Carmen Foucault is a teacher at Aloma Elementary school and the mother of James a 23-year-old student who was involved in a motorcycle accident.
Last Wednesday two officers rang her doorbell saying a car had hit James and she had better ride to the hospital with them. When she arrived at hospital she believed her son was dead.
When asked if James had regain consciousness after the accident she said she didn’t know and wasn’t sure. “A nurse told me there was a flicker of brain activity, the nurse said, and they were keeping him alive. I really didn’t understand that, if he was dead, why’d they do that,” she said.
She said, however, that the …show more content…
I knew it’s what he would want he was always helping other people, so I agreed,” she said.
Foucault stayed in the hospital until noon Thursday when she received news that her son had passed away. A few days later she received a bill and a notice the hospital had put a lien on her son’s estates.
Christina Snyder, a spokeswoman for the Hospital said that the lien is a standard procedure to ensure a bill is paid. “I agree the bill needs to be re-examined, and the donor bank will pay most of it. But Mrs. Foucault will have to pay for her son’s initial treatment and right now I don’t know what that will be.”
Legally the hospital has to file a lien within ten days after a patient passes or is discharged. “ its a standard practice because 50 percent of the trauma patients we get don’t have any insurance,“ Snyder explained.
Irwin Greenhouse, the hospital’s Chief Administrator, has called Mrs. Foucoult trying to apologize and explain to her what the hospital is trying to do. He also added that he was very proud of her son as he had helped save several lives. Greenhouse said that the $45,000 bill and the lien have been