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Man In Disbelief After Requesting His Medical Records From Advocate Christ Medical Center, Getting Somebody Else's

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Darnell Payne requested his medical records and got someone else's – and now he wants to know why Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn is giving him the runaround.

CBS 2's Tara Molina took his concerns straight to the hospital to find out how it happened, how many people it could have happened to, and what they're going to do about it.

When CBS 2 came to meet him, Payne was sitting in front of a complete medical history that was not his.

"I just want to make sure that this don't happen to nobody else!" Payne said.

He said he was in disbelief.

"If I have someone else's records, who has mine?" Payne said.

His disbelief is not just that the mix-up happened, but that he still had the other person's records in his hands, despite offers to drop them off at Advocate Christ's records department.

Payne said the hospital's only response was, "No, that's impossible." He said that is not only what the hospital said about the offer to bring back the records, but the very error itself.

"'Impossible.' Her statement to me was, 'That's impossible.' (I said) 'But I have it!'" Payne said. "(The hospital said), 'There's no way that that could have happened.' But it did!"

Payne requested his records in August to send to his insurance company after two heart attacks. When a packet came in the mail, he saw the first page in his handwriting, didn't check out the other pages, and faxed the insurance company the whole thing.

It wasn't until his insurance company labeled his claim fraudulent that he looked back and realized what had happened.

"I don't have any of my records! I have completely, someone's whole medical records! Everything. All their personal information – Social Security number, address, phone number, next of kin, their medical diagnosis," Payne said.

And when he followed up on the error, re-requesting his own documents? The hospital sent him a bill.

We went to Advocate Christ Medical Center for answers. A spokeswoman told us, "Protecting patient privacy is one of our top priorities. We are taking this seriously and conducting a thorough review."

But when we talked to Payne on Thursday afternoon, he said: "To this day I still haven't heard from Christ, I still have not heard from Christ – even with messages, emails, contacting their managers, supervisors – no one has gotten back to me."

We also got in touch with the woman whose records went to Payne. She said she plans to meet up with him to get her records, and said she hasn't heard from the hospital, but is considering finding a new doctor after all of this.

Of course, we will follow-up with the hospital.

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