THE ACCOUNTABILITY SERIES: Got Suckered, Part 6
a.k.a. - The Holding OhioHealth Hospital Accountable Series
The Accountability Series is a call for change — a public record and a reminder that patients deserve to be heard. Healthcare accountability should be standard, not a battle that injured patients and their families are forced to fight, only to be dismissed and left to pick up the pieces alone.
Through this series, I’m opening a window into an ongoing campaign — it’s an invitation for hospital decision-makers to finally step up after more than four years of denying the abuse and injuries I sustained by one of their surgeons. I am drawing from my personal malpractice journey, yet it mirrors untold numbers of malpractice journeys where the injured have been and will be shut out and failed by rigid, inhumane brick wall systems.
OhioHealth is the responsible hospital corporation. I will address each email message to their “Leadership” teams, which includes their president and other top administrators. Copies may also be sent to employees, the media, lawyers, and patient advocates.
We’re all human, and injuries happen. Medical professionals need and deserve legal protection, but so do patients. This is about accountability and systemic reform, not a personal attack.
This is about addressing the imbalance of power and confronting hypocrisy.
Subject: Got Suckered, Part 6 - 9/23/25
Dear OhioHealth Leadership Team:
I had two red binders. Now I have one. Its twin was likely tossed in the garbage with OhioHealth’s wadded-up mission statement long ago.
I got suckered into believing what I was told—that the steps I needed to take to report what happened were to write a complaint that the Risk Management Director would present to a group of OhioHealth doctors and lawyers for their review. I made two copies and put them in the red binders, one for me and one for them.
After the verdict that the surgeon was within his scope of work, and after I insisted on and waited for a second review that I was told would happen but never did, I finally asked the Director if anyone had read my complaint. He was silent.
The complaint took several months to compile while one-handed and in searing pain at the height of my injuries. I was very naive. I mean, my babies were born at an OhioHealth hospital within this “not-for-profit, 501(c), charitable corporation.”
When I learned the verdict, I went to the top with an email rant and digital copies of my complaint. I was certain you’d want to know that a very big mistake had been made on your part by people you pay to investigate harm done. Silence from the top, aside from rerouting me to the gatekeeper—the Risk Management Director, proved there had been no mistake and that he was in alignment with your wishes.
(Updated version - the original had the wrong snippet!) Here is a snippet of the second of two similar emails that went ignored by OhioHealth's Leadership team:
AFTER ALL THIS TIME, NO ONE HAS EVEN READ MY REPORT!! ONLY BITS AND PIECES THAT ARE CONVENIENT TO THEM, AND YET, RISK MANAGEMENT IS OK WITH THE ABUSE AND INJURY I SUSTAINED BY OHIO HEALTH'S SURGEON. HOW CAN THEY SAY THAT WITHOUT READING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AND WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH? HOW CAN THEY SAY IT'S OK FOR A SURGEON TO PERFORM A NON-MEDICAL PROCEDURE OF FORCED MANIPULATION AGAINST MY WILL, CAUSING INJURY???? SOMEONE HEAR ME!!!
All caps, as if they could hear me shouting. I was finally 100% clear that they'd tossed me aside, no mistake. I lost myself to the injustice that day and fell down a long, slippery slope into Rock Bottom.
Liz Florentino, Survivor on a Mission
Patient Rights Advocate
Author of Angels, Bullies, & Brick Walls: Lessons from Surviving Medical Malpractice
https://www.youtube.com/@survivoronamission