"The first thing I did was feel my prosthetic eye was gone," said Oxley.
The hospital misplaced her prosthetic right eye after they removed it to take x-rays in a radiology machine, according to Denver Health.
Oxley has had a prosthetic since her eye was scratched by kids playing with wooden planks when she was three years old.
"To lose my eye is just as bad as cutting off the wrong hand when it's time to amputate," said Oxley. "How can that be? How can that be?"
The hospital looked but couldn't find it.
To make matters worse, Oxley said Denver Health is fighting her request to replace her prosthetic eye, which would cost about $3,500 for the eye and approximately $1,000 for a trip to visit the doctor in California.
While she fights the system, Oxley has grown depressed because of her appearance. While she says she faxed the hospital information about her eye doctor several times, Denver Health said it is still waiting to receive the information.
Oxley is just one of many patients who have had items lost while at Denver Health Medical System, according to a 9Wants to Know investigation.
The hospital lost 368 patient belongings in 2006, according to Denver Health Lost Property Reports. Other hospitals of similar size that treat similar numbers of indigent lose fewer valuables.
MetroHealth System in Cleveland lost 27 valuables last year, according to the hospital. Maricopa Integrated Health in Phoenix had 49 lost property reports.
While Denver Health loses patient valuables eight times more often than those other hospitals, many more missing items are never reported. None of the 10 patients 9NEWS spoke with were ever told about filing lost property reports.
Those patients complain DHMC has lost a purse, identification, clothing, car keys, shoes, glasses, expensive jewelry, watches, backpacks, credit cards, check books, wallets, boots and other personal property.
Denver Health told 9NEWS that it doesn't have a problem keeping patients' belongings.
"I think both your employee and mine could have spent the time involved in this 'story' on more important news," Bobbi Barrow, Chief Communications Officer for Denver Health e-mailed the TV station.
However, the problem is very real to people like Barney Trujillo. When he was treated for pneumonia this year, Denver Health lost his upper dentures. Until 9NEWS asked about his case, Trujillo said Denver Health gave him the run around.
"I've pretty much talked to everybody and nothing has been done," said Trujillo.
Since the hospital lost his upper dentures six months ago, Trujillo can't eat regular food without blending it and has lost 20 pounds. He's also lost his confidence to be out in public.
"I would love to smile, but I can't smile," said Trujillo. "I'd feel self-conscious. How am I going to smile with no teeth?"
Denver Health is now in the process of paying for a new set of dentures for him. Trujillo hopes to have them in time for Christmas dinner.
Trujillo couldn't afford to buy himself new dentures for $1,000 because until recently, he was homeless. Other homeless people have also complained about the hospital losing their property.
When Melinda Simmons suffered chest pains this year and was taken to Denver Health, she said the hospital lost her tennis shoes. They were her only pair.
"I couldn't believe it," said Simmons. "I had to walk out in my socks, the hospital booties that they give you."
Denver Health offered to let her root through its bin of lost-and-found items, but she said "no thanks."
When Terry Sadler fainted in a park in the heat of summer this year, an ambulance took him to Denver Health for treatment. When he was ready to leave the hospital, emergency workers couldn't find his wheelchair or two bags with his clothing and identification. Sadler says they sent him on his way with a pair of crutches. Sadler said he couldn't use the crutches, so he crawled out the door.
"I had to crawl across the street and stay there until it was night time," said Sadler. "Then, I had to crawl back to the Samaritan House and stay in overflow so I could sleep at night."
Sadler said he crawled around for two days until a homeless shelter loaned him a broken wheelchair.
All of the patients said they contacted a patient advocate at Denver Health which did nothing for them. Some advocates for the homeless call it a chronic problem.
"We're concerned because it's not right. These are items that should be respected," said Brendan McCrann, an outreach case manager for the St. Francis Center. "Also, it makes movement toward goals and movement toward housing and employment and whatever else these folks might see as important to them, much more difficult."
McCrann said he and other case workers have to try to secure funding to replace lost articles quickly, which takes focus and funds away from helping the homeless with their long-term goals such as finding jobs or housing.
"It seems to me there is something wrong with the process," said McCrann about Denver Health. "I'm confident they have the means available to them and the power and the creativity to look at alternative ways of dealing with people's personal items."
Other hospitals have tackled the problem of lost personal property head-on and drastically reduced their loss rates. At New York Weill Cornell Medical Center of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, security efforts reduced the number of lost property reports by 70 percent over a three-year period, according to Bernard Scaglione, Director of Security.
MetroHealth System in Cleveland put a team together five years ago to fix the problem and came up with a buddy system. It requires two people and two signatures to move and lock-up patient property, according to Chief Legal Counsel Bill West.
Before the buddy system, West said the hospital was losing expensive coats, jewelry, glasses and money. Since MetroHealth addressed the problem, West said it only had 27 lost property reports last year in the entire system and said there were only 12 lost property reports last year in the main acute care hospital. System wide, MetroHealth served 823,134 patients last year.
Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota had only 21 lost property reports in 2006 out of 113,134 patient visits to its emergency room. It places patient valuables in a hospital safe, after recording the items on a property checklist, according to Christine Hill, PR Specialist at HCMC.
Patients filed 48 claims for lost property at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, from January 2006 through September 2007. Harborview Medical requires two staff members to secure valuables, after noting them on a triple-page tracking form, then places them in a secured vault or cabinet, according to Susan Gregg-Hanson PR Director.
Denver Health said when patients arrive at the hospital, they will sign a form itemizing their clothing and valuables. Hospital staff will then put their belongings in a bag, marked with their medical record number and store it in a locked cabinet, according to Dee Martinez, Public Relations for Denver Health.
Martinez said that the Denver Health System only loses property 4 out of every 10,000 visits. She also said that Denver Health makes every attempt to find or replace the item. Denver Health only reconciles 50 percent of its missing property reports, according to Martinez.
"Denver Health is disappointed that 9NEWS would focus on a story. . . that is of minor significance compared to the overall issue of health care for the uninsured patients, including the thousands who are homeless," wrote Martinez in an e-mail to 9NEWS. "We stand by our commitment of $60 million in services to 7,737 individual homeless patients."
Martinez also said that the hospital saves countless lives every day.
Despite that, Jeanne Oxley, who has insurance and is not homeless, thinks that Denver Health needs to take better care of patients' things such as her prosthetic eye.
"I get the feeling they could care less," said Oxley. "Nobody's claimed responsibility. They just don't want to be bothered with again."
"I know they saved my life and I appreciate that, I really do," said Barney Trujillo. "But I need my teeth. I'd rather they lost my money, you know what I mean?"
Bobbi Barrow, the Chief Communications Officer for Denver Health sent out an internal e-mail Thursday to "DH Leaders" giving them a "Heads up on TV News Story."
In the internal e-mail Barrow writes that the patients have all received compensation for their property. However, all the patients 9NEWS spoke with Thursday night say they have not received any compensation yet from Denver Health.
In the e-mail, sent to the Hospital's Board of Directors, Barrow writes, "All this information and much more, was given to 9NEWS. After we see the story tonight, we'll know if she used any of our facts."
9NEWS contacted CEO Patricia Gabow, Board Chairman Bruce Alexander and Vice Chairs Barbara Yondorf and Hubert Farbes but they did not return calls for comment.
The hospital denied all on camera interview requests with the station.
