June 28, 2012
According to WRAL News, the father of a Smithfield, North Carolina, teen hospitalized at WakeMed is fighting to keep guardianship over his son.
The young man was a 17-year-old high school senior when he was involved in a car accident in March 2011 that left him seriously injured. Doctors determined that he had suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash and that he would likely be in a vegetative state the rest of his life. Over the next 14 months, the majority of the teen’s nearly $4 million in medical expenses was initially covered by his father’s Medicaid, but the day he turned 18-years-old, he was dropped from the policy.
Since then, his father has been working to have the coverage of his son reinstated, but WakeMed is pushing the court system to appoint an individual from the state government or the hospital to be the teen’s legal guardian. The young man’s father is resisting because those individuals would be able to make medical decisions about the care of the teen.
A hearing on the case has been scheduled for the end of July.
The North Carolina Personal Injury Lawyers with HensonFuerst Injury Lawyers understand how difficult and frustrating insurance disputes can be and the firm would like to wish this family the best of luck in getting this issue resolved as quickly as possible to get this young man the care he needs.
