could this be a malpractice case?...

My daughter was born in Dec 2004, normal pregnancy, normal delivery, right on time, etc. She was diagnosed w/a rare disease (effects 1 in about 80,000 but this number has been as low as 1 in 47,000), still pretty rare. Anyway, they did an initial blood screen at the hospital and we were sent home after 2 days. When she was 7 days old we had to take her into the NICU because she's deathly allergic to milk products and we had given her breast milk and some formula for less than 3 days of her life. The test results weren't given to us for at least 5 days after she was born. The hospital doesn't do the testing on sight, they have to ship it out to a lab off site. They have since begun using a courier service to get test results in less than a day (24 hour turnaround). We are now in debt to the hospital for her medical bills to the NICU. I can't help but think if we had been given the service that all new patients recieve now, we could have avoided the entire situation as the medical staff diagnosed her problems as related to galactosemia. She was in the NICU for 4 days and I missed a weeks pay at work. She was very close to dieing and although I totally think the NICU doctors saved her life, I think the whole thing could have been avoided and it is really painful for us to think about it, and it was a very difficult time in my families lives.

That said, I've never been too litigeous, but I really don't want to pay the thousands of dollars we owe to the hospital for something that is now avoidable. Thoughts?

1. Medical procedures continually march forward and onward. Medical testing and turnaround time is valid at the time of the procedures. All because procedures and testing may have improved, doesn't mean that you're entitled to the benefits of that improvement.

2. Where is your insurance?

We had insurance but the out of pocket costs are still a few thousand dollars, it's cost about %5k a day to have her in the NICU so insurance only pickes up so much.

I know that the medical world is ever advancing but my point was that, the technology existed at the time to test her the same day, it was the hospital that chose not to offer the service so it's almost like we don't have a choice because all the hospitals in the area are part of the same network so they didn't offer the service. I know that means they didn't discriminate but it's almost like they were negligent to offer a service that was medically nescessary to avoid the situation we were in. They offer the service now but only because they chose to pay a courier service to run the labs back and forth.

I know that this was a very scary time for you, but I'm glad that your baby is doing okay now.
I work in the obstetrical field and can tell you that the test that diagnosed your baby's galactosemia is mandated by the state. It's called Newborn Screening, and it screens for several different disorders. It was originally called the PKU test, but later was expanded to include other diseases. The test can't be done until the baby is 24 hours old, after the baby is feeding. The screening is based on how the baby metabolizes food, and reveals any metabolic problems, like galactosemia, hypothyroid, PKU, and several other diseases.
You are right that there is sometimes a delay in having the test analyzed. Once the baby is 24 hours old, the blood is drawn, and then mailed to the State Health testing center. They analyze the test there, and then notify the baby's pediatrician. There can be a lag time along any of these steps. Also, if the pediatrician doesn't have your correct phone number and address, and the MD can't get in touch with you, this can endanger the baby.
Hopefully, the time line can be shortened for all these steps now that they are using a courier.
I hope that this helps you understand why things might have taken so long. As to the excessive amount of charges, I can tell you that the Neonatal ICU is very expensive, even with insurance. Have you asked for an itemized bill? Perhaps you can contest some of the charges that you feel excessive, or that you know your baby didn't receive.