A New Jersey woman with a disfiguring facial condition claims doctors at NYU Medical Center are refusing to complete her treatment because her insurance company allegedly backed out of paying for the expensive surgery, according to a lawsuit.
Rujiao Ouyang, 55, of Somerset suffers from frontal ameloblastoma, a condition in which tumors grow on the face and jaw, “resulting [in] lesions that can cause severe abnormalities,” including obstructed airways, according to court papers.
The mother of two moved to New York, where NYU physicians pioneered a two-step procedure that includes taking bone from a patient’s leg and placing it in the jaw.
But after the first operation, doctors
said her insurance company reneged on the coverage and the docs “are now refusing to complete the second part of the two-part surgery,” Ouyang charges in a Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
Just four days after her January surgery, she alleges, NYU claimed Ouyang’s insurance was refusing to pay — and its attitude toward her changed.
The same day, Ouyang claims, she nearly died during a complication that led to “extreme difficulty breathing,” and hospital staff “seemed indifferent to [her] medical needs.”
Ouyang can barely speak, has difficulty walking, can consume only liquids, has “severe nose pain and congestion, [and] blood coming from her nose from time to time,” according to the lawsuit.
“What the hospital and doctors did to her is entirely unethical, and we believe is completely illegal,” her attorney, Heng Wang, told The Post.
NYU insists the claims are false and that Ouyang is misrepresenting the medical facts of her case.
She “is in no ‘deep pain and suffering,’ ” according to a hospital court filing.
“We remain committed to providing the patient with the care that is needed for a full recovery,” the hospital said in a statement.