For Sale, Various Gold, Diamond, etc. Rings & Earrings

[Emerald City]

I just received my package from @Emerald City, and everything is as lovely as described. Packed with care, and shipped very quickly. I couldn't be happier with my new bling. Thanks again!!

@lala646 I am THRILLED you are happy!!!! Beyond words!!!! Thank you for buying from me, and thank you for coming to PS and sharing this I am in the midst of having my medications adjusted (for anyone else who has gone through this, you know it is the opposite of fun) and this just made me so happy!!! Thank you so much I hope you enjoy your new pieces and I am especially to maybe see an action shot of the lapis ring?

 

[Emerald City]

Got my earrings from @Emerald City. Everything was thoughtfully packaged and arrived super fast. Thank you! :]

@Rubymal Oh my stars, those look amazing!! They complement your skin tone perfectly!! Thank you so much for buying them and thank you for coming to PS and posting photos!! Your feedback and @lala646's feedback have made me happy beyond words I am actually crying I'm so happy. That hasn't happened in a long time. I hope your new pretties bring you joy

 

[Emerald City]

@elizat @yssie @AnastasiaBeaverhausen I am absorbing your advice and processing it! Thank you for taking the time to share it with me! I apologise for the delay in replying - as mentioned in an above post, I am in the midst of a medication adjustment and it is tough going for the next few weeks, and my sleep schedule, which is odd to start with, is temporarily downright bizarre. I want to do better with my online sales! I will change how I do shipping and lower prices a bit more and hopefully have some success there Thank you all so much for your help, I am overwhelmed with gratitude! I hope someday I can help you all as well in any capacity I can. I wish there were a "hug" smilie, but I don't see one, so *hugs* to you all!!!

@Daisys and Diamonds Thank you! I am honoured by the women who have purchased from me and by the women who have taken the time to advise me on selling jewelry online. I can and will do better! I am sad for the reason behind selling these things but I am just thrilled to bits to have sold pieces to people who are happy with them I can see why people get into doing this as a side business; it makes me feel absolutely wonderful to have made someone else happy

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Oh dear @Emerald City
It should be a rule -
nice good people should not get sick !
I hope this quality helps get you through this !

What fun we can have when circumstances are better and you can buy some pretties again

 

[Emerald City]

Oh dear @Emerald City
It should be a rule -
nice good people should not get sick !
I hope this quality helps get you through this !

What fun we can have when circumstances are better and you can buy some pretties again

@Daisys and Diamonds Wouldn't that be wonderful? I want to live in such a world! If I'm ever in New Zealand again I want to have tea with you (my treat!)!

I have truly enjoyed selling my items to such lovely people. I am still riding the warm-n-fuzzies from that, days later. I hope these pieces are the accessories for many a lovely time

I know this thread is like a horse barely hanging on, and here I am kicking it again! But I want to share that I changed the shipping policy on Loupe Troop to "by zipcode," with no firm price for shipping set. I want to give buyers the most competitive shipping price possible and what I was doing was categorically NOT that. Eek!

I also requested PayPal, with buyer to pay 3% fee, as people have pointed out how using F/F could cause a bitten derriere.

If things don't sell in the next few days, it's time to lower prices! Not what I had hoped to do, but I need the money. I am still getting bills from the last back surgery. My insurance company outright LIED to me about how much they would cover. (Like that's never happened before, right? ) I will also be putting some other items up for sale (I found yet another Tupperware container of my mother's jewelry!), both previously seen and new. By the way, if anyone had their eye on the .3cttw diamond studs, I finally had the backings replaced when I went to my jeweler on Friday. 14kt backings as they originally were sold with! What my mother did with the original backings I cannot begin to guess, but she was the kind of person who allowed her jewelry to wander about the house, having exciting adventures next to the kitchen sink, reposing beneath an ottoman, and, on one memorable occasion, becoming entangled within a hairbrush. (I've never figured that one out.)

My thanks to everyone here yet again. This community is amazing, knowledgeable AND kind. The twain do not always meet...

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Oh dear @Emerald City i want to be sooooo overly excited you found more of your mom's jewlery,
maybe its for the best you have different taste to her
Hopefully this latest batch with help with those bills too
Insurance companies are the scum of the earth

i look forward to seeing mom's pretties as you sell them
And i look forward to a time when NZ can open her boarders and welcome back all our friends again and enjoy a world where we don't have to worry about covid 19

And a pain free world for you too !

 

[lala646]

@lala646 I am THRILLED you are happy!!!! Beyond words!!!! Thank you for buying from me, and thank you for coming to PS and sharing this I am in the midst of having my medications adjusted (for anyone else who has gone through this, you know it is the opposite of fun) and this just made me so happy!!! Thank you so much I hope you enjoy your new pieces and I am especially to maybe see an action shot of the lapis ring?

Not the best weather today for action shots, but the rings are both wonderful, and I love the color of the lapis! I'll probably wear it on my right hand, but it's easier to photograph on my left. It makes a statement, for sure!

 

[Emerald City]

For those who were curious: The small Priority Flat Rate boxes arrived. I calculated mailing something from WA to MA; it's $9.90 for the 6x6 box vs $8.45 for the small priority mail box. Neither option includes signature required or insurance. So there really is not a huge difference between the two services, and at least with the 6x6 box I was able to send items in usable jewelry boxes instead of those flimsy cardboard things that don't last. One of the above comments made it seem like using a 6x6 box was ridiculously big and expensive, but as it turns out, it isn't.

I guess $10 for shipping makes sense if you don't have signature required or insurance, but for an expensive item (say, $500 and above) I'd want to insure the package. Covid has made signature required all but unnecessary, as most mail carriers are signing for their customers in order to avoid personal contact, but in ordinary times I'd also want signature required. These services came out to almost $18 in one case, so I don't think that charging $20 for shipping for a ring I was asking $950 for is out of line at all.

At least I have the materials to ship either way, and now I know.

 

[Emerald City]

Not the best weather today for action shots, but the rings are both wonderful, and I love the color of the lapis! I'll probably wear it on my right hand, but it's easier to photograph on my left. It makes a statement, for sure!

@lala646 Oh my word! You were born for lapis, that colour looks amazing on you!! (I feel kinda sad now because lapis makes me look washed out, lol.) Thanks for the action shots!!! I am blown away by the lapis ring in particular; it looks quite regal on your hand. You have a gorgeous warm skin tone that is making these stones rock out (pardon the pun, I couldn't help myself!!) These pieces are definitely with the right person now. There is something very cool about knowing that pieces which belonged to my mother are now off on their own journeys. Ladies, I am truly humbled. Thank you so much.

 

[Emerald City]

Oh dear @Emerald City i want to be sooooo overly excited you found more of your mom's jewlery,
maybe its for the best you have different taste to her
Hopefully this latest batch with help with those bills too
Insurance companies are the scum of the earth

i look forward to seeing mom's pretties as you sell them
And i look forward to a time when NZ can open her boarders and welcome back all our friends again and enjoy a world where we don't have to worry about covid 19

And a pain free world for you too !

@Daisys and Diamonds Insurance companies kind of are the scum of the earth, aren't they? They told me they would foot 50% of the bill for the surgeon. Okay, we scramble & borrow money and have that amount. Then they suddenly tell us, AFTER the surgery is done, oh actually, that guy isn't covered by us at all. Mind you, we had triple and quadruple checked with our insurance company because we got burned that way before. Still got lied to. It is heartbreaking because all the money we had hoped to use to buy a house with is gone, and all because one employee couldn't do her job right. (I was originally injured by a nurse.) Now we're in triple digits of debt and it is SCARY. I just heard that the latest lawyer isn't going to take the case after all; that's pretty much every lawyer in King County that has told us to go pound sand (politely, of course). The nurse didn't report the fall when it happened and now we're in a position where obviously there are injuries & obviously there is a trail leading to a date & time where/when they happened, but because a mandated reporter didn't report her actions, we're up the creek without a paddle legally speaking. I can understand the lawyers' POVs; they want a slam-dunk case. But the situation shouldn't be that I need to find private representation to right a wrong like this. There should be a system like the one in NZ, where hospitals just pay a certain amount and don't assign liability to any one party. Supposedly a Harvard study found that system wouldn't work in the US, but why not? This system is OBVIOUSLY not working. There's a lot of verbiage bandied about regarding the sue-happy US population, but fewer than 10% of people injured by hospitals actually sue. The reality is that very few people can find representation because med mal cases are notoriously hard to prove. So the whole "sue-happy US" ideology with regard to medical cases is based on false premises. No doubt malpractise premiums are high, but the companies who cover doctors hardly ever have to pay out. I will never look at the medical system the same way again. It destroyed me and my family and has done nothing to fix what it did. And of course my husband and I are the ones who pay for the people who try to fix what was damaged.

That was a LOT to read, but I am DEVASTATED. This is the definition of WRONG. I did and do not deserve this, my husband did and does not deserve this, and our entire life's plan has been drastically changed due to this. And there's just silence. No one knows or cares. I am not the only person this has happened to but what voice do people like me have?

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

@Daisys and Diamonds Insurance companies kind of are the scum of the earth, aren't they? They told me they would foot 50% of the bill for the surgeon. Okay, we scramble & borrow money and have that amount. Then they suddenly tell us, AFTER the surgery is done, oh actually, that guy isn't covered by us at all. Mind you, we had triple and quadruple checked with our insurance company because we got burned that way before. Still got lied to. It is heartbreaking because all the money we had hoped to use to buy a house with is gone, and all because one employee couldn't do her job right. (I was originally injured by a nurse.) Now we're in triple digits of debt and it is SCARY. I just heard that the latest lawyer isn't going to take the case after all; that's pretty much every lawyer in King County that has told us to go pound sand (politely, of course). The nurse didn't report the fall when it happened and now we're in a position where obviously there are injuries & obviously there is a trail leading to a date & time where/when they happened, but because a mandated reporter didn't report her actions, we're up the creek without a paddle legally speaking. I can understand the lawyers' POVs; they want a slam-dunk case. But the situation shouldn't be that I need to find private representation to right a wrong like this. There should be a system like the one in NZ, where hospitals just pay a certain amount and don't assign liability to any one party. Supposedly a Harvard study found that system wouldn't work in the US, but why not? This system is OBVIOUSLY not working. There's a lot of verbiage bandied about regarding the sue-happy US population, but fewer than 10% of people injured by hospitals actually sue. The reality is that very few people can find representation because med mal cases are notoriously hard to prove. So the whole "sue-happy US" ideology with regard to medical cases is based on false premises. No doubt malpractise premiums are high, but the companies who cover doctors hardly ever have to pay out. I will never look at the medical system the same way again. It destroyed me and my family and has done nothing to fix what it did. And of course my husband and I are the ones who pay for the people who try to fix what was damaged.

That was a LOT to read, but I am DEVASTATED. This is the definition of WRONG. I did and do not deserve this, my husband did and does not deserve this, and our entire life's plan has been drastically changed due to this. And there's just silence. No one knows or cares. I am not the only person this has happened to but what voice do people like me have?

Im so sorry dear @Emerald City
Its really really unfair and my heart breaks for you in this horrible situation

Do you have an insurance ombusion (excuse spelling) you can complain to ?

 

[KristinTech]

@Daisys and Diamonds Insurance companies kind of are the scum of the earth, aren't they? They told me they would foot 50% of the bill for the surgeon. Okay, we scramble & borrow money and have that amount. Then they suddenly tell us, AFTER the surgery is done, oh actually, that guy isn't covered by us at all. Mind you, we had triple and quadruple checked with our insurance company because we got burned that way before. Still got lied to. It is heartbreaking because all the money we had hoped to use to buy a house with is gone, and all because one employee couldn't do her job right. (I was originally injured by a nurse.) Now we're in triple digits of debt and it is SCARY. I just heard that the latest lawyer isn't going to take the case after all; that's pretty much every lawyer in King County that has told us to go pound sand (politely, of course). The nurse didn't report the fall when it happened and now we're in a position where obviously there are injuries & obviously there is a trail leading to a date & time where/when they happened, but because a mandated reporter didn't report her actions, we're up the creek without a paddle legally speaking. I can understand the lawyers' POVs; they want a slam-dunk case. But the situation shouldn't be that I need to find private representation to right a wrong like this. There should be a system like the one in NZ, where hospitals just pay a certain amount and don't assign liability to any one party. Supposedly a Harvard study found that system wouldn't work in the US, but why not? This system is OBVIOUSLY not working. There's a lot of verbiage bandied about regarding the sue-happy US population, but fewer than 10% of people injured by hospitals actually sue. The reality is that very few people can find representation because med mal cases are notoriously hard to prove. So the whole "sue-happy US" ideology with regard to medical cases is based on false premises. No doubt malpractise premiums are high, but the companies who cover doctors hardly ever have to pay out. I will never look at the medical system the same way again. It destroyed me and my family and has done nothing to fix what it did. And of course my husband and I are the ones who pay for the people who try to fix what was damaged.

That was a LOT to read, but I am DEVASTATED. This is the definition of WRONG. I did and do not deserve this, my husband did and does not deserve this, and our entire life's plan has been drastically changed due to this. And there's just silence. No one knows or cares. I am not the only person this has happened to but what voice do people like me have?

@Emerald City could your state’s attorney help you in this case?

 

[Dhana]

Did your surgeon not obtain pre-authorization. In NY everyone obtains pre-authorization and I guess the insurance cannot walk back once they give it in writing.

I would check written communication from them esp if its expensive I am sure the hospital/ surgeon obtained them before an elective procedure .. could u check with the surgeon .
Agree verbal is nothing _ I did not go through this but my provider was declined coverage by the insurance after they agreed to cover . Its utter nonsense

 

[Emerald City]

@Daisys and Diamonds @Dhana @lala646 I had not actually considered that I could do anything about the insurance angle of it all. It's been so long that my insurance coverage changed but both companies pulled this with three different surgeons. I will ask my surgeons if they obtained pre-authorization and if there is anything else they can tell me that would help.

@KristinTech It's funny you should ask. Since we've spoken to just about every personal injury lawyer in the state, we have a good idea that my case isn't a 'slam-dunk' kind of case that lawyers salivate over. My husband and I were just talking about possibly going to the media as well as writing to the AG of WA state. We had already submitted a complaint to the dept. of nursing & dept. of health, but since the hospital refused to give us the name of the nurse who injured me, both depts. told me there was nothing they could do. At least we now have the name (that took over two years to get, btw) & I thought we could try amending both complaints as well as writing to the AG. Beyond that, I don't know what to do aside from camping outside the hospital with a sandwich board. (I'm only partially kidding.)

There is one bright spot of jewelry news. I had made two trips to the jeweler to get various things looked over, and a ring that I thought was made out of pot metal turned out to be somewhere over 16K but just shy of 18K yellow gold! It was purchased in Iran by my biological father in the late 1970s and has a Persian turquoise in it. (The stone looks to be too large for the setting, IMO, but I might be wrong.) I was blown away! The jeweler had insisted that we not test the gold content, because the ring looked like a hot mess (discolourations abounded, the prongs were wonky, & the undergallery was left unpolished, not to mention the ring wasn't marked in any way), but I wanted to know for sure. I don't know who was more surprised by the result, the jeweler or my husband & I! I could have sworn I had even gotten it to stick to a magnet at some point several years ago, but I must be mistaken; my memory really isn't the best. When we got it back, I carefully cleaned the gold without getting the turquoise wet (that took some doing, let me tell you!) and then polished the gold. I was able to get what looked like maybe rust or soldering marks off the edges where the prongs are attached and on some of the flowers. There were spots of discolouration all over the ring but they're gone now. Now it looks like a new ring, with a lovely golden sheen instead of the weird orange-y colour it had prior to cleaning. I should have taken more photos of the ring before I cleaned it! I posted two photos on PS last year or the year before but they don't show the orange colour or the discolourations very well.

Here are some photos because it would be mean not to include any These are of the ring after cleaning, with one prong kind of fixed but the other prong still wonky:

And of the ring prior to being cleaned, back when it was just some wonkily pronged pot metal that I loved for sentimental reasons:


I thought about posting it for sale but my mother wore this piece almost every single day and I can't see it without being assailed with memories of her wearing it. I think it was her favourite piece aside from her diamond cluster ring which I think belongs to the 1980s & should stay there.

As well, a pair of earrings I thought were CZ turned out to be green amethyst:



I thought they were fake because they're quite large and a gorgeous apple green colour with a faint bluish tinge. Turns out I got a pretty good deal on Etsy 10 years ago I might list them for sale on Loupe Troop but I've always liked them, even when I thought they were fake. I'll have to ponder that one.

This is probably the end of the thread, save for a few lingering thoughts that people might have; I'll keep checking the thread in case anyone else posts. I want to thank you all for reading and for being so supportive. Thank you for pointing out how to improve my selling experience and that of my buyers, and for encouraging me to learn more about the whole process, including shipping. It has been difficult letting some pieces go, but I know they're where they belong & that they make their new owners happy, and that makes me happy.

 

[TARSHA]

Dear Emerald City,
I 'lurke' and read much more than posting, but have followed your thread and hope to read that someone can help you. Maybe, going to the media isn't a bad idea; locally, we have a reporter that does the kind of human interest stories where people like yourself have been - through no fault of their own - taken advantage of by the 'system' or 'big business' - I wouldn't think a hospital would like bad publicity.) At the very least maybe the attention would get some personal injury attorney interested (esp. if they like their name in the news. Or, is there a university nearby with a law school that does pro bono work? Best thoughts and prayers to you and your husband.

 

[AnastasiaBeaverhausen]

I hope that despite whatever happens with insurance and all that, you have a full and speedy recovery. And I hope you're able to hold onto your mom's gold and turquoise ring. It brings you so much joy and you deserve every bit of that right now.

 

[Daisys and Diamonds]

Oh @Emerald City that tourquoise ring of mom's is awsome !
I can see why she loved it
Im glad your going to keep her

If i was working id snap up those praiserlite earings ....but you don't really need the hastle of overseas posting

Years ago my favourite uncle hurt his back
he wasn't in the best shape not exactly embracing healthy eating after suffering several heart attacks and a stroke but he was a great uncle, a great dad to my cousins, a loved hubbie to my aunty and a really great boss as publisher at our local newspaper

Anyway he needed at op for his back but the surgeon wouldn't do it till he had his heart fixed, which was succesful
unfortunately something went wrong in the back op and he lost feeling and movement in his feet
it was all down bill from there despite spending months and months in a specialist spinal unit
He had actually had his back op done at the private hospital under insurence
it was just really bad luck but he never really recovered and ended up in a (very nice) old age facility but he hated it and was much too young of mind
Anyway.... where was this going
at his funeral the Catholic nun nurses who owned the private hospital where he had had the back op attended
according to my aunty they had stayed in contact after my uncle had been transfered to the spinal unit
So i think it stinks the hospitals you were injured in are not more remorseful - also the hospital surly as insurence for when their staff **** up

 

[Emerald City]

Dear Emerald City,
I 'lurke' and read much more than posting, but have followed your thread and hope to read that someone can help you. Maybe, going to the media isn't a bad idea; locally, we have a reporter that does the kind of human interest stories where people like yourself have been - through no fault of their own - taken advantage of by the 'system' or 'big business' - I wouldn't think a hospital would like bad publicity.) At the very least maybe the attention would get some personal injury attorney interested (esp. if they like their name in the news. Or, is there a university nearby with a law school that does pro bono work? Best thoughts and prayers to you and your husband.

@TARSHA Thank you for the suggestions! I used to lurk on PS all the time, so I appreciate that you came out of lurkitude and communicated with me. *hug* I hadn't even thought of seeing if the local university's law school would be interested in doing pro bono work, nor had I considered that getting the media involved might nudge an attorney into taking the case. We had an attorney who had agreed to take our case - he's how we finally got the nurse's name - but he backed out due to the "she said/she said" nature of the case and so I would have a hard time trusting any attorney who agreed to take the case at this point. Still, it's worth a shot. I will definitely be contacting the media about this. Whether it will interest them, who knows. I'm not particularly photogenic and I'm very awkward.

@TARSHA @AnastasiaBeaverhausen I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your well wishes. I hope I can get back to my old life. My spine will never be the same - I now have several metal bars implanted in it, for one thing, and the second surgery will put more in there - but that doesn't necessarily mean that I won't be able to live a full life.

@Daisys and Diamonds Reading about your favourite uncle is deeply upsetting. That poor man. As a matter of fact I was afraid of having spinal surgery done in this area, given that the surgery I needed done is highly specialized and there are only a few surgeons in the whole country who specialize in it. There are many who dabble in it but when you're working millimetres away from the spinal cord you want someone who knows what s/he's doing. So my husband and I traveled out of state to have my spinal surgery done. There's just no way I'm letting anybody around here do surgery on me anymore; I wound up seeing the "best" at each of the major medical groups around here, as well as some private practitioners, and the incompetence and plain lack of giving a damn were horrifying. It's why I now believe that Seattle's medical care is terrible. I know some people have had some great things done around here but then there are stories like mine. I could write a book about what happened to me and what I saw around here; it was deeply shocking. I'm happy to answer any additional questions about the things I saw & experienced via e-mail. (My e-mail is listed in all my Loupe Troop listings & I'm happy to re-list if if asked.)

@Daisys and Diamonds The hospital does have insurance for their employee messing up. It is state law that a nurse report any falls. But she didn't, and I don't understand why. What is a patient supposed to do when a medical provider breaks the law like this? It becomes a question of she said-she said. I'm at the point where I feel like there should be cameras in all recovery rooms following any procedure, even "routine" ones. It would eliminate cases like mine; I could just point to the video instead of having to rely on people who were trying to cover their own butts.

I would be happy to mail things overseas to people on PS You all have been incredibly kind to me so I would absolutely make the attempt! If I decide to sell the green amethyst earrings you'll be the first to know Thank you for the compliment about the turquoise ring! I loved it before, despite its flaws, and I love it even more after its "facelift." The photos don't really show how different it looks! It finally looks to me like a stately, albeit rather strangely wrought, piece of art!

This evening I was pawing through a box of old watches and bracelets, which I had completely forgotten about. I found a vintage Le Coultre watch that says "14K GOLD" on the back of the watch face. Would that generally just mean the watch face, or the bracelet portion too? Can anyone recommend a shop in Seattle or, really, anywhere who could fix this? It doesn't run and it needs a new piece of quartz/glass as the current glass is cracked on the side. Here are a couple of photos:

It's pretty, and the little diamonds on either side are a nice touch. I have some more watches in this vein, but they aren't as nice:

I'd love to have all of them up & running again! I love this style of watch even though it looks ridiculously tiny on me at 5'11". I want to wear them, not stare at them! (Well, at least stare at them while I wear them! ) So if anyone can recommend a repair shop, I'm all ears (I'm also kinda broke at the moment so repairs will probably have to wait, assuming they can be repaired. Darn.)

Thank you all so much for your suggestions and support with regard to the personal injury side of things. I don't have words for how I feel so please have an Internet hug, all of you: *hug* I'll certainly keep you updated with how things go with the media. Fingers & toes crossed!!!!

 

[Emerald City]

Forgot to mention that if the watches are worth anything (say, $50 apiece or more), I would be interesting in selling them. If they're saleable, should I get them fixed or leave them as-is? I know zilch about watches! Thanks in advance for any help you can offer If there is a more appropriate thread in which to ask about these watches, then by all means, please point me there!

 

[maryjane04]

@Emerald City
I was just thinking of you and followed up on your thread. I'm so sorry to hear what you've experienced with the health system. I guess the nurse didn't want to report something for fear of losing their job? Over here you, all health professionals are registered with a health professional board and you could complain to them which can lead to investigation into their practice and suspending them from practising as well.

I hope that you are recovering as much as you can!

 

[Emerald City]

@Emerald City
I was just thinking of you and followed up on your thread. I'm so sorry to hear what you've experienced with the health system. I guess the nurse didn't want to report something for fear of losing their job? Over here you, all health professionals are registered with a health professional board and you could complain to them which can lead to investigation into their practice and suspending them from practising as well.

I hope that you are recovering as much as you can!

@maryjane04 Thank you for your well wishes; they are greatly appreciated.

We did try to complain to the nursing board & the state dept. of health, but as we were not given a name, they came back to us and said there was nothing they could do. We only recently got her name & are attempting to amend the complaints.

This whole issue highlights that when a "medical professional" breaks the law, there is just about nothing you can do. I advocate that there be cameras in areas where patients are unconscious because what happened to me should never have happened, and should not happen to anyone else.

 

[AnastasiaBeaverhausen]

@maryjane04 Thank you for your well wishes; they are greatly appreciated.

We did try to complain to the nursing board & the state dept. of health, but as we were not given a name, they came back to us and said there was nothing they could do. We only recently got her name & are attempting to amend the complaints.

This whole issue highlights that when a "medical professional" breaks the law, there is just about nothing you can do. I advocate that there be cameras in areas where patients are unconscious because what happened to me should never have happened, and should not happen to anyone else.

Unfortunately, it's not "worth it" to lawyers and insurance companies to go after an individual. It's so messed up. Hope there's a positive turn in your situation soon and you get one step closer to being made whole.

 

[Emerald City]

@AnastasiaBeaverhausen So true. The reality of it is really surprising. We're all a dollar amount in the eyes of lawyers, insurers, and hospitals. It sounds dreadful but given my situation - and unfortunately I am not alone - it is clearly the case. Thank you for your kind wishes. *hug*

 

[Emerald City]

In case anybody is still interested in any of the items, every item except the following is still available: #4, 6, 17, 19, 21, 23, 24, 39, 41, 42. Everything else is still for sale The stone in #32 is glass, of all things! The stone in #26 is topaz & #12 is amethyst with aquamarines or topaz. I took that ring in TWICE and the two side stones remain a mystery. Ah well. #7 is sapphire.

 

[elizat]

@AnastasiaBeaverhausen So true. The reality of it is really surprising. We're all a dollar amount in the eyes of lawyers, insurers, and hospitals. It sounds dreadful but given my situation - and unfortunately I am not alone - it is clearly the case. Thank you for your kind wishes. *hug*

I am going to reply to this and then probably take a long break from Pricescope. I'm sorry you got hurt and have pain. I'm sorry a mistake was made. A lot of people are sorry for this.

But, that doesn't mean that if someone is a hospital worker or administrator, an insurance company employee or administrator, or a lawyer, that we just look at dollar signs for people. Perhaps you didn't mean that but, but it was sweeping. Not every lawyer, person that has a job in insurance or hospitals is a person that only cares about money or looks at people as dollar signs.

Are there people that care and have empathy? Yes. Does it mean they don't have empathy if they point out something in an individual situation that is inconsistent, apply existing law to a set of facts or adress mitigating factors they don't care or look at you as a dollar amount versus a person? No.

I get it. You are upset, hurt, tired, and a lot of other things, but that was just so sweeping.

I hope you can sell the rest of your items and raise the money you would like.

Signed, a lawyer

 

[Emerald City]

I am going to reply to this and then probably take a long break from Pricescope. I'm sorry you got hurt and have pain. I'm sorry a mistake was made. A lot of people are sorry for this.

But, that doesn't mean that if someone is a hospital worker or administrator, an insurance company employee or administrator, or a lawyer, that we just look at dollar signs for people. Perhaps you didn't mean that but, but it was sweeping. Not every lawyer, person that has a job in insurance or hospitals is a person that only cares about money or looks at people as dollar signs.

Are there people that care and have empathy? Yes. Does it mean they don't have empathy if they point out something in an individual situation that is inconsistent, apply existing law to a set of facts or adress mitigating factors they don't care or look at you as a dollar amount versus a person? No.

I get it. You are upset, hurt, tired, and a lot of other things, but that was just so sweeping.

I hope you can sell the rest of your items and raise the money you would like.

Signed, a lawyer

@elizat Perhaps I was unclear and could have expressed myself better. I never said explicitly that people in those positions lack empathy. Clearly the nurse who injured me does, but she is hopefully an exception rather than the rule. I met some lovely nurses as I saw doctor after doctor following all of these injuries. But no lawyer will take my case because it is not easily won. A few of the lawyers I spoke to clearly felt bad, but most of them sounded bored. And all of them saw me ultimately as a means to an end, that end being money.

I don't know how they sleep at night. I am an adult and I know that they need to pay rent and so forth. And really, the system isn't their fault. They ultimately benefit from it because to "press charges" against a hospital, if you will, you need a lawyer and lawyers can pick and choose their clients. I am advocating that the whole system needs to change so that patients are not at the whims of lawyers in terms of receiving settlements. New Zealand has such a system and in my opinion - and I'm oh-so-slightly biased here - it works better than this. I have received nothing. Not one cent.

My husband and I have paid in the six figures out of pocket to try and fix the damage and we're still not done. We're still in six figures of debt. The hospital should have paid for this. How to get the hospital to pay? Lawyers. Where are the lawyers? Fighting cases that, in layman's terms, are the low-hanging fruit. Lawyers have clearly done some stellar work in this field (no sarcasm) but what about the 90% of patients who cannot sue after being injured by hospitals?

When fewer than 10% of injured patients can find representation, how can it not be viewed as a numbers game? A med mal lawyer may feel sorry all day long for patients but when s/he won't represent them because the case is murky, as it usually is in med mal, what is the motivation there? Money. Why do we all go to work? Money. Why are most hospitals in business? Money.

Let me be clear: I have suffered massively. I don't want to sound like I'm whining but imagine how much pain you would be in if: your abdominal muscles were 95% detached from the bones that hold them; two discs had just bulged and torn; both SIJs were loose, causing the spine to move too much and severe muscle spasms to travel along up to your shoulder blades (that lasted 2 years, btw); your coccyx was fractured; your pubic bone was fractured; the bursa in your hips and sitz bones were badly inflamed; the facet joints were badly damaged; and, immediately following the injury that caused all of this, every single muscle in your body spasmed as tightly as it would go and refused to loosen for six weeks. THEN imagine that when you go to the ER, you're accused of drug-seeking because you already went there twice to see why your abdomen wouldn't stop hurting. Even though your heart rate is in the 200s and you are in so much pain you can't stop screaming nor can you even understand or answer basic questions such as "What is your name?" So imagine all those injuries and NO PAIN MEDS for three months. I have no idea how I survived it, I really don't. I am actively trying to block it out. But the cherry on all of this is being financially destroyed when it is the hospital's responsibility to pay for the damage. I won't even go into the pain and misery of two hip surgeries and a spinal surgery to repair the damage the nurse did specifically, never mind the surgery to fix the original abdominal injury.

When I tell lawyers this and they still - politely - tell me to pound sand, obviously the motivation is money. Even though some of them clearly felt terribly for me. And the hospital's motivation is money, too. It took two+ years to get the name of the nurse, and that was only because the one lawyer who agreed to take the case (he backed out, but at least he was there for a while) asked for it. I wasn't even able to file a complaint because I didn't have a name. I tried but I got back the message "Sorry, but we don't even know who it was, so we can't do anything." To even argue that hospitals aren't profit driven is absurd. The way they charge for things that are cheap, the way they offload bills they know the uninsured won't pay onto people they are confident will pay, etc. Hospitals are not anyone's friend and to argue that they are in business for the love of helping people is ridiculous. Yes, I am saying outright that hospitals are profit-driven. Not everyone who works at them is but those who own them are. And many individual doctors, nurses, and lawyers ARE profit-driven, just like anybody else. Making money is the only way to survive. And that's fine. The best surgeons are those who would score high on psychopathic traits but they are highly driven and that is who I want to work on me. They are the best because they are driven - to be the best, to make money, to make a difference. And they do all of these things.

But when being profit-driven comes at the expense of someone's life, then it is a problem. Make no mistake, my life as I knew it is over. That sounds dramatic but I STILL spend 99% of my time lying down in bed because I cannot walk or sit or stand without severe pain. I am not giving up hope but it is hard facing year #3 being half over and I am still like this. My husband and I had plans to move and buy a house, travel, and enjoy the life we had. Those dreams are gone.

When lawyers look at someone whose life has been destroyed like this and still say they can't help, then motivations do come into question. I can't sue the hospital because of profit, period. This is my hill to die on and I have suffered more than many people can imagine. And my poor husband. I imagine watching me writhing on the bed, screaming and begging him to shoot me in the head wasn't fun. There has been not just physical damage, but psychological damage as well. This has all been highly traumatising. And I say that as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. This makes that seem like a walk in the park. And surviving such abuse was hell. It is still hell. But there are ways to cope and ways to distract yourself that don't apply to something like this. There is no distraction from physical pain. There is no "coping" with it when it crosses a certain threshold. There is a reason why we all view torture as so despicable. That is what the nurse has effectively done to me; placed me in a situation where I am physically tortured every day. I had to claw my way to learn how to feel joy after growing up the way I did. And then this all happened. I can sense that some spark within me has died. I will never be the same mentally after this. A study found that people with chronic pain showed highly similar psychological damage to people who had been held and tortured by authorities. Living with all this I can understand it as I see myself going through it.

But sure, go ahead and say it wasn't about money. I disagree with you and I will always disagree with you. I pray you are never in my shoes because nobody deserves this but if you are, you will see from the other side how cold lawyers and hospitals can be.

 

[MjK1]

@elizat Perhaps I was unclear and could have expressed myself better. I never said explicitly that people in those positions lack empathy. Clearly the nurse who injured me does, but she is hopefully an exception rather than the rule. I met some lovely nurses as I saw doctor after doctor following all of these injuries. But no lawyer will take my case because it is not easily won. A few of the lawyers I spoke to clearly felt bad, but most of them sounded bored. And all of them saw me ultimately as a means to an end, that end being money.

I don't know how they sleep at night. I am an adult and I know that they need to pay rent and so forth. And really, the system isn't their fault. They ultimately benefit from it because to "press charges" against a hospital, if you will, you need a lawyer and lawyers can pick and choose their clients. I am advocating that the whole system needs to change so that patients are not at the whims of lawyers in terms of receiving settlements. New Zealand has such a system and in my opinion - and I'm oh-so-slightly biased here - it works better than this. I have received nothing. Not one cent.

My husband and I have paid in the six figures out of pocket to try and fix the damage and we're still not done. We're still in six figures of debt. The hospital should have paid for this. How to get the hospital to pay? Lawyers. Where are the lawyers? Fighting cases that, in layman's terms, are the low-hanging fruit. Lawyers have clearly done some stellar work in this field (no sarcasm) but what about the 90% of patients who cannot sue after being injured by hospitals?

When fewer than 10% of injured patients can find representation, how can it not be viewed as a numbers game? A med mal lawyer may feel sorry all day long for patients but when s/he won't represent them because the case is murky, as it usually is in med mal, what is the motivation there? Money. Why do we all go to work? Money. Why are most hospitals in business? Money.

Let me be clear: I have suffered massively. I don't want to sound like I'm whining but imagine how much pain you would be in if: your abdominal muscles were 95% detached from the bones that hold them; two discs had just bulged and torn; both SIJs were loose, causing the spine to move too much and severe muscle spasms to travel along up to your shoulder blades (that lasted 2 years, btw); your coccyx was fractured; your pubic bone was fractured; the bursa in your hips and sitz bones were badly inflamed; the facet joints were badly damaged; and, immediately following the injury that caused all of this, every single muscle in your body spasmed as tightly as it would go and refused to loosen for six weeks. THEN imagine that when you go to the ER, you're accused of drug-seeking because you already went there twice to see why your abdomen wouldn't stop hurting. Even though your heart rate is in the 200s and you are in so much pain you can't stop screaming nor can you even understand or answer basic questions such as "What is your name?" So imagine all those injuries and NO PAIN MEDS for three months. I have no idea how I survived it, I really don't. I am actively trying to block it out. But the cherry on all of this is being financially destroyed when it is the hospital's responsibility to pay for the damage. I won't even go into the pain and misery of two hip surgeries and a spinal surgery to repair the damage the nurse did specifically, never mind the surgery to fix the original abdominal injury.

When I tell lawyers this and they still - politely - tell me to pound sand, obviously the motivation is money. Even though some of them clearly felt terribly for me. And the hospital's motivation is money, too. It took two+ years to get the name of the nurse, and that was only because the one lawyer who agreed to take the case (he backed out, but at least he was there for a while) asked for it. I wasn't even able to file a complaint because I didn't have a name. I tried but I got back the message "Sorry, but we don't even know who it was, so we can't do anything." To even argue that hospitals aren't profit driven is absurd. The way they charge for things that are cheap, the way they offload bills they know the uninsured won't pay onto people they are confident will pay, etc. Hospitals are not anyone's friend and to argue that they are in business for the love of helping people is ridiculous. Yes, I am saying outright that hospitals are profit-driven. Not everyone who works at them is but those who own them are. And many individual doctors, nurses, and lawyers ARE profit-driven, just like anybody else. Making money is the only way to survive. And that's fine. The best surgeons are those who would score high on psychopathic traits but they are highly driven and that is who I want to work on me. They are the best because they are driven - to be the best, to make money, to make a difference. And they do all of these things.

But when being profit-driven comes at the expense of someone's life, then it is a problem. Make no mistake, my life as I knew it is over. That sounds dramatic but I STILL spend 99% of my time lying down in bed because I cannot walk or sit or stand without severe pain. I am not giving up hope but it is hard facing year #3 being half over and I am still like this. My husband and I had plans to move and buy a house, travel, and enjoy the life we had. Those dreams are gone.

When lawyers look at someone whose life has been destroyed like this and still say they can't help, then motivations do come into question. I can't sue the hospital because of profit, period. This is my hill to die on and I have suffered more than many people can imagine. And my poor husband. I imagine watching me writhing on the bed, screaming and begging him to shoot me in the head wasn't fun. There has been not just physical damage, but psychological damage as well. This has all been highly traumatising. And I say that as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. This makes that seem like a walk in the park. And surviving such abuse was hell. It is still hell. But there are ways to cope and ways to distract yourself that don't apply to something like this. There is no distraction from physical pain. There is no "coping" with it when it crosses a certain threshold. There is a reason why we all view torture as so despicable. That is what the nurse has effectively done to me; placed me in a situation where I am physically tortured every day. I had to claw my way to learn how to feel joy after growing up the way I did. And then this all happened. I can sense that some spark within me has died. I will never be the same mentally after this. A study found that people with chronic pain showed highly similar psychological damage to people who had been held and tortured by authorities. Living with all this I can understand it as I see myself going through it.

But sure, go ahead and say it wasn't about money. I disagree with you and I will always disagree with you. I pray you are never in my shoes because nobody deserves this but if you are, you will see from the other side how cold lawyers and hospitals can be.

There is a Shakespeare quote the is very apt, but I don't want to get my butt kicked off of here. Great post EC!!!

 

[yssie]

@Emerald City I’m not going to comment on your situation itself. You are clearly hurting, mentally and physically, and I hope you find a path to comfort. I will simply state, pedantic as it may be, that your posts on this thread won’t make it easier for you to successfully obtain legal advocacy and retain counsel within or outside PS. No one else knows what you have been through, but support wears many faces, some of them unexpected.

I have reported my own post. The PS moderators are free to remove it if they feel it’s inappropriate.

 

[LLJsmom]

@Emerald City , I'm going to suggest something that you've probably already considered and pursued and if you have, please ignore me. Our child had surgery that we were told was needed, and we asked the insurance company multiple times if it was covered. Their response was yes if it was needed. Well, we should have somehow demanded that pre-authorization in writing, which we didn't. Of course, once the surgery was completed, the insurance company said it was not covered because certain specific age requirements were not met. However, it was "required" as stated by another doctor treating her. We appealed, provided testimony from her doctor. They denied, multiple times, SOP. We are in California so we appealed to the CA Department of Managed Healthcare. We obtained a letter from the doctor explaining why the surgery was necessary in the hospital and submitted a written appeal explaining the whole situation. They ruled in our favor and the insurance company had to pay up. Is there a similar board that regulates insurance companies in your state? And if that does not apply, nevermind.