A valley woman says she is facing a life or death health situation after a mistake by staff at a local hotel.
They were tasked with taking care of her insulin, but there was a terrible mistake.
Instead of putting it in the refrigerator as instructed, they put it in the freezer.
Valerie Lewis decided to stay at the Hampton Inn off Eastern and Sunset for a couple days while she was in between apartments. She said she was very happy with the staff and their treatment of her, until she got her insulin a day later.
"I don't need the stress, I just want the medicine," said Lewis, in tears. "I don't even want the money, I don't want the money, I want the medicine."
Lewis is all out of insulin and worried about what happened and what to do.
"I never thought they would freeze all my medicine and then not care that they did it, like I did something wrong," said Lewis.
They do not have refrigerators in the rooms, so the staff said they could store her insulin in the staff fridge. It says clearly on the box - do not freeze, so what happened the next morning when they got the insulin for her was her worst nightmare.
All nine boxes, three months worth of insulin, were frozen solid. Lewis recently switched jobs, and no longer has health insurance so she stocked up a supply to last her for a while.
"I'm crying because I'm like, I don't have no money to replace this medicine," she said. "I work my butt off to get my medicine."
Action New went to Hampton Inn to get some answers. We talked to Whendy, the same manager Valerie talked to.
She said because the medicine is worth so much, nine boxes at $500-$800 each, they had to submit it to their insurance. They don't know how long it will take to get an answer, but they want to make things right.
The hotel refunded Valerie what she paid for her room already. But Valerie says they only way to make things right would be to replace all the insulin they ruined.
In the meantime, she has no insulin and has not taken any in several days.
