By Anonymous - 05/12/2018 08:00 - United States - Wauseon

Today, a police officer stopped me and told me he got an anonymous tip that I was going to kill myself. I wasnt. Protocol says he had to bring me straight to a hospital where I explained that someone was messing with me. nobody listened. Now I have a hospital bill for $2,250. FML
I agree, your life sucks 3 711
You deserved it 173

Same thing different taste

Top comments

Refuse to pay and get help with a lawyer You did nothing wrong

I'd seek the advice of a lawyer. The people you interacted with paid no attention to what you were telling them, and you were then made to undergo examinations against your wishes. The hospital is at fault for not listening to you, and you shouldn't have to pay for something you didn't ask for.

Comments

This cannot be real. Is this truly s thing??? you are brought to hospital against your will and forced to pay thousands of dollars at any given moment . tell me it isn't that screwed up? And OP, tell me you can sue. Surely this would get any judge in your side. It is ridiculous.

It’s fake that is not a parodical, the police would have to have a reason to send take you to the hospital. They don’t walk up and say we got a tip your coming with us. If this did happen the lawsuit vs the police and hospital would be huge

TheDoorman 3

The "anonymous" part is suspicious and might have been added for extra pity, but I can personally attest to someone being able to do this out of spite, or to use as a calculated weapon in an attempt to make you appear dangerous... as this happened to me too. My post is in the feed as well.

Naw it's not fishy to post anonymously. They just got messed with, so security is likely a very high priority to them right now. Plus they likely don't want their boss to find out and stuff like that.

back in high school a guy I had gotten into an argument with called the cops saying I said I was going to hurt myself even though I wasn't. the cops took me up to the hospital in the back of the police car as a precaution even though I said I wasn't going to hurt myself

I'd seek the advice of a lawyer. The people you interacted with paid no attention to what you were telling them, and you were then made to undergo examinations against your wishes. The hospital is at fault for not listening to you, and you shouldn't have to pay for something you didn't ask for.

While this is ideally true, precedent is that hospitals in America can treat (and bill) you without your consent. See: The number of people on the hook for enormous ambulance and medical bills after being incapacitated by a dramatic but harmless seizures and having bystanders call 911. Welcome to American health care! Some states may or may not have laws to help in situations like this though.

this is America? maybe... idk but that's how the chips usually fall over here.

tounces7 27

That's for what's deemed an emergency though. A psychiatric evaluation doesn't require a hospital visit. Nor does it require any medical procedures at all.

I had to Baker Act someone. He was telling the police he was fine. Had he not been put in the hospital against his will, he would have killed himself. The police have no choice. Most of these hospitals have heard every story in the book. They did their jobs to keep him safe. With that being said, the person who called filed a false police report. They also cost OP time, money, and freedom, which could easily be taken up in civil court. Which should be done. Locking someone in one of those places when they don’t need to be kept safe can be traumatic for the person and cost someone who really needs the help a much needed bed. Everyone must have lost their shit here at the same time. It took forever to find my person a bed and where he ended up was horrible. I couldn’t get him moved because all the good places were filled. Fortunately, he was let go in 48 hours. He lost his shit due to a med change and things were already in the process of being adjusted. He settled pretty quick. I still can’t forgive myself even though I know he would have hurt himself and he has since thanked me. I couldn’t imagine doing this as a joke.

Refuse to pay and get help with a lawyer You did nothing wrong

Now that you’re hopelessly mired in debt, don’t try to kill yourself! There might not be a Clarence the Guardian Angel there to save you.

TheDoorman 3

Yes!! I had this too!! During my divorce, my wife did this as an F you gesture at one point. Told them I took street pills and was trying to off myself. $2800.00 bill. Brain scans, every blood test known, had to talk to docs, and was STRAPPED to a gurney while taken in. After about 10 minutes after arrival at the hospital I heard the cops say "this is bullshit, there is nothing going on here" to the docs and left. I was released about 20 minutes after they ran all the tests. Had to call my brother to come get me. And yes... this was reported to my lawyer during our case. Brushed off as woman hysterics and she was scolded not to do that again. Sigh.

tounces7 27

And...did they give her the bill? Surely that's a civil suit.

TheDoorman 3

No. When you are a man working to get some custody (at least in my area, at that point in time) you are ordered by your lawyers to "take everything with stride" no matter what she does to you, since she is trying to make you out to be someone who is dangerously unstable, vindictive, and unfit... in order to make you lose custody, support, etc. I was 'arrested' falsely 5 more times after this for different things, it got to the point that the police were sending the same cop each time and we would sit and chat for awhile before he released me. He was a really nice guy, and was NOT happy about these false calls. Cops really seem to hate being used for petty nonsense. In the long run, the lawyers were not wrong... I got full custody, no alimony, no support. (then again, the lawyers on both sides walked away with all liquid assets)

Wow that's heinous. I'm glad you were victorious. But it's shocking that you suing her for harassment could be seen as you being the unstable angry one. And I would've thought the cops would charge her with something for wasting their time with fraudulent calls. Wow. It's so unfair.

kaity_cay 2

My friend says this isn’t real

Don’t know about the state you’re in, but in CT, when this happened to me, I was flat out told I have the legal right to refuse services.

Venerable Mage 8

I work at an ER. The staff were well within their rights to do as they did, there is a protocol to follow same as with the police. It is their job to evaluate any claim of suicide as a serious accusation until proven otherwise. Patients routinely lie about suicidal thoughts, so we can't take a patient's story at face value. Unfortunately, the lawyer may run up your bill without actually helping.

Wait, staff are within their rights to force someone to pay for medical services they don't want or need because *someone*, said they were suicidal? Not that police or staff EVER heard the PATIENT say they wanted to kill themselves? If the cop or hospital had heard OP say it once and then deny it, sure, I'd get it. But it cannot be legal to force someone to undergo medical procedures of any kind, including testing or being restricted to a hospital, because some anonymous person said they thought OP was suicidal.

PenguinPal3017 19

I'm going to print out suicide notes for the entire phone book and send them to the police.

There is no law or medical protocol that says that an anonymous report of a potential suicide is enough to strip someone of their rights and bodily autonomy. Police are supposed to *look into* suspected suicides, and are supposed to take to hospital people who have THEMSELVES expressed a suicidal thought. Hospitals are only supposed to hold onto and force treatment on patients who are turned over having exhibited THEMSELVES suicidal or other psychotic thoughts. Sounds like what happened here was the cop confused the investigating reports with mandatory hospitalization cases, and the hospital assumed the cop did what they were SUPPOSED to do and brought a patient who they had themselves heard express suicide.

Jorn van der Ar 13

Lawyer up. Besides that while I agree $2,250 is not a small amount of money, it shouldn't be however a big problem for somebody in one of the richest places on the planet.

A shockingly large percentage of Americans are one missed paycheck away from living on the streets.

Yeah, that’s not how America works. I’m technically middle class, but I’m thousands in debt, and not just because of student loans.