Ever feel like a complete jacka$$?

So, I work in a Neurology practice and we also do EEG's here. A woman comes in for her EEG appt and she's a Self Pay. For Self Pay patients I have to collect a $100 deposit from them. I finish up her registration and I tell her that I need to collect her money before she could get her test done and she tells me that she has no money. So, I told her to take a seat and I go over to the EEG dept, tell them what happened and the secretary calls her Supervisor and he tells her to cancel the womans appt.

So, I call the woman up to the window and tell her that her appt will have to be cancelled until she either has the money for her deposit or her insurance kicks in. She then says to me 'Oh that's fine. I'm going into surgery next week to have my lung removed. The doctor just wanted to see that my brain was ok before they operated on me. I have lung cancer. The one seizure I have a year is the least of my worries.'

Errrr......I wished I was about 2 inches small at that point.

Yikes.

It's not your fault. She should have been told before going to the appointment.

Aww, how sad! It's not your fault though. Unfortunately, you were just doing your job. As long as you weren't nasty to her about it, you couldn't help it. That's really depressing.