By Jessica Kenley

4/30/2026

7:27pm

**After much consideration and consultation, including legal issues and circumstances should any of these patients decide to pursue a civil case or a class action lawsuit, no names will be used in this article.** 

These stories were collected over a number of recent days (Publication Date 4/30/2026) following a Facebook post that Monarch Media put up requesting people to come forth with their stories. 

Monarch Media expresses great gratitude and respect for these patients, and acknowledges the courage and bravery it takes to speak out against an enormous corporation, when one is just one person. 

However, the goal of Monarch Media is to let the public know that they are not alone in their experiences–UPMC Cole has had a long track record now of mistreatment and neglect, as documented in these pages, and they are not alone.

The following are the stories of your neighbors, citizens of your community, that have experienced this neglect and mistreatment. 

May great respect and care be taken when reading these courageous accounts of the sick and injured men, women, children and elderly of Potter County. 

Monarch Media respectfully asks that the public not harshly judge these people, who have gone out of their way to report their worst, most traumatizing, devastating, and terrifying moments of their lives, on what some say was their “worst day,” when they were in an emergent condition, and asking for help from UPMC Cole.

This is Part One of their story:

COUDERSPORT, Pa. — More than a dozen Potter County residents are coming forward with accounts of care inside the emergency department at UPMC Cole that they say left them feeling dismissed, misdiagnosed, or without answers—raising broader concerns about patient care in the region’s primary hospital.

Through interviews and collected statements, patients and families describe a pattern of experiences that include long wait times, communication breakdowns, and diagnoses they say were later changed after seeking care elsewhere.

For some, those experiences were frightening. For others, they were life-altering.

Patient 1 said he sought emergency care after experiencing severe weakness and shaking, but struggled to communicate during the visit.

“They told me if I went home right now, I would end up dying, which, of course, freaked me out” he said, adding that the main doctor and lead nurse were “extremely awful” to him.

Patient 1, who is autistic, said he attempted to use his phone to explain his symptoms when speaking became difficult.

“I was really scared and unable to I tried communicating through my phone, and they kept pushing it away,” he said.

He was later transferred to a Williamsport hospital, where he said he was diagnosed with severe dehydration, because, they found out, he has a condition where he does not have interoception–the ability to feel major signals like hunger, thirst, heartbeat, and body temperature.

Patient 1 went on to say that, “While I was able to get over it, I can only imagine another autistic child, for example, trying to communicate something, and them being that absolutely wretched to them.”

Others described leaving without clear answers—only to later learn something more serious was occurring.

Patient 2 said she was initially diagnosed with GERD, then salmonella, before discovering through follow-up care that she was experiencing severe gallbladder attacks requiring surgery. She had suffered with, “Throwing up constantly, chest pains, high blood pressure…I was there for hours and hours…I’ve never had heartburn in my life.”

“Immediately they knew that none of it was right,” she continued. “Later that night I got even more sick to the point where I couldn’t do anything but throw up. I went back into the ER, and I’m a mess, constantly getting sick and in so much pain. The nurse comes in and I’m freaking out because I don’t know what’s wrong with me (I was 19 at the time), and she tries to give me an IV, even though I had asked her for a couple of minutes to calm down. Then she stuck me with the IV needle and then pops my vein. I told her I’m dehydrated and freaking out…and she got mad at me because ‘I already took up a lot of time because I was throwing up…’”

Patient 3 shared a similar experience, describing a five-hour wait before being seen for abdominal pain.

“He told me he was the nurse and he would treat how he saw fit,” she said, recalling what she described as a dismissive interaction.

She said she requested additional imaging but was told there was no time. Months later, she said, a specialist identified a cyst that had been missed.

Other patients described repeated visits without resolution.

Patient 4 said she has sought care numerous times for ongoing abdominal pain.

“I have uncontrolled pain… and they won’t even biopsy or help me in any way,” she said. She said she has since sought care outside the area, where additional conditions were identified.

In many cases, patients described being in severe pain while feeling their concerns were minimized.

Patient 5 said she went to the ER with what was later identified as an ovarian torsion—a medical emergency.

“I had a literal organ dying inside me,” she said.

Patient 5 said she waited hours for treatment and was told to stop crying out in pain, and that the nurse was not  documenting her vitals, but was documenting in her notes that [Patient 5] was a difficult, uncooperative patient.

Not a human being who was in severe abdominal pain due to her organs being twisted inside of her body.

“It was very traumatic,” she said.

Families advocating for loved ones also described difficult experiences.

Patient 6 said he brought his father to the ER with symptoms he believed indicated a stroke.

“I told them when we showed up there [that] I believed he had a stroke,” he said. “My father was taken there with paralysis to his whole right side and sent home misdiagnosed…long story short, he died three days later!”

Patient 6 recorded his father’s struggles in his final days of life to document his agony and distress. 

He went on to say that when his wife went to UPMC Cole–once with a broken heel and once with Lyme Disease symptoms–that “we were treated like animals. She and I made them look like fools by pretty much doing their jobs for them.”

He went on to say that he wouldn’t send his worst enemy to UPMC Cole, and that if he himself were experiencing a heart attack, he would risk the two-hour drive to Dubois for care and help.

Monarch Media has not independently verified medical records related to the case.

In another case, Patient 7 described bringing her grandmother to the ER with visible symptoms and abnormal lab results. “She looked yellow to me, and I was concerned about her liver function,” she said.

“They told her to go eat potato chips… and even suggested McDonald’s and Chinese food,” she  said, after blood testing showed low sodium levels.

Patient 7 said she felt her concerns were dismissed despite clear signs something was wrong.

Other residents raised concerns about privacy and trust. Patient 6 said, “My wife has evidence of tests being billed for that were never done…things added to the portal to make it look like they went over and beyond, but meanwhile fell short every time!”

He went on to say that this evidence makes him believe that the nurses are trained to inflate the bills to the insurance companies and patients by adding tests that were never performed.

Many patients commented that they hadn’t spoken out because they thought it was only them that was affected.

Patient 8 described what she believes was a violation of her medical privacy, saying information about her visit was shared despite explicit instructions otherwise. She said she filed a complaint but no action was taken.

“The nurse who was assisting in treating me told the nurse who wasn’t supposed to know anything, everything. And when I filed a complaint that HIPPA had been broken, they investigated and nothing was done to either nurse.”

Patient 8 also described, three years before, bringing her daughter in for an ear injury that was later diagnosed elsewhere as a painfully ruptured eardrum after initially being treated as an infection, without any pain relief for the child.

Patients also pointed to concerns around communication and bedside manner.

Patient 9 said staff dismissed what she believed was her child’s allergic reaction.

“They acted like we were crazy,” she said. “They told us to go to Sheetz and buy Benadryl,” she said, and was discharged without any testing or care.

Patient 9 noted that it was very late at night, and the local stores that would usually stock Benadryl were closed, and that Sheetz is a gas station, and does not have Benadryl available to buy. 

“This is why we went to the ER. We were scared she was having an allergic reaction,” she reiterated.

Patient 10 described multiple experiences, including her boyfriend’s visit for broken ribs that were not treated, after having an X-ray, and her own medical concerns that she said were not addressed until she sought care elsewhere.

“They told him, ‘We’re sending you home, take Tylenol, there’s nothing we can do for you.’ They treated him very poorly…and then slapped him with an outrageous bill,” she said.

About her own care, she said, “Then in 2025…I had to go to another hospital to find out I needed emergency back surgery.”

Patient 11 described discovering she was more than 29 weeks pregnant only after seeking further testing, following months of medical treatment for other conditions. 

Patient 11 said, “He was my doctor for a very long time, and dealt with my female issues–PCOS, endometriosis…he suggested that I try fertility medicine. When I went in for a fertility lining check, there wasn’t much progress, so we tried another round–the second time around was stronger…it made me very ill, [I was] nauseous [and] vomited a lot. When I went for the second fertility lining exam, the Doctor said still not much progress, and that he had to examine me…[a week later] was the “third time’s a charm,” no big deal, and I was very hopeful and optimistic, but got worse news. I was told that my fertility lining just wasn’t strong enough to catch the egg and fertilize it, so then the Doctor and I sat down and agreed to stop it, and I just had my hopes torn apart. I decided that I wanted a break from doctors, because of false expectations and hopes…it took a toll on me mentally and physically.” 

She continued, “Well, a few days later, I started to get sick [and] couldn’t keep food down and had some fevers. I just wasn’t myself…and I had some pain…he did some testing and blood work, and said that it was negative for a kidney or bladder infection–the whole nine yards–medicine given to me over and over again…I took tons of pregnancy tests over this time frame–they were always negative. After taking a half-a-dozen antibiotics, because nothing was getting better for me, well he mysteriously didn’t work there [any] more, and they gave me to whoever [Doctor] they had in the office. I expressed my concerns to a new nurse–well, she ran blood work to see what was going on–come to find out that my blood levels were through the roof and [they were] very concerned and alarmed. She searched my charts for answers to see if the original Doctor had found anything, but mysteriously, my records…disappeared. 

Patient 11 described her feelings about the situation at this point as “sketchy,” and continued: “She called me after doing more testing and said, ‘We need you back in the office for an emergency ultrasound,’ and I [asked her] why, and she said that, ‘We won’t know until we take a look at what’s going on,’ and I was scared and I cried and…come to find out I was 29 weeks [and] six days pregnant! That Doctor never caught on to it and pumped me full of so much medicine and never once picked up that I was pregnant, and then the same day…they say it’s a girl, and…–no joke–six weeks later my daughter was born 36 weeks, five days, 5lbs 13oz., 19 inches long borderline preemie. I felt neglected, because, had I known I was pregnant, I would have had time to prepare [and] take vitamins. I felt so disgusted by that Doctor because he did that to me…that’s the one thing that made me hate that hospital. I never knew I was pregnant, because even the home tests were showing negative.”

Patient 11 concluded with, “There are many scary things that can happen to a woman who doesn’t even know she’s pregnant.”

Even aspects of basic care were raised.

Patient 12 described difficulty accessing appropriate food during an overnight stay despite having an autoimmune condition.

“Access to healthy food is important, especially in a healthcare facility,” he said. 

“[The hospital staff] laughed and then stated, ‘The only food that is worse than hospital food is jail food,’ and walked out of the room,” said Patient 12.

A System Under Strain

While patients describe deeply personal experiences, some healthcare workers say broader systemic pressures may also be contributing factors.

Nurses familiar with hospital environments, including those in rural settings, point to increasing strain on the healthcare system—particularly in smaller communities.

“Constant high pressure to discharge patients as fast as possible, limited rural resources, and low reimbursement rates are just a few of the major issues,” one nurse said.

Another described the financial challenges hospitals face when insurance companies limit how long patients can stay, sometimes requiring extensive justification for continued care.

“These are not simple situations,” one nurse said. “There are larger forces at play.”

A Pattern—and a Community Response

Across the accounts, recurring themes emerge: patients describing feeling unheard, concerns being dismissed, and diagnoses that were later questioned or changed after care elsewhere.

For many residents, the issue goes beyond individual visits—it reflects a growing loss of trust in a facility that serves as a critical access point for emergency care in the region.

It is important to note that these accounts reflect patient-reported experiences and have not been independently verified by Monarch Media.

UPMC Cole was contacted for comment regarding these concerns, and a response was told by their Media Relations person, Tyler Wagner, who works in UPMC’s Williamsport office, about one account that, “The individual was not asked to leave, and care was provided,” after a blind patient (Patient 13), was told repeatedly to leave because she had her seeing-eye dog with her. 

Another “Administrator On Call,” at UPMC Cole, Zeke, stated that he did not have to give his last name to the media, and referred Monarch Media to Tyler Wagner. 

Repeated attempts to reach Tyler Wagner’s superior representative of UPMC Cole were unsuccessful.

Patient 13’s daughter had a badly sprained wrist and, after arguing with the hospital staff for 45 minutes, they finally relented, after the mother demanded to see the Administrator On Call, who was a woman, to submit an incident report. 

After X-rays were finally taken of the minor child, it was determined that her wrist required a bandage and sling.  

It is illegal in Pennsylvania under ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) law, to refuse to treat a blind person with a seeing eye dog in a hospital setting, or their accompanying minor child.

For many in Potter County, these accounts are not just stories—they are warnings. Residents are now calling for greater transparency, accountability, and a closer examination of patient care at UPMC Cole. 

In a rural community where options for emergency care are limited, trust in the local hospital is not optional—it is essential. As more voices come forward, the question facing the community is no longer whether concerns exist, but what will be done to address them.

This article does not include every experience that was submitted, and there will be follow-up articles as this story develops, as some of them were in-depth, in-person interviews, which will be separate stories. 

Monarch Media will update the public as developments arise.