Posted on 07/09/2007 8:58:19 AM PDT by WestTexasWend
-After county won't test victim's blood for viruses, good samaritan left wondering if she was infected-
When Wendy Lee saw a man get hit by a truck that night in May, she had no second thoughts about what she should do.
Lee stopped her Suburban to help 64-year-old Juan Vega, who had been trying to cross Williamson County Road 172 near La Frontera in Round Rock when he was struck by a 2000 Chevrolet pickup. Lee said she could see Vega's cowboy boots lying in the road.
"I called 911 as I was walking up to him, and they walked me through the first steps of CPR and chest compressions," Lee said.
Vega's eyes were open and moving, and he was gasping for air as she put her lips to his and breathed.
The next moment, she was spitting his blood into the grass.
Vega died on the way to Brackenridge Hospital in Austin. When emergency workers saw that Lee, 38, was covered in Vega's blood, they sent her to the hospital to be tested for HIV and hepatitis.
The tests came back negative, but because Williamson County didn't test Vega for those diseases at the scene, Lee is left wondering whether she was exposed to viruses that might affect her health later. Doctors say that six to eight weeks after exposure is the most important time to test for HIV and hepatitis because both viruses take time to show up, but Lee said she cannot afford to get retested.
And more than a month later, she's stuck with almost $3,000 in medical bills.
"When I opened that bill, I wanted to cry," said Lee, a single mother of two teenagers who is a human resource manager at Triple Crown Dog Academy in Hutto. "I kept thinking to myself, 'Didn't I do the right thing?' "
Eric Strelnieks, a staff physician at St. David's Round Rock Medical Center, where Lee was taken after she tried to help Vega, said she was given a shot to prevent hepatitis B, a virus that attacks the liver, and was prescribed medication that slows the development of HIV.
Lee said she stopped taking the medication after a few weeks because it made her nauseated and dizzy.
Lee's health insurance paid a portion of her hospital bill, which was just under $8,000. But she said she can't afford to pay the remainder.
"The way life is right now, $50 is too much to pay," she said.
Testing Vega's blood for diseases could have put the questions to rest, but Williamson County doesn't require such tests unless it is suspected that alcohol or drugs were involved in a fatal accident, said Steve Benton, the justice of the peace who was called to the May 15 wreck.
The driver, an 18-year-old Round Rock man, was not charged.
"I sympathize with (Lee), but if we did a toxicology and blood test every time a fatality occurred, then it would cost the county $2,000 for each test," Benton said. Lee said she asked for Vega's medical records but was told by a state trooper after the accident that they were not available to her because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, a law that prevents patient medical records from being made public.
That might not be the case, said health law attorney Leah Stuart with the law firm Vinson & Elkins. She said Lee would have to make an open records request to any hospital or physician that Vega may have visited, and the health provider would then decide whether to release the information.
"It's a catch-all exception in the (HIPAA) law that pertains to someone whose life has been threatened. Hers could be in this case," Stuart said. "For (Lee) to get those records is a big hurdle."
Lee said that between work and caring for her children, she doesn't have time to deal with paperwork or open records requests.
Socorro Vega, Juan Vega's daughter, met with Lee last month and told her that her father was not sick. But she did not know the last time he had been tested for communicable diseases.
"She was an angel for my dad that moment she stopped. She really just wanted to save his life," Socorro Vega said. "I just hope that she gets help to pay the bills or gets the help she deserves for her good deed."
According to hospital officials in Round Rock and Austin, emergency technicians and first responders who are exposed to patients' blood receive the same testing and medication that Lee received, but their employers' insurance covers the cost.
Lee said she helped Vega because she and others had failed to help the victim of a car accident in front of her Round Rock home this year. She said she later learned that the man lying in the middle of the road had died, and she vowed to help the next person in need.
"I could never regret what I did (for Vega) because I know it was right," she said. "I just wish someone could tell me what to do."
The first thing to do is to ensure that the Airway is clear.
The second thing to do is to check for Breathing.
The third thing to do is to check Circulation.
You only administer Mouth-to-Mouth if the person is NOT BREATHING. And you only administer chest compressions if there is no blood circulation. If the person is gasping for breath, then the person is still breathing -- though with difficulty. You should try to eliminate or alleviate whatever is causing the difficulty in breathing. To simply try to force more air through an obstructed airway will not help matters and may actually cause more damage.
It doesn't take a doctor to know that. (I'm not one, but I remember enough of the CPR training that I had in middle school and high school over 25 years ago that I would at least know these basics.) If you would not have known the ABC's of CPR as I just explained them and how to apply them in an emergency, then I would recommend that you find a CPR course from your local YMCA or community center and take one ASAP and get your family members to take it along with you.
Well said CD.
How do you check circulation?
“I called 911 as I was walking up to him, and they walked me through the first steps of CPR and chest compressions,” Lee said.
Early in the story.
Presumably, if a person knows how to do chest compressions, they also remember that.
From the article: "I called 911 as I was walking up to him, and they walked me through the first steps of CPR and chest compressions," Lee said.
So it would seem that she got some bad advice from the 911 operator.
Check for a pulse.
susie
So what is the amswer, decide if it’s better to save a life or is the expense going to be to much?
Gently find the carotid artery and lightly press it with your first or first and second fingers to feel for a pulse. You can also try the veins in the wrist, but the carotid artery is much easier to detect a pulse. NEVER use your thumb to try to check for a pulse because you will feel your own pulse rather than that of the victim.
And yet she attempted to do mouth-to-mouth breathing on someone who was already gasping for breath. This means that either she completely misunderstood what she was told by the 911 dispatcher or got very bad instructions.
Thanks.
You’d do it if you had to when the time came. Thanks for taking the course. EVERYONE should know basic first aid and CPR. I cringe when I hear abut people taking a dirt nap because someone was too lazy or ignorant to help them.
I hope someone takes your ‘wisdom’ to heart next time you’re lying on the road and need CPR.
Bad woman, didn’t do as you said!
The hospitals will. Unpaid medical bills are the single largest reason for bankruptcies.
Thanks. Poorly formated, though.
That’s the part we don’t know.
Maybe his homeowners insurance.
Did she not have insurance? Labs are the place where health insurers cut back alot. I will see a $300 bill for a lab test and the insurer will only pay $22 because that is what is contracted for the test.
She wouldn’t have had medical bills at all if she hadn’t put herself out for some man lying in the road in need of CPR. Shall we create incentives to step over the man and keep walking? This is one case where the state should pay the bill. Yank the cash from some welfare queen if necessary, but no one should step over a dying man just to avoid medical expenses for helping. If you were lying on that road in need of CPR, you’d be the first to change your mind.
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