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19 Hours In ER Stir Outrage

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The Associated Press

Published: October 22, 2008

DALLAS - A woman says she waited 19 hours at Parkland Memorial Hospital's emergency department for treatment of a broken leg and never did get to see a doctor - but still got a bill for $162.

Amber Joy Milbrodt, who said she broke a bone in her leg while playing volleyball, received the bill two weeks after her Sept. 24 visit.

Parkland officials say the bill was appropriate because a nurse spent time checking her vital signs to assess her level of need.

But that's not how Milbrodt sees it. "It should have been more like them paying me for having to sit in the emergency room for 19 hours," she told The Dallas Morning News.

The assessment by the nurse, which lasted a few minutes, established her place in line that night. By that time, Milbrodt said, she had already been waiting about 3 1/2 hours.

She still had not been called more than 15 hours later, so she gave up and went home. She said an X-ray taken at a chiropractic school where she is a student had already confirmed that she had a fracture.

"She's not paying for waiting," says Rick Rhine, the hospital's vice president in charge of billing. "She's paying for the assessment she received."

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