<p>Try calling the disability services office and explain the situation with your son...insurance, missing classes etc.....They may be able to make some arangements for your son....even help him with calling the insurance, talking to profs etc.... Also, maybe you could have someone not so emotionally involved in the situation call the school/insurance etc...on your behalf---you could be on the phone, just let the other person(preferably one that's dealt with insurance/health/emergency stituations in the past) do most of the talking.</p>
<p>I think you have done all you can reasonably be expected to do. Now it is time to let a lawyer do his/her job. And it is important - by having a lawyer do so, you are not only being recompensed for your son's and your own pain and suffering, but also helping to prevent future outrages by the University. Don't worry about the U - they have plenty of insurance, and will want you to go away as quickly as possible. That's what their lawyers will tell them.</p>
<p>Glad my kid is not there. (Though you might - and should - end up with a free four-year education out of it.)</p>
<p>I also think a lawyer is needed to deal with the insurance company, hospital, etc.. who are dunning you. The lawyer can direct their claims to Wash U instead of to your son.</p>
<p>There's always the possibility of notifying a reporter in St. Louis. I would let administration know that if you don't hear from them within the next two days, you will be speaking to the press. That will strike more terror than a lawyer, to be honest - unis retain lawyers to help them with that stuff, but bad publicity cannot be controlled.</p>
<p>Cressmom
Have you tried talking to or working with this contact at WashU?
Karen Coburn
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Students and Associate Dean for Freshman Transition
314-935-5040
<a href="mailto:coburn@wustl.edu">coburn@wustl.edu</a></p>
<p>I think it is long past the point where Cressmom should be contacting anyone at WashU herself. All the administrators were contacted two weeks ago (post #49).</p>
<p>Mini-perhaps she wasnt directing her concerns to the proper parties
I thought I might do her a service by providing the right numbers/contact info
for those directly responsible for student needs at Wash U,rather than sending a possibly snail mail letter to the Chancellors Office.What could possibly be wrong with poividing telephone info,honestly Mini.....
also remember there's more than one side to every story.Telling someone to jump on lawsuits/lawyers/newsstories,etc....without knowing all the information seems quite inflammatory.</p>
<p>heres more direct contact info in case you want/need it
as per another posters idea of getting the Disability Office involved:
Christine Street Asst Director of Disability Services 314-935-4153
Sarah Scott Disability Services Coordinator 314-935-4062</p>
<p>Health Insurance Contacts:
Alan Glass MD Director of student Health Services
Barbara Harp Associate Director /Chief Administrator 314-935-9606</p>
<p>Health Insurance Claims on the student plan are filed electronically to Great West(the Insurance Carrier) The Group # is 80009 and their filing code is NEIC 80705
Donna Smith (314-935-6666) is the Insurance Coordinator at the Student Health Office</p>
<p>The lack of response or assistance is quite appalling especially if there is any potential liability on the colleges part. From everyone's responses I have to assume that this accident happened on campus property?</p>
<p>I expect that even she doesn't know all the information, and at this point, really doesn't need to. She should concentrate on getting her son well! she's a mom! and leave it to the proefessionals to do what professionals do.</p>
<p>If you've read through all notes on this forum, I don't think you could possibly come to the conclusion that she doesn't already have all the phone numbers and e-mails one could possibly imagine. And, for heaven's sake, the young man is living in a house with an RA - are the RAs THAT poorly trained?</p>
<p>cathymee: impressive, you are good, can I send my Ds insurance questionings to you? you're right on top of it all.....good on ya! :)</p>
<p>It seems like cressmmom would like a solution to her immediate problems as well as some improvement in the system and some symnpathy for that hassle, so if she can find more direct contacts, and one of them can fix the issue right away, that would be a relief of stress</p>
<p>Cathymee:</p>
<p>I agree that having these phone numbers is helpful. Very likely, however, Cressmom has been in contact with many of the people in those offices.<br>
I don't expect the Chancellor to personally deal with the issue, but the Chancellor should at least know that Cressmom's son had been given the run-around. He can certainly direct various offices to deal with it pronto instead of letting this young man traipse at his own expenses to a hospital 10 miles away. Isn't WashU affiliated with a top hospital? Isn't it supposed to be one of its attractions to pre-meds? Why are cressmom's enquiries falling in to a void? The chancellor ought to know how poorly his staff is doing.
A lawyer is needed to deal with both the various claimants (ambulance, hospital, insurance) and with WashU so that cressmom's son can concentrate on getting well and doing well in his studies.</p>
<p>When my D had surgery through her large public, the insurance coverage was great (compared to mine!) but she definitely needed my expertise in navigating the system to avoid pitfalls & extraneous expenses and is learning to question everything. The campus health center does have an insurance rep, all they do is submit claims to the company- we are still awaiting payment on a small international claim from last summer!</p>
<p>Every number I found was on the info sent to Parents of wash U students (D is a Grad student there)
We never were given a direct answer as to who Cressmom sent her complaints/inquiries to
She was given info weeks ago to contact the Dean of Students Office she never let us know if those were the people she contacted.We dont know who or how she contacted the powers that be.
It seems the student is having to travel to see the Drs,not to another hospital.
It seems he needs to take cabs, maybe for convenience.St Louis does have an excellent MetroLink service (mass transit).Unless he had a car,or friends with a car in any college locale, he would have these problems.I'd hate to think of how a student would get around to Drs in a place like Hampshire,or U Conn for example.
As I said in the other thread (Wash U thread) I give the student lots of credit for sticking it out for the semester. Seeing the need for so much followup care, plus more surgery, I might have decided on an LOA for the semester for a child attending so far away.</p>
<p>BTW- just because you use a campus physician does not mean you will always been seen at the nearest location. D had surgery last year and whilst the surgeon first saw her at the campus location, once she was on the surgery track, she had to travel to his office- luckily she had friends from whom she could bum a ride. Once she had her surgery, I was there for the first week and do not know how she could ahve succesfully coped with all the post-surgical needs without me- no friends would have had that much time to deal with her every X hours needs, so it is a very tough situation.</p>
<p>If things are getting to be difficult for your son...as in getting to class(hurting his grades etc..) and more surgeries to come, maybe you should see about having him withdraw for medical reasons for the semester and come back to live with you. That way you could help out with the insurance issues(a pain any time one has emergency medical care) and with doctors appointments etc...Then he could go back to school and focus solely on his studies-- My d has medical issues and it certainly takes a while to get her in the swing of new classes/teachers and dealing with medications/illnesses/physical therapy/doctors appointments etc.....</p>
<p>I think too many people are getting carried away with emotion. I sent cressmom a PM right after the incident, offering to put her in touch with the appropriate people at WashU. She never took me up on the offer. A little over a week ago I mentioned the incident to Dean McLeod - at that time he was not aware of it. Based on past history, he is not the type of person to ignore something like this. He is very student friendly and pro active. I strongly suggest she contact him immediately by one of the following: <a href="mailto:JEMCLEOD@WUSTL.EDU">JEMCLEOD@WUSTL.EDU</a> or 314 935-7747. I would be very surprised if this did not result in immediate action.</p>
<p>one possible complication to take a leave of absence could be if the insurance coverage is based on being a student. If the family did not maintain him on their plan or does not have a good plan, it could be a pre-existing condition and they could have issues getting the subsequent surgeries covered.</p>
<p>My D did survive surgery & PT with Ochem & MVCalc, though it was stressful, but it is even tougher to have the problem be with your face- somehow that is more overwhelming than a leg or arm injury. Maybe he could drop a class or two- ease the load, but remain a student?</p>
<p>ST2, are you sure? My brother’s roommate had an incident last year and he didn’t do anything until one of the guys sent his lawyer.
I believe cressmom did all she could and it is responsibility of the university to know what is going on campus since a police report was filed.</p>
<p>Sometimes universities won't let you just drop one or 2 courses after drop add. It's either all or nothing--as for insurance I think you have to be able to keep the insurance now for 18mths(COBRA), but I could be mistaken.</p>
<p>COBRA can be horribly expensive & many schools have rules and then they have exceptions; there may the ability for some one in the dean's departmetn to help the family determine the best way to tackle all this and have them ended up with a fixed face and successful classwork completion</p>