HOUSTON – The family of a single mother hit and killed while walking home over the weekend is demanding change after the hospital she was taken to says she was never brought to their emergency room.
Marlene Bailon, 34, was walking home from the flea market Sunday evening in Aldine area of North Harris County.
Just one block away from her home on Hollyvale Drive, she was hit by a vehicle while walking near the road, which has no sidewalks.
“[My] cousin called my husband and told him, I saw your sister walking on the street,” said Bailon’s sister-in-law Yuleimi Martinez. “But now I see a lot of deputies in there and an ambulance and a fire truck.”
By the time they could get there, Bailon was already in the back of the ambulance.
“They told him the name of her because she always carries her ID and social with her,” she said. “The police told him, ‘Don’t worry; she’s okay.’ She just had minor injuries and just like a fractured hand and some bruises on her body, that’s it. And he told my husband she’s gonna go to HCA Northwest.”
When the family arrived at HCA Northwest Hospital, they told KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding that the staff there had no patient under Bailon’s name.
“They told us, no, ask every 10 minutes,” Martinez said. “So, we ask every 10 minutes. And they always say, ‘No, no, no.’”
Hearing that same answer, family members started calling around and visiting other Houston-area hospitals.
“We went to Memorial Hermann. We went to Ben Taub, we went to Lyndon B. Johnson,” Martinez said.
The answer they got there: “No.”
It seems like Bailon somehow seemingly vanished.
“She had her ID with her, so that was really weird for us,” Martinez said.
It wasn’t until the family came back the next day that they finally were able to speak with someone at HCA Northwest that wouldn’t tell them, ‘No.’
“They told me yesterday we received two patients with a similar accident that they told us.”
One of those two patients didn’t make it. A nurse gave the family a case number and the phone number to the Harris County Medical Examiner’s Office.
It’s only when they called the Medical Examiner that they found out Bailon died at 10:33 p.m. the night before.
“They told me, we have her here,” Martinez said. “We were so devastated about the news.”
The family says Bailon was identified by her ID.
They’re sharing this story in hopes that the hospital makes changes so no other family has to go through what they just did.
“It was just a lie in the hospital because they were denying everything,” Martinez said.
The Harris County Sheriff’s Office confirms that Bailon was transported to HCA Northwest by ambulance.
KPRC 2 asked the hospital for an explanation.
HCA Houston Healthcare Northwest provided the following statement:
“Our hearts go out to the family during this difficult time, and we apologize for any hardship and stress our inability to provide timely information may have caused. When a trauma patient arrives at our hospital without identification or the ability to communicate, we do everything we can to identify the person and notify their family. While we strive to meet the highest standards in all situations, we regret any instance where we fall short of those expectations. We again express our deepest sympathies to the family.”
The driver of the vehicle that hit Bailon was not charged.