A Pittsburgh daughter, Rae Corrado, arrived at a local hospital to visit her mother, Gloria. When directed to her mother’s room, however, she was left dumbfounded when the woman inside was not, in fact, her mother, but a total stranger.
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As reported by Action News 4, Corrado arrived at UPMC Mercy Rehab on Friday. As pèr CBS News, her mother, Gloria, had been transferred from UPMC Presbyterian after being treated for a stroke. Imagine her surprise when she found a woman in her mother’s place, even wearing a wristband with her mother’s name.
“At the nurse’s station, they told me, ‘Your mother’s here.’ And I ran back and I said, ‘That’s not my mom,'” Corrado told the outlet.
Despite Corrado’s assistance, the staff initially insisted that the totally unknown woman was her mother, based on the name “Gloria” printed on the wristband used by the stranger.
“I said, ‘I don’t care what you saw,'” Corrado responded. “It’s not my mom.”
According to Corrado, it appeared as if the woman using her mother’s wristband was “confused,” possibly suffering from dementia. Feeling overwhelmed by not knowing about her mother’s whereabouts, Rae Corrado visited the chapel.
Mom Located
Then, Corrado called the staff at UPMC Presbyterian. Turns out, she was still there waiting to be transferred. Four hours later, at around 11 p.m., Gloria Corrado finally arrived at UPMC Mercy Rebah, as per CBS News. There, mother and daughter were finally reunited.
“They wheel my mother in, and she says, ‘I’ve been looking for you, were you lost?'” Corrado said. “And I’m like, ‘No, mom, you were lost. I’ve been looking for you.'”
While talking with Action News 4, Gloria Corrado revealed that she had been velcroed to a stretcher and couldn’t move, being left alone in a hallway for hours.
“I could hardly move my feet, let alone my body, for hours. And I kept thinking, ‘This can’t be legal,'” Gloria added.
When asked by CBS News if UPMC explained the mixup to her, Corrado said, “They had a new nurse on staff, and they were sorry for the mix-up.”
While Corrado remains worried about the stranger who took her mother’s spot, she has stated that she is “done with UPMC.”