South Florida Woman Cancels Antibody Testing Appointment, Then Gets Call To Tell Her She is Negative
MIAMI (CBSMiami) - In the age of the coronavirus, many people are looking for ways to get tested for antibodies. That is a test that will let you know if you have been exposed to COVID-19 and can help experts track virus.
One South Florida woman says she got surprised when she didn't even take the test.
Brigitt Rok and her husband wanted to get the antibody test to see if they were ever exposed to the virus. She made an appointment at the Aventura drive-thru, operated by Banyan Medical Systems.
She got an email confirming her appointment, but then she had to cancel.
What happened next was baffling.
"I get two phone calls that I missed in the morning, from two different women leaving voicemails that they have my test results," Brigitt said.
"I call back, and they said, your test results are negative. I said, I didn't show up. You didn't check my blood. How can I be negative? She says, oh you know, maybe it was some kind of a data entry problem. Maybe there is human error. We may have entered your name. I said, but I wasn't there."
Banyan is operating in Aventura, and another site in Bal Harbour.
The test is supposed to tell you whether you develop antibodies to the virus, although it's unknown how much and how long that protection may last.
"I think there's a little bit of. I mean there's a big problem in our healthcare system that most people are aware of. It's disorganized. It's fragmented. There aren't strict controls on a lot of things," said Dr. James Wantuk, Plushcare co-founder, who is a virtual primary care provider.
With so many places, offering antibody testing, Wantuk says you should check with a trusted physician about which test is recommended.
"Where you can get a trustworthy physician who's really going to advise you on which tough to get what the results are. Don't just, you know, click on an errand and see on the internet, or go to Amazon and order a test," adds Wantuk.
"It's a very serious problem because people are walking away thinking that they have test results that are not valid," adds Brigitt.
In a statement, Banyan said, "We had been made aware of an instance in which an individual was contacted erroneously through a clerical error. We have apologized to the individual and all steps have been made to correct this and ensure this will not happen again."
So much unknown and still so much on certainty about the antibody testing. The only thing we know there will be more antibody testing in South Florida over at the coming months.