(CBS
5) Getting out
of bed is hard for
John Pellini. He can barely walk.
"The whole
body, my shoulder my hands, everything aches," Pellini said.
He even
needs help breathing. For John's family it's a 24/7 job.
"I feel
guilty because I have always been the type of person to do
things by myself," Pellini said.
John's
family said he could walk fine just over a year ago, when he checked
into the emergency room at Kaiser in Hayward, complaining of a pain in
his leg. A few days later, it became even worse.
"I heard
code
blue and I knew, I just knew it was my dad," John's daughter Teresa
said. He was on life support and never fully recovered.
Teresa
believes Kaiser injured her father. But seeking justice has been
even harder than taking care of her dad.
"You put
your whole life, your whole breath in it and you are just
beaten down to the ground," Teresa said.
The
Pellini's filed a complaint and are now going through Kaiser's
mandatory arbitration system. Unlike other HMO's Kaiser doesn't follow
national arbitration guidelines, but has crated its own set of rules.
The Pellini's say under that system they have not been able to find an
attorney to take their case.
Teresa
volunteered to do the job
herself but Kaiser's arbitrator said no. Even accusing her of a
misdameanor for practicing law without a license.
"I think its
an example of Kaiser acting like a bully and using everything within
its arsenal to deprive this woman of a hearing," said attorney Cliff
Palesfsky. He added it's not standard procedure.
The
country's largest arbitration association, the AAA, does allow
representation by a spokesperson of the patient's choosing.
"The
arbitrator could very easily have allowed her to represent a
relative that was incapable of speaking," Palefsky said.
Meanwhile,
the Pellini's asked for a continuance to renew their efforts
finding an attorney, but their request was denied.
"What you
did to my father is wrong," Teresa said. "And you should pay
for what you did to my father"
After
CBS 5 contacted Kaiser, the HMO agreed to postpone John Pellini's
hearing. And the arbitration oversight board will now consider allowing
representation by family members. The hearing is set for later this
month.
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