I-Team: Mix-up results in false allegation

A mix-up of medical records of an 8-year-old at a local hospital has one mother outraged.

“I feel violated because every day I left that hospital I cried because I couldn’t get him out and nobody would talk to me,“ said Josie Nickerson.

Nickerson said her 8-year-old adopted son, Pedro, who is autistic, was admitted to Bradley Hospital last fall.

After a few weeks, Nickerson found out that her son was being investigated for allegedly sexual assaulting his own sister.

But Nickerson said there’s only one problem with that allegation.

“He doesn’t have a 5-year-old sister,“ she said.

After Nickerson’s persistent questioning of Bradley Hospital officials, a social worker there finally admitted she’d made an unintentional mistake by using an outside agency’s referral form, which was incorrect.

In two separate letters, the social worker apologized to Nickerson.  But the mother of three adopted and one biological child was not happy with what she claims was an unpleasant conversation with the social worker.

“She was not pleasant at all,“ Nickerson said. “She said to me, ‘So, I switched his name on the records. Big deal. You’ll have to just live with it,‘ instead of saying she was sorry.“

Bradley Hospital responded in a statement to the NBC 10 I-Team.

“Bradley Hospital … deeply regrets that a piece of incorrect information was accidentally included on an outside agency’s referral form in September 2008. The error was limited to a single form and was corrected. Bradley Hospital has apologized to the mother and regrets any hardship this may have caused,“ the statement said.