Family grieves over lost loved one treated at Mass. hospital -- and her belongings

BOSTON — It is one of the most challenging tasks hospitals face: protecting patients’ personal belongings.

The American Society for Health Care Risk Management notes that the focus in hospitals is, appropriately, on patient well-being -- and that many patients pass through layers of care. So it is not surprising personal items sometimes get lost in the mix.

One local family is learning that the hard way.

Last July 31st, Nikki DiMascola’s mother, Ruth, collapsed while shopping. Paramedics took her first to Beth Israel Deaconess in Needham where doctors diagnosed a cerebral hemorrhage. That condition required higher-level care, and so Ruth was taken by ambulance to BID’s main campus in Boston.

Going with Ruth -- her belongings.

“It was her purse, her wallet, her phone, her watch, her keys, and a cup with her jewelry,” said DiMascola.

And that was the last anyone had seen of those items. The ambulance company said it transferred the personal items to a trauma room at BID -- and provided an inventory to Nikki’s sister.

But then the trail went cold.

“I called the patient relations line,” DiMascola said. “I called the patient’s belongings line. I went down to the emergency room to talk to somebody in person.”

The family’s intensive effort to find Ruth’s missing items became even more pressing when Ruth succumbed to the bleeding in her brain.

DiMascola said her phone contained bank account information and important contact numbers. Her mother, like almost everybody else, carried credit cards and an ID in her wallet.

“I can’t tell you how many phone calls I made,” she said. “I called security, countless people who said they’d call back.”

Most frustrating, DiMascola said, was the fact that most of them did not call back.

Three weeks after her mother’s death, DiMascola called Beth Israel’s Patient Relations line one last time. She said she left a message -- but nobody called back.

DiMascola and her sister poured their frustrations out in separate letters to Beth Israel’s president -- each copying all 22 members of the hospital’s Board of Trustees. Forty-six letters in all. Plus one posted to Facebook.

The result: many sympathetic responses on social media. But from the hospital president and board of trustees?

“Zero,” DiMascola said. “Not a single response. I certainly understand that hospitals are there to save people. But that doesn’t mean you can just brush off their personal stuff.”

In a statement, Beth Israel Deaconess said it made extensive efforts to find Ruth’s missing items.

“Our patients and their families are our top priority,” said hospital Spokesperson Katie Brace. “When issues like this are brought to our attention we thoroughly investigate.”

Brace said the hospital conducted an exhaustive search, to no avail.

“We communicated several times with the family about the situation and offered our condolences for the loss of their loved one and her belongings,” Brace said. “We understand how precious patient belongings are and do not take this type of situation lightly.”

Brace said the hospital once again offers the family its condolences -- and plans to review practices around lost belongings so as to better communicate with patients and families.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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