Why did the HOSPITAL SEND ME home with a gift and my sister with a bill? #storytime #redditstories — Transcript

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1. 0:00Why did the hospital send me home with a
2. 0:01gift and my sister with a bill? My
3. 0:03sister left that hospital with a folder
4. 0:04of discharge papers and a bill for
5. 0:06$9,000. Four months later, I walked out
6. 0:08of the same building with a free
7. 0:09bassinet, a week of newborn clothes, and
8. 0:11a volunteer telling me congratulations.
9. 0:12I thought it was luck. It took me 11
10. 0:14weeks to find out what it actually was.
11. 0:15Nadia had Rory in February. 31 days in
12. 0:17the NICU. He came home on oxygen with a
13. 0:19feeding schedule taped to the fridge. I
14. 0:20had my daughter in June, two floors up
15. 0:22in the maternity wing. On the way out, a
16. 0:23volunteer handed my husband a white
17. 0:24cardboard box the size of a laundry
18. 0:26basket. Baby box, she said. County
19. 0:27program. There's a mattress in there, so
20. 0:29it's a bed if you need one. Inside was a
21. 0:30firm little mattress, a sheet, sleepers,
22. 0:32a thermometer, diapers, and a book.
23. 0:33Printed on the underside of the lid was
24. 0:35a program name, a phone number, and
25. 0:36three lines of fine print I skimmed
26. 0:37while I assembled it and forgot
27. 0:39completely. I posted a photo, not to
28. 0:40show off. Half the women I grew up with
29. 0:41had no idea these existed. Nadia
30. 0:43messaged me the next morning. Cute. All
31. 0:44the hospital sent me home with was maxi
32. 0:46pads and a bill. My stepmom called that
33. 0:47afternoon and told me to take the post
34. 0:49down. She said Nadia was upset and I
35. 0:50should be considerate. I said I'd think
36. 0:51about it. Then I went out to the
37. 0:52recycling and got the box lid back. The
38. 0:54fine print said, "Distributed to all
39. 0:55newborn discharges. County residents. No
40. 0:57income requirement. All newborn
41. 0:59discharges." I called the number Monday
42. 1:00morning. A woman named Ms. Ferro picked
43. 1:02up on the second ring, and when I asked
44. 1:03whether NICU babies qualified, she
45. 1:05sounded confused. Every baby born in the
46. 1:06county, she said. That's the entire
47. 1:08program. We don't have exclusions. Why?
48. 1:09My sister didn't get one. Long pause.
49. 1:11When? February. We delivered in
50. 1:12February. I asked if she needed
51. 1:13volunteers. She said they always needed
52. 1:15drivers. For six weeks, I drove boxes on
53. 1:17Saturdays, mostly to fire stations and
54. 1:18clinics on the East Side. In August, we
55. 1:20had a hospital run, 60 boxes, and I
56. 1:21wheeled them through the service
57. 1:22entrance to a supply room on the second
58. 1:24floor. The room was already full. Not a
59. 1:25little full. Floor to ceiling, six rows
60. 1:26deep, hundreds of white boxes, dust on
61. 1:28the top ones. I pulled one off a stack
62. 1:30near the back and turned it over. The
63. 1:31sticker on the bottom said November. I
64. 1:32asked the man at the desk why they were
65. 1:34still there. He shrugged. NICU doesn't
66. 1:35have a process for it. It's not really
67. 1:36anybody's job. I took photos. The next
68. 1:38week I asked Ms. Ferro for the delivery
69. 1:39logs. Volunteer drivers can have them.
70. 1:41So, she emailed them over. Every drop
71. 1:42the charity had ever made, signed for on
72. 1:44receipt. 1,400 boxes to that hospital in
73. 1:46three years. Every sheet signed by the
74. 1:48same person. Mr. Talbot, facilities
75. 1:49administration. Then I found the other
76. 1:51number. The distribution count the
77. 1:52hospital reported to the charity every
78. 1:53quarter. The one that went to the county
79. 1:55to keep the funding. 1,400 distributed.
80. 1:57The charity's fall dinner was the last
81. 1:58Thursday in September. 300 people plated
82. 2:00chicken and a community partnership
83. 2:01award going to the hospital. Mr. Talbot
84. 2:03was accepting it. I asked Ms. Farrow for
85. 2:042 minutes as a volunteer. She said yes
86. 2:06without asking why, which I still think
87. 2:08about. I brought Nadia. I didn't tell
88. 2:09her what for. I said my daughter was
89. 2:10born in June and that the box mattered,
90. 2:12that it's a bed for 6 months for people
91. 2:13who can't afford one. Then I said my
92. 2:15nephew was born in February in the same
93. 2:16building and never got one and neither
94. 2:18did any baby on that floor. I asked them
95. 2:19to put my photo on the screen. 400 and
96. 2:21some boxes stacked to the ceiling in a
97. 2:22room with a light left on. The oldest
98. 2:24sticker in that room is 19 months old, I
99. 2:25said. Mr. Talbot stood up with the award
100. 2:27still in his hand. Those boxes are
101. 2:28inventory, he said. They're logged and
102. 2:30accounted for. Nothing is missing.
103. 2:31Nobody said anything was missing, I
104. 2:32said. I said nobody got them. Ms. Farrow
105. 2:34came to the podium, opened the
106. 2:35hospital's own quarterly report and read
107. 2:37the number into the microphone. 1,400
108. 2:39distributed. Then she picked the award
109. 2:40up off the table and put it back in its
110. 2:42case. Every box in that room went out in
111. 2:449 days. The board opened an audit that
112. 2:45Monday and Mr. Talbot's name came off
113. 2:47the directory before it finished.
114. 2:48Nadia's came on a Tuesday, 7 months
115. 2:50late. She sat on her kitchen floor and
116. 2:51cried for 20 minutes. She asked me later
117. 2:53why I hadn't just taken the post down. I
118. 2:54told her the truth. If I had, 400 babies
119. 2:56would still be waiting in that closet.