have obviously mistaken Walgreen's for a charitable organization.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post

but as we know, america has the best health care system in the world!

If only this 9 year old had worked hard in school, got a real job, etc then he wouldnt have been in this position!

Oh give me a break. The mother couldn't figure out how to get her son his medications for MONTHS? Couldn't have been trying very hard -because I wouldn't have left the place until I had it in my hand. That is what a REAL parent does -so WTF was she doing for all those MONTHS? Its only a wonder he didn't die sooner. But NOW, NOW she has the energy to actually do something about it, right -by suing someone hoping SHE makes out like a bandit for HER failure to properly care for her own child! I wouldn't give her ONE DIME. She couldn't be bothered FOR MONTHS to actually get off her ass and if it took going from doctor to pharmacist to Medicaid office -WHATEVER IT TOOK to make sure her kid had his medication, then sorry no one should have the time to hear her lawsuit. First and foremost responsibility for making sure this child had his medication was HERS -and she abandoned it. Too bad her kid can't sue HER for dereliction of her parental duties.

There are a few things I don't understand here.

First of all, if this woman and/or her children were on Medicaid, where was her Medicaid card? They issue ID cards just like a regular health insurance company does. Had she presented one to the pharmacist, there's a good chance this whole issue would have been resolved by him over the phone the first time she went in.

Second of all, who exactly was she "repeatedly calling"? Again, if her kids were on Medicaid, she should have had a caseworker, who certainly would have returned her "repeated" calls, if only to get her to shut up and leave him alone.

Third, WAS her kid actually ON Medicaid? The story keeps talking about him "being eligible" for Medicai, which isn't the same thing.

Fourth, why did she think "repeated phone calls" were enough to discharge her responsibilities, if they weren't getting returned? In her place, the day after the pharmacy first said they had no record of me and my calls weren't returned, my butt would have been physically down IN the office, demanding that someone clear up the computer glitch YESTERDAY. Of course they don't answer the phone. Has anyone called a government office in the last twenty years and gotten to directly speak to a human being right off the bat? Be serious.

 

[Sunshine]

So it seems the single parent just sat back until little Zumati died because Wallgreens refused to fill her prescription? The mother needed a prescription for motivation for Gods sake. Figure it out while the child is alive.

Oh please. Have you ever tried to fight the medicaid bureaucratic nightmare?

This kid died because a pharmacy wouldn't fill his frigging albuterol inhaler.

That's just absurd.

But blame the mother. Why not? I am sure it's all her fault. If only she could have been able to afford private insurance, she wouldn't have had these problems!

People die because private health insurance denies claims all the time. I have an illness for which the medicine costs $20,000 a month. I got to the specialty clinic just days before I would have died. You know why it took so long? Because my referring doctor assumed my insurance would not pay for it, as most insurances do not. So, they just give you blood pressure medicine and wait for you to die. But MY insurance does pay, and I know how lucky I am these days.


My point is that people with private insurance die every day because claims are denied. And apparently they are denied so frequently that with my illness referrals to specialty clinics are considered to be useless.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post

but as we know, america has the best health care system in the world!

If only this 9 year old had worked hard in school, got a real job, etc then he wouldnt have been in this position!

These huge corporations can all die a slow and painful death as far as I'm concerned. Let's bring small businesses back in communities (like small pharmacies) who have time to care about their customers.

It's ridiculous. I hope she gets paid bigtime.

Which "huge corporation" are you railing against, twat? She's suing THE GOVERNMENT, because it was THE GOVERNMENT who owned the computer glitch. Walgreens didn't do anything wrong, and they didn't do anything a small pharmacy wouldn't have done exactly the same. What the fuck is running through your muddled mind that Walgreens was supposed to do?

 

[Cecilie1200]

Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post

but as we know, america has the best health care system in the world!

If only this 9 year old had worked hard in school, got a real job, etc then he wouldnt have been in this position!

You do realize she's suing the COUNTY right? It was a GOVERNMENT WORKER who screwed the poor kids records up and caused his tragic death. These are the same people you Obamacare people want us to have to deal with. If Obamacare is fully iplemented this will be a drop in the bucket as the flood of untimely deaths begin.

"The suit against Denver seeks monetary damages and relief for her emotional loss and grief. The city fixed Zumante's eligibility status to pay for his funeral, according to court documents.

Three then-employees of Denver County Human Services are named in the lawsuit, in addition to the county. Holly Lumpkin was Zumante's caseworker, and Lumpkin's supervisors, Teresa Long and Annette Williams, also were named."



Read more: Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post
Read The Denver Post's Terms of Use of its content: Terms of Use - The Denver Post

Those pharmacists could have helped them get the records straight. They just kept saying he wasn't eligable for medicaid. That isn't helpful for a kid that can't breathe. The doc could have helped as well.

No, you stupid bitch. There's really very little the pharmacy could have done about a glitch at the Medicaid end. Please share with us PRECISELY what you think these people could have done, that you're so sure a "small pharmacy" could have done better.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Mom sues Denver, three workers over child's death - The Denver Post

but as we know, america has the best health care system in the world!

If only this 9 year old had worked hard in school, got a real job, etc then he wouldnt have been in this position!

These huge corporations can all die a slow and painful death as far as I'm concerned. Let's bring small businesses back in communities (like small pharmacies) who have time to care about their customers.

It's ridiculous. I hope she gets paid bigtime.

She should not, and is not entitled to compensation. If anything, she should be charged with neglect and endangerment. A pharmacy is powerless ware medicare is concerned. The woman could have been at a free clinic at anytime before her child died, she could have requested samples from the prescribing doctors office, she had a prescription, she could have requested assistance directly from the drug company. There are a million things she could have done, yet she waited ? She neglected her child to death and should be prosecuted for it.

I don't know that Advair comes in free samples. I think it's an inhaler, isn't it?

 

[Sunshine]

I also dont understand how the Woman could not have gone to any of thees slideing scale clinics-

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and explained her issue and gotten the drugs wich most doctors have tons of as samples to hand out to people in her situation ? The system did not kill her child so much as generational welfare did. This woman was trained to depend on the system.

Yes, MDs do have plenty of samples on hand usually.

But more, drug companies like Glaxosmithkline which makes Advair have patient assistance programs as well: RxAssist - GLAXOSMITHKLINE Patient Assistance Program

Sadly even some doctor's offices do not know about these. Working with indigent clients, I have used these programs extensively with my patient population. One company drop shipped a year of medicine to one of my patients.

I, too, have to wonder why the mother wasn't more assertive. Still, many people don't realize that asthma will kill you. I have, however, worked most of my career with people on public assistance and medicaid as well as with indigents. To be fair, many of them suffer from learned helplessness and simply do not have the ability work through a problem like this.

Learned helplessness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[strollingbones]

she is disadvantaged ....most likely a lower iq and poor social skills.....i am always amazed at how critical the haves are of the have nots.....having is not limited to material things

 

[Sunshine]

So it seems the single parent just sat back until little Zumati died because Wallgreens refused to fill her prescription? The mother needed a prescription for motivation for Gods sake. Figure it out while the child is alive.

Oh please. Have you ever tried to fight the medicaid bureaucratic nightmare?

This kid died because a pharmacy wouldn't fill his frigging albuterol inhaler.

That's just absurd.

But blame the mother. Why not? I am sure it's all her fault. If only she could have been able to afford private insurance, she wouldn't have had these problems!

Are you people FOR REAL! We are talking about a parent who ALLOWED their child to die because it took too much effort to clear up the snafu here. For MONTHS she did NOTHING.

WHO THE FUCK DOES THAT except someone who believes she has less responsibility for that child than some faceless bureaucracy? What kind of ASSHOLE, IRRESPONSIBLE citizens are we deliberately breeding by making excuses for this kind of behavior? A show of hands here about who here would just shrug if they experienced a screw up over their own child's insurance coverage and just allow their own child to go without his asthma medication for MONTHS like this?

Did she return to the emergency room or the clinic and tell a doctor about the problem and ask for their help to at least get her kid's medication in the interim -because there isn't a doctor in the country who would have said they couldn't help with making sure a child was not deprived of a medication that could cost that child his life by going without it! How hard was it even do THAT much? Every pharmaceutical company in this country has a program to help people get vital medications who cannot afford it to get that vital medication either for free or at significantly reduced prices-especially that for children. And asthma medication is a critical medication.

Whose job did she think it was to bring this error to the attention of someone who could help or entirely fix it? Clearly some people here think she had no responsibility to make sure this error was fixed in order to save her own child's life!! If you wouldn't have allowed your kid to go without his life-saving medication then where do you get off excusing this woman for being so irresponsible?

1. She could have gone to or called the Medicaid office and insisted on getting the error fixed, making sure they knew a child's life was at risk until it was fixed. She didn't even bother with this minimal step.

2. She could have returned to the prescribing physician and explain the problem and ask for help and she absolutely would have gotten at least temporary help had she done this much as well as information about what else she could do if she couldn't get Medicaid to fix the error -including long term assistance to make sure her kid was never without his inhaler.

3. She could have paid cash for that inhaler while trying to get it fixed -some inhalers cost as little as $20 even without insurance -for anywhere from 100 to 250 doses. But I bet she had plenty of cash to spend on her own personal vices though. But for MONTHS she coughed up NOT ONE DIME for her own child's medication -although the vast majority of parents would have foregone spending money on something else to make sure their kid had his life-saving medication.
Instead she CHOSE not to do ANY of these things and she chose NOT to make any extra effort to fix this screw up -which makes HER negligent. If you know your child needs that medication and you CHOOSE not to make the effort to make sure a bureaucratic screw up isn't fixed so he can get that life-saving medication, then as a parent, you have FAILED your parental responsibility and are negligent! FAR more negligent than a bureaucratic screw-up committed by a faceless government bureaucracy which does not have greater responsibility for her kid than she does! A mistake that would have and could have been corrected had it just been brought to someone's attention!

I'm a parent too and I cannot imagine just sitting on my ass doing nothing about this for MONTHS. But then I take my job as a parent FUCKING SERIOUS, was never indoctrinated to believe others carried greater responsibility for the health and welfare of my kid than I do - and would have done whatever was necessary to make sure MY kid had his asthma medication so he wouldn't suffocate to death the next time he had an asthma attack! IT IS MY DUTY AS A PARENT!

And not so oddly enough in this "gimme-gimme" society and "sticking my hand out for that hand out amounts to a real job" mentality we are creating, she has no problem going through far more trouble to sue someone for HER negligence as a parent -hoping to make big bucks off the death SHE could have prevented in the first place. But clearly felt no real sense of responsibility to do so.

I sympathize with that child that he had such an UNCARING, negligent parent who couldn't be bothered to do the right thing by her own kid. But NONE for her. Those defending this woman for her own negligence must really believe the issue of insurance and insurance screw ups relieves a parent of their primary responsibility to their own kid and shifts the burden to some faceless bureaucracy instead. Even though SHE is the one who actually knew there was a bureaucratic mistake occurring but couldn't be bothered to insure it got fixed in order to save her own kid's life.

SHE still had options available to get around that screw up and chose not to use ANY OF THEM. If I were a juror on this lawsuit she wouldn't get a dime from me.

Advair is very expensive. I used it several years and for a while my copay was almost $100.00.

 

[Sunshine]

These huge corporations can all die a slow and painful death as far as I'm concerned. Let's bring small businesses back in communities (like small pharmacies) who have time to care about their customers.

It's ridiculous. I hope she gets paid bigtime.

She should not, and is not entitled to compensation. If anything, she should be charged with neglect and endangerment. A pharmacy is powerless ware medicare is concerned. The woman could have been at a free clinic at anytime before her child died, she could have requested samples from the prescribing doctors office, she had a prescription, she could have requested assistance directly from the drug company. There are a million things she could have done, yet she waited ? She neglected her child to death and should be prosecuted for it.

I don't know that Advair comes in free samples. I think it's an inhaler, isn't it?

Drug reps keep the MD offices supplied with samples of it. In fact, drug reps leave many samples. One company left my clinic over $50,000 worth of samples one month for indigent patients.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

If I were a juror on this lawsuit she wouldn't get a dime from me.

Which means you’d not likely be on the jury in the first place.

 

[koshergrl]

she is disadvantaged ....most likely a lower iq and poor social skills.....i am always amazed at how critical the haves are of the have nots.....having is not limited to material things

I agree she undoubtedly has issues.

But that doesn't mean it's somebody ELSE'S fault when her stupidity gets her kid killed.

 

[koshergrl]

She should not, and is not entitled to compensation. If anything, she should be charged with neglect and endangerment. A pharmacy is powerless ware medicare is concerned. The woman could have been at a free clinic at anytime before her child died, she could have requested samples from the prescribing doctors office, she had a prescription, she could have requested assistance directly from the drug company. There are a million things she could have done, yet she waited ? She neglected her child to death and should be prosecuted for it.

I don't know that Advair comes in free samples. I think it's an inhaler, isn't it?

Drug reps keep the MD offices supplied with samples of it. In fact, drug reps leave many samples. One company left my clinic over $50,000 worth of samples one month for indigent patients.

but they are not obliged to hand them out...I think there's probably more to this story. I doubt if the kid was with her having an asthma attack in the pharmacy.

The long and short...if she couldn't get his meds, she should have taken him to the ER. Hopefully it wouldn't be an ER that was set up by Michelle Obama...

 

[AnnieInMexico]

These huge corporations can all die a slow and painful death as far as I'm concerned. Let's bring small businesses back in communities (like small pharmacies) who have time to care about their customers.

It's ridiculous. I hope she gets paid bigtime.

She should not, and is not entitled to compensation. If anything, she should be charged with neglect and endangerment. A pharmacy is powerless ware medicare is concerned. The woman could have been at a free clinic at anytime before her child died, she could have requested samples from the prescribing doctors office, she had a prescription, she could have requested assistance directly from the drug company. There are a million things she could have done, yet she waited ? She neglected her child to death and should be prosecuted for it.

I don't know that Advair comes in free samples. I think it's an inhaler, isn't it?

It is and it does. It's a dry inhaler, a powder form of a steriod. Advair is not a rescue medication, it takes weeks to work. Albuterol would likely have saved the day. $10 at Costco. It is a rescue inhaler and something that should have been used immediately.