Business ProfileforCHOC Children's

On 9/24/2023 we took our daughter to the ** because an earring back was stuck inside her ear. It was late at night, the doctor's ****** was closed and we thought we didn't have the right sized forceps at home. We went to the hospital because we believed they would have the correct tools to enable an easy removal. After waiting for an hour, a ** told us they did not have any tools but she would have someone search for them. She said her shift was ending and left us waiting with no updates on the 'tool search'. After another long wait she came in with a pair of forceps and acknowledged they were not the correct tools. She said she would 'try anyway' to remove the object. We had better forceps at home and at this point, we regret not getting up and leaving. After barely a minute of using the forceps, she ended up pushing the object deeper inside the ear, causing my daughter extreme pain. Not once did she attempt to irrigate the ear. She reminded us her shift was ending and she could not do anything else. She told us to go home; on the way out, a nurse gave us a bottle of DEBROX. The ** spent a total of 2 minutes with us. The next day, I called our pediatrician, whose first recommendation was to irrigate the ear. We took her advice and in less than 5 minutes of irrigating her ear ourselves, the object came out. Going to the hospital was a waste of time, caused my daughter severe pain and made the situation worse. I asked the hospital what they would be billing me for - we were walking out in a worse condition than when we came in. We were told to call their ***************************** who refused to answer my calls or voicemails over the next week. As if this ordeal was not enough, the hospital is now billing us $2000 for this visit, after insurance. I am not sure what services were rendered that night that would amount to such a bill. DEBROX costs $5.99 at a pharmacy. I would like to make a formal complaint against the hospital and contest these charges.