A routine task turned into a nightmare.
In Rockville, Maryland, grandmother Shuchen Wang was mowing the lawn when she accidentally cut two of her fingertips.
In her shock and pain, her daughter Yiyu Chen called 911 and an ambulance was taken to Suburban Hospital.
Yiyu says that at the hospital, a medical assistant told them that they didn’t have anyone who could treat that type of injury. The family says the assistant gave them a piece of paper and told them to take an Uber to Dr. Shahreyar Hashemi in DC because he was the only local doctor qualified to help.
“His bleeding didn’t completely stop at that point,” the victim’s daughter said. “We were really traumatized, terrified and really scared, and then we weren’t informed.”
Once they arrived at the Nerve Bone & Joint Institute in Foggy Bottom, the clinic allegedly told them they did not accept insurance and demanded full payment for the surgery up front, amounting to nearly $12,000.
Yiyu said he tried calling other clinics to find one that accepted insurance, but Hashemi allegedly told him to stop.
“He said, ‘This is private property and you’re not supposed to make phone calls to other vendors.’ I felt the sense of emergency that my mother needed to be seen the same day. I feel like we had no choice but to accept the surgery she suggested,” Yiyu said.
The family provided News4 with receipts for four payments made that day to Nerve Bone & Joint Institute with different credit cards, totaling more than $11,600.
Wang had surgery that day.
The next day, the family returned for a follow-up in which Hashemi allegedly said he would need a second surgery, for another nearly $12,000.
“I don’t know if they did that because we were in a panic situation, and maybe we are immigrants and my mom doesn’t speak English,” Yiyu said.
Instead, they flew to Taiwan, where they are originally from, to undergo surgery.
Last Friday, the family filed a complaint against Hashemi with the D.C. Department of Health. They said they were “forced under coercive conditions to pay about $12,000 for treatment” and that the surgeon in Taiwan told them that “Dr. Hashemi’s procedure may have been performed incorrectly.”
Hashemi did not respond to our interview request, but sent this statement to News4: “I respectfully but strongly disagree with Shuchen’s allegations. I did not pressure her to have surgery or ask her to pay up front and gave her the opportunity to get a second opinion. “She elected to proceed with surgery, which was medically indicated and performed without complications.”
The family is also in the process of filing a complaint with Suburban Hospital’s patient relations department. They are accusing the hospital of violating a federal law called EMTALA, or the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act. It says, “If a hospital is unable to stabilize a patient within its capacity, or if the patient requests it, an appropriate transfer must be implemented.”
The family says they feel like they shouldn’t have had to take a rideshare somewhere when they were already at a hospital seeking care.
“I just hope this doesn’t happen to anyone, because I feel like they took advantage of our vulnerability,” said the victim’s daughter.
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The D.C. Department of Health told News4 they thoroughly review all complaints. They said their investigations are confidential and the department cannot discuss them with the public.
News4 also reached out to Suburban Hospital for comment. They said they could not discuss specific cases because of federal privacy laws.
As for Wang, he plans to spend the next two months recovering in Taiwan and said his pain levels have been decreasing.
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