MEADVILLE MEDICAL CENTER UNDER FIRE AFTER NEAR-DEATH MEDICAL NEGLECT: “MY SON COULD’VE DIED”
By XMN News Investigative Team | July 15, 2025
Meadville, Pennsylvania — A local mother is speaking out after what she describes as a terrifying and life-threatening failure at Meadville Medical Center’s Emergency Department, where her 17-year-old son was left screaming in pain for over 9 hours before being misdiagnosed and sent home — only to later require emergency surgery for a severely inflamed appendix.
According to the mother, who has asked to remain anonymous for the protection of her son, the ordeal began Thursday evening around 6:00 p.m., when she brought her son to Meadville Medical Center with severe abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhea, and high blood pressure.
“He was screaming in the waiting room,” she told XMN News. “I begged them again and again to please help him. I told them something was seriously wrong. They brushed it off every time.”
After waiting for 9 hours in the ER, her son was finally taken back around 3:00 a.m. for bloodwork and a CT scan. She was told that the scan showed “white calcifications on the appendix,” but that this was “normal” and nothing to be concerned about. At 5:30 a.m., they were discharged with instructions to “follow up with your family doctor.”
But once they got home, the boy’s condition only worsened.
“I couldn’t get him comfortable. He was pale, sweating, in agony. I looked up what calcifications on the appendix mean and it clearly said they’re often linked to appendicitis.”
The mother rushed her son to UPMC Hamot Hospital in Erie, where they were immediately taken into care. A new round of tests confirmed what she feared: her son had acute appendicitis and required emergency surgery.
“The doctor at Hamot said they didn’t know how much longer he had until it ruptured. If I had followed Meadville’s advice to just wait and see our family doctor… he could’ve died. That haunts me.”
NOT THE FIRST TIME
Shockingly, this mother says this isn’t the first time Meadville Medical Center endangered her children.
“Two years ago, my daughter went through the same thing. Two days in a row we took her to Meadville and were told she was fine. I took her to Hamot — and she had to have surgery too. What is happening at that hospital?”
HOSPITAL RESPONDS
As of this writing, Meadville Medical Center has not issued an official response to the allegations. Attempts to reach hospital administrators by XMN News for comment were unsuccessful.
Sources inside the medical field tell XMN News that appendicitis is one of the most time-sensitive conditions in emergency care — and failing to act can be fatal.
“Appendicitis is not something you wait on,” said one emergency care nurse from a nearby hospital, speaking under condition of anonymity. “If this patient’s appendix had ruptured, the mother would be planning a funeral right now — not surgery recovery.”
CALLS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY
Now, the family and community are demanding answers and accountability. Questions are swirling about how many other patients have been misdiagnosed or dismissed at the same ER. Social media posts describing similar experiences at Meadville Medical Center have begun to circulate.
“Too many people in our town have horror stories,” the mother said. “How many more near-deaths — or deaths — have to happen before someone investigates this hospital?”
XMN News is currently compiling additional testimonies from families who claim they’ve experienced similar medical neglect at Meadville Medical Center.
