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WEKU
WEKU
Health
Harris Meyer

A baby spent 36 days at an in-network hospital. Why did her parents get a huge bill?

Brenna Kearney plays with her daughter, Joey, at home in Chicago. When Kearney was pregnant, she developed a rare type of preeclampsia and had to undergo an emergency cesarean section. Joey was discharged after a 36-day stay in the NICU. (Taylor Glascock for KHN)

Brenna Kearney was seven months pregnant in December 2019 when she experienced what she thought were bad flu symptoms.

Her husband, Casey Trumble, drove her from their Chicago home to her OB-GYN's office at Northwestern Medicine Prentice Women's Hospital downtown. With suddenly elevated blood pressure and protein in her urine, she was diagnosed with preeclampsia, a potentially fatal but treatable pregnancy complication. Doctors admitted her to the hospital, saying she could expect to stay up to six weeks and have an induced delivery.

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