Patient mix-up: Woman says she found stranger in her mother’s hospital bed at UPMC Mercy

PITTSBURGH — A woman told Channel 11 that she went to UPMC Mercy expecting to see her mother, but instead, there was a stranger in her bed wearing her mother’s wristband.

“I couldn’t find my daughter. I was freaking out. I kept saying, ‘Where’s my daughter?’ and they kept telling me they didn’t know,” said Gloria Corrado of Verona.

She was waiting to be transferred from UPMC Presbyterian to Mercy, but she claims the hospital lost her.

“They don’t know what the hell they were doing,” Corrado said.

Corrado said she was left in a hallway strapped to a stretcher for hours.

“How could they not know where I was for three hours and not tell my family anything?” Corrado said.

At the same time, Gloria Corrado‘s daughter, Rae Corrado, said she got a call that her mother, who suffered a stroke, was already at UPMC Mercy.

“And then somebody else had my name on their wristband,” Gloria Corrado said.

The mother and daughter have no idea who she was or how she got there.

Gloria Corrado eventually arrived at UPMC Mercy several hours later.

When she and her daughter asked UPMC for an explanation, she claims they blamed her insurance company for giving them the wrong numbers.

Channel 11 reached out to UPMC to find out how this could have happened and if anyone’s car was affected by the mix-up. A UPMC spokesperson said they’re looking into the claim.

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