Also see:
* Health Administration Responsibility Project [www.harp.org]: Fighting Back against Unfair Insurance Claims Settlement Practices in California
* Jupirena Stein [coelipink (@) gmail.com]: Did you know that Kaiser Permanente is a HUMAN SUBJECT RESEARCH HMO and all their hospitals are TEACHING HOSPITALS?... that they use theirs members for medical experimentation? My video although short, 3:8 seconds is highly educational. Please, Google this title: Kaiser Permanente Crimes - Teaching Doctors How To Become Criminals.
* Mothers Against Medical Error [155 S Bull St., Columbia, SC 29205]
"Senator Feinstein and CA Gov. Brown sacrifice life of CA teacher/Disabled surgically harmed "patient rights" advocate to Malpractice Industry in CA"
2014-04-13 from Bobbie Jenke:
I am the surgically mutilated CA Special Educator from Santa Rosa, CA who is being DENIED access to ANY evaluations of my surgical damage since 2004. My mangled body videos are on You Tube under Bobbie Jenke and on websites www.tossurgerynightmare.com and www.sonic.net/bjj
I begged Senator Feinstein for help finding medical care and assessment for my complex injuries. I should be able to get this under Medicare--(right?)
All Senator Feinstein did was refer me to CA Governor Brown's office stating that they would help me.
So, I requested HELP from Governor Brown's office in CA via a fax that was ignored. Sent again! Ignored and then again and again.
Later, my advocate, John Colby, called his constituency staff on my behalf--and Adrian No Last Name told him that I needed to call them myself to clarify my fax requests. I did this--and Adrian, No Last Name--Head of Constituency Services for the Governor of CA acted like he never heard from me at all--nor got my fax. When I told him about Dr. Colby calling on my behalf prior--he stated--"He's NOT a doctor." I told Adrian that he was Ph.D. and then I knew that he had my fax and knew EXACTLY who I was. I asked if the Governor cared about surgically harmed patients in CA who cannot find medical care. He stated he did not like my "broad statements" and then he HUNG UP the phone on me.
So, I publicly reported that Governor Brown's office ignored my faxed requests for medical help and even HUNG UP on me as a Surgically HARMED/Disabled CA Special Educator.
After that occurred---my CalSTRS disability teacher pension got messed with badly. (a meager amount of money that I receive monthly to survive)
I was sent suddenly sent a 1099-R for 2013 in which they claimed I earned a Gross Distribution of a highly INFLATED amount of money (as I really make approx only $9,000 per year from them and live very disabled and impoverished in an expensive area in Northern CA. They stated in a letter that they (CalSTRS) had PAID themselves over $31,000 from my disability pension and listed it as a Gross Distribution to me on a 2013 1099 tax form. So, as impoverished and disabled as I now am--I had to deal with CalSTRS staff over this for months--while very sick with a virus and with my mother dying in a hospital. They did seem to try to reconfigure their mistake, but they still left me with this 1099 stating I made over $40,000.
So, I had to find a TAX EXPERT to deal with this FRAUDULENT 1099 from CalSTRS for 2013 that they had REFUSED to change.
I'm recently sent them a letter that the tax expert helped to compose--and I am hoping that they will fix this situation and stop harassing me. Meanwhile--I had to PAY to extend a filing date on my taxes--because of their FALSE claims of money I never made.
The Tax Experts told me it is CalSTRS responsibility to accurately reflect the ACTUAL income I received that was approx $9,000 for the year of 2013 which shows I am IMPOVERISHED and do should not even need to file taxes at all.
I'm telling you this now--because--I believe what has happened to me is RETALIATION from the CA Governor's office for my public whistle-blowing regarding his lack of help for patients HARMED by the Medical Industry in CA. I feel this retalitation could also be for my whistle-blowing on a past illegal HUD landlord in which HUD REFUSED to investigate my claims--another civil and human rights violation.
Senator Feinstein's staff refused to investigate the HUD landlord lies and ABUSE, and about the illegal HUD/FHEO behavior in refusing also to investigate the situation. Senator Feinstein's office claimed that they always believed HUD--because HUD does not lie.
To all who care, Thank You for all you are doing to help the most vulnerable populations in America and to expose corruption and fraud and abuse in government agencies. The length and extend of which I have been harassed and abused as a severely surgically damaged CA Special Educator--for daring to tell about my medical/surgical and then HUD housing abuse--has been relentless.
I hope the government and its ferocious lobbyists will begin to leave me alone with what little time I have left in this world. If not, I'll have to go to my grave still fighting for justice.
Thank you for any help you are offering.
Here I was in 2001 at a patient rights rally that I spearheaded with help of friends/and X-Kaiser HMO patients... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDu-0EVrbAo This peaceful rally occured prior to my 3rd and last devastating surgery ever called Thoracic Outlet Surgery) in 2004.
"Medical Industry in Santa Rosa, CA shuts off patient "Oxygen" for Surgically Harmed Teacher/Patient with Respiratory Damage",
message to the public, written 2014-03-30 by Ms. Bobbie Jane Jenke:
Santa Rosa Oxygen Company puts the “DEATH SQUEEZE” on very disabled, Surgically Harmed/Disabled MEDICARE Patient/CA Special Educator, Bobbie Jane Jenke, with “surgically caused” severe COPD and Asthma and Paralyzed Diaphragm.
See the attached letter from Valley Oxygen and Medical Equipment, dated 3/28/2014 (click on image for larger view).
See the attached patient's document of medical proof of 2004 surgical paralysis of R diaphragm following Dr. Avery's Thoracic Outlet Surgery at CA Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Hospital (click on image for larger view).
Sonoma County Sutter-Affiliated, Federally Funded Clinic denies needed specialty referrals to this same surgically injured patient, Bobbie Jane Jenke, and then dismisses her from their care.
See the attached letter from Dr. Jason Cunningham, director of West County Community Health Centers.
(click on images for larger view)
Very disabled, surgically harmed, Bobbie Jane Jenke, is being “blacklisted by all pulmonologists, primary care doctors and specialists in Sonoma County and elsewhere who subscribe to the same Physician-owned wealthy Malpractice company as the surgeon who harmed her, called “The Doctors Company”.
And CA Special Educator of Santa Rosa, CA and vocal patient safety advocate, Bobbie Jenke, struggling to survive her life, disabled and on Medicare, is also being further harmed since her 2004 T.O.S. Surgery by denials of care, negligence and patient “blacklisting” by Sutter Health, its affiliates and employees, Northern CA Medical Associates, former Kaiser Permanente HMO doctors and their affiliates, “The Doctors Company”, a large physician owned malpractice company, and their affiliates, UCSF, Stanford and more.
Bobbie Jane Jenke fears she will die or suffer a severe traumatic event due to her unevaluated post-surgical complications from Thoracic Outlet surgery performed at a Sutter Health Hospital in 2004, who refuses to help her after they allowed one of their surgeons to perform unnecessary surgery on Bobbie, thus mutilating her, and lying about all risks of the surgery beforehand and after. See the attached pre-operative risk form signed by Dr. Gaylord James Avery II aka Dr. G. James Avery II (click on image for larger view).
Despite clear evidence of harm, lies and recklessness and more, the CA Medical Board allowed Dr. Avery to continue to perform T.O.S. Surgeries as did Sutter Health at CA Pacific Medical Center with no disciplinary actions, which they claim is a high risk surgery, contrary to Dr. Avery's risk form. See the attached letter to Bobbie Jane Jenke from the Medical Board for California, denying any malpractice occurred (click on image for larger view).
Kaiser HMO Patient Rights Rally, 2001,
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDu-0EVrbAo]:
Please view this new video to you tube of a Patient Rights rally done in 2001 in front of Santa Rosa Kaiser HMO for Patients' Rights! The rally was organized by Bobbie Jenke in Dec 2001 and friends, and speaks about all the patients HARMED by Kaiser Care.
Shortly after the rally, Bobbie Jenke, Santa Rosa teacher and Kaiser patient was expelled from the Kaiser facility for "complaining" too much. The CA Department of Managed Health Care simply allowed Kaiser to do this.
I believe this video shows that American patients live in dangerous times. I was forced to leave Kaiser HMO because I tried to improve the rights and safety for all patients in 2001. Today--I cannot even get an appt at UCSF or Stanford to have my surgical damage evaluated. (see how bad I am now on you tube under Bobbie Jenke.
I have asked Senator Feinstein and Gov Brown for help--but I get none, and things are only getting worse for me.
Please pass this video on to all your friends and learn more about the dark secret world of Kaiser Permanente HMO by viewing the Kaiser Crimes Videos on You Tube by Ms. Jupirena Stein. We were both patients who were harmed in the hands of Kaiser Permanente--and have survived to tell you our stories--so that you can become informed patients.
The level of retaliation in today's Medical Industry has escalated, especially for the most vulnerable patient populations.
Hospitals, doctors and malpractice companies are allowed to act so brutally because they are almost completely unregulated, especially in CA. More doctors, clinics hospitals and HMOs have fierce malpractice companies/departments that invest in Wall Street and globally, and are very wealthy. Everyone is tied to someone powerful--in a world where humanity and ethics plays NO part, especially once they damage you.
And, if a patient is injured by the medical industry in CA--the Tort Reform laws financially cap any non-economic damages awards--so it is almost impossible to find an attorney to sue, (even if you are healthy enough to do so). Nor can you stop a BAD doctor/hospital. In my experience, the CA Medical Board is completely useless (on purpose) at protecting patients and yet allows dangerous doctors to continue to practice.
Please view my other videos on You Tube as I am nearing the end of my functional life due to severe injuries caused by TOS surgery in San Francisco. I have been blacklisted in my town with severe respiratory and other damage from my surgery with my R diaphragm paralyzed and my too much of my neck region cut away, and more.
"Senator Feinstein and CA Gov. Brown sell life of CA teacher/Disabled surgically harmed "patient rights" advocate to Malpractice Industry in CA",
2014-04-10 letter from Bobbie Jenke to Disability Resource and Legal Center of Santa Rosa:
I am a surgically harmed disabled Santa Rosa Special Educator, who is being medically blacklisted by federally funded clinics, hospitals, physicians and more in Santa Rosa, CA.
I fear that my prior patient safety and Patient Rights advocacy-(as seen on You Tube under Kaiser Patient Rally--and my other videos-- and my complex surgical injuries are becoming life-threatening at times now--as I live tortured each day--with NO healthcare team to evaluate my 2004 surgical damaged that is literally choking me, disabling me, and sometimes completely debilitating me.
Can you please help me? Suggestions??
I have been a member of your group in the past-when I could attend meetings--but my body has deteriorated now, and cooler days--like today--make me completely home bound. I MUST leave Santa Rosa for a warm dry climate due to so much internal scar tissue/nerve and muscle damage and contracture, and my paralyzed diaphragm and partially compromised Vagus Nerve. i.e. I nearly DIED during a common cold last month from an inability to cough up my congestion--and breath at night--(it turned into SEVERE asthma) that Sebastopol Community Health Center REFUSED to treat.
I have IN Home Support, and I'm on SSI--and a small teacher pension.
I know Nancy Hall, and some other staff members there from the past who have been EXTREMELY kind and supportive to me many years ago.
I have a Section 8 Portable Housing voucher that I MUST use by August 1 in order to move out of this area to find medical help and to a warm, dry climate--but I need a village of HELP to plan and execute this task. i.e. Much computer research to find medical help in southern areas, a livable Section housing environment, etc.
Now, both talking and typing is hard for me as is writing, walking, or being jostled at all. I am getting very weak--but I have a strong will to remain living independently. I expect to have some money soon available (that is allowed on SSI) to pay for this task--but I need the help to begin very soon.
I live deteriorating, isolated and in pain--and I lost my great HUD apt in 2011-- after five responsible years of tenancy, because I "blew the whistle" on HUD landlord, Matthew Locati, of Terracorpinc--who hired an attorney firm to get rid of me during a "redevelopment sale to Bentall Residential and a 'redevelopment million dollar deal" with the City of Santa Rosa in 2011.
We had serious problems at Windham Village Apts during the five years I lived responsibly there-- that needed reporting--like old apartment furnaces, one that leaked LETHAL levels of CO gas that sent an older female tenant to the hospital in my building of 32 units--An Apartment Fire just down the hall from me that FAILED to trip the building Fire alarm system or the tenants smoke alarm--yet it almost gutted his kitchen and melted the blinds in his Living room, etc.
Locati and his staff-- used Draconian "abuse of power" as managers of their 50 unit complex at Windham Village, and they are still managing it today--tho it was sold and now owned by Bentall Residential of Irvine--and the huge Bentall Kennedy of Canada. I was forced to drop my HUD complaints against Locati due to his bullying, slander about me, harassment,and more. And, (despite a botched regional HUD investigation later)-- Senator Feinstein's staff told me that HUD never lies.
As a Special Education Teacher in Santa Rosa for many years I have learned that--I am the one who got a "special" education about the severe injustice and inhumanity that exists in our country if one dare to report wrongdoing, or gets disabled and impoverished.
My pro-bono attorney in that 2011 HUD case was the multi-millionaire stepson of Charles Schultz, named Attorney, Brooke Clyde. He is on the board as a "Community Leader" for the Center for Family Justice, and he also openly advertises for NUDE models to photograph a website--and instead of "representing me" he bullied me, and threatened to falsely report me to SSI if I did not drop my HUD complaints against HUD landlord Locati. (Clyde was NOT working for me, the impoverished disabled tenant at his part-time job at Sonoma County Legal Aide on Dutton Ave. nor was Attorney Barbara Shirrell(sp?).
Then after they forced me out of my great apartment at Windham Village--"someone" made false reports about me to SSI that forced me into several extended and exhausting SSI reviews--that turned up NOTHING! I finally got Senator Feinstein to make that harassment STOP!
Many dangerous problems were just covered up--and they PAID me MONEY to leave--that I had to legally shelter in a Special Needs Pooled acct. but it was barely enough for me to move on, as disabled as I was.
I have been punished for daring to speak out as a disabled person about many very serious, dangerous problems in our medical system and in our housing system under HUD. Now, I believe perhaps they are winning--and will finally shut me up.
Please see if there is any help you might kindly offer--or ideas. I may have money soon to pay for help that is not within the realm of the IHSS help i need to live my daily life.
"CA teacher/Disabled "patient rights" advocate running out of time!",
2014-04-05 letter to Patient Safety Advocates, and Human Rights/Healthcare Journalists and Legislators:
You Tube Links below-- for Surgically Harmed Disabled CA Patient Advocate/CA Special Educator, Ms. Bobbie Jenke, who will die because Senator Dianne Feinstein and Governor Jerry Brown have sold out to California's ferocious Malpractice Industry.
Despite Bobbie Jane Jenke's pleas for over ten years, her websites asking for help at www.sonic.net/bjj and www.tossurgerynightmare.com and many articles, she has been denied ALL medical evaluations of the medical damage caused by a Sutter Health's 2004 unnecessary Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Surgery paid for by Medicare.
Instead, she has been left by the CA Hospital systems, local physicians, The Doctors Company, Northern CA Medical Associates, federally funded clinics, Sutter Health Hospital Systems, Kaiser Permanente HMO, UCSF, and Stanford's PEARL program, and more to suffer, unevaluated, until Bobbie Jenke, and the medical/surgical damage and criminal harm to her body dies with her.
As of March of 2014 Bobbie has survived ten years of torture, begging doctors for help, while they took her Medicare payments and then denied her access to the very tests and treatments that could help to save or at least improve her life for the time she has left.
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqBQ2FYDwWc]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr2cDzyF9Pw]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpA1CL3Uvfs]
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlwnMu9WFWg]
You Tube video status of Bobbie in September 2013 after her new primary care doctor from Sebastopol Community Health Center, an affiliate of Sutter Health, Dr. Rhonda Berney, in September of 2013 told her she would get NO referrals to specialists for her condition and that she should “just learn to live in her deteriorating body."
The fifty-six year old, prior active, health conscious Jenke, lives with undiagnosed surgical damage from Thoracic Outlet Surgery done at CA Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Health Hospital, with a 1st rib resection by surgeon, Dr. Gaylord James Avery II aka Dr. G. James Avery who abused Bobbie after his surgery failed and damaged her. He paralyzed Bobbie's phrenic nerve for breathing, and Long Thoracic Nerve to the R scapula, cut out her neck muscles, prior neck surgical vascularized fat pad in her R neck, and cut out her first rib.
He did all this without consulting her prior surgeon(s) to see if the risk of his surgery might further damage her. He performed NO diagnostic tests except an exam to see if she even needed his highly invasive surgery. And he lied to Bobbie on paper about all the risks of his surgery. Documents are available that show this. The CA Medical Board reviewed the documents of per-op lies and more, and did nothing to discipline Dr. Avery, clearing him of any wrongdoing. He continued to cut out ribs in this T.O.S. surgeries at CA Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Health Hospital in San Francisco.
Surgically damaged Jenke has been discharged from federally funded Sebastopol Community Health Center, by Director Dr. Jason Cunninghma, after she asked for an MRI to evaluate her vascular system in her neck and surgical damage, and after Dr. Rhonda Berney, a prior longtime Kaiser HMO physician, and prior chief of Palm Drive Hospital, at the clinic abused her at her September 2013 appointment.
Bobbie is left, BLACKLISTED by ALL pulmonologists in her area, and her Oxygen company just sent her a letter denying her any further breathing assistance, despite her surgically paralyzed diaphragm and need for Bipap machine supplies and help, and sometime O2 to sleep at night, and during the day. Bobbie, a NON-Smoker, also now has severe surgically induced respiratory dysfunction and almost died from severe untreated asthma during her last viral cold in March 2014 in which Sebastopol Community Health Center DENIED her a rescue inhaler- and during which the ON CALL doctor of Sebastopol Community Health Center, Dr. Ly hung up on Bobbie. Bobbie Jenke cannot handle any stress, and is physically severely compromised and feels she is being left on purpose to die in Santa Rosa, CA. She feels the large malpractice industry and risk management departments of Sutter and Kaiser prefer her dead, than living proof of their crimes.
Contact info for Bobbie is (707) 546-2879 and P.O. Box 3454 Santa Rosa, CA, and details about Bobbie Jenke are at www.tossurgerynightmare.com and www.sonic.net/bjj This has become extremely urgent.
Before teacher, Bobbie Jane Jenke, was injured by Dr. Avery's TOS surgery in 2004—she was a Kaiser Patient Advocate and in 2001 she helped to Spearhead this Patient Rights Rally in front of Kaiser Permanente her, then, HMO in Santa Rosa, CA. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDu-0EVrbAo].
Shortly after this 2001 peaceful rally for Patient Rights, Bobbie Jenke received a letter from Kaiser Permanente's Dr. Bob Schultz, kicking her out of the Kaiser facility for “complaining too much.” The Department of Managed Health Care simply allowed this to occur.
Despite having Medicare and MediCal Bobbie Jenke cannot find a primary care doctor in Santa Rosa or nearby who will assess her surgical damage of 2004 that is killing her, and causing her to live a tortured life. Neither Governor Brown nor Senator Feinstein, both of whom she contacted several times, will help her survive this surgical/medical crime and threat to her life.
Letter to Senator Feinstein, 2014-03-30 from Ms. Bobbie Jane Jenke:
I am a CA Special Educator who has worked for many years as a Special Education Teacher with a variety of student populations from pre-school through Santa Rosa Junior College. I have worked with students with brain injuries, autism, learning disabilities, communication deficits, developmental disabilities, home and hospital students, as well as developing my own curriculum during summer months to help “learning disabled” grade school students “catch-up” during summer sessions in Santa Rosa and Sonoma County Schools. Prior to that, I worked as an instructional assistant in Sonoma County, while earning my three teaching credentials at Sonoma State University. I paid back all of my student loans prior to getting injured and then disabled.
Before I decided to become a teacher, I was an Interim Health Specialists for Sonoma County Head Start, assisting multicultural, “at-risk” pre-schoolers to get dental, vision and hearing screening by various charitable community physicians and dentists, and I developed various health education programs for parents of “at-risk” youngsters both in Santa Rosa and in Chico, CA, where I earned my B.A. Degree in Community Health Education.
Senator Feinstein, after I was injured by a by a one-time sample treatment by a Sonoma County Rolfer in 1998, which was extremely brutal and harmful to my body, I fell into a trap of substandard treatment at Kaiser Permanente HMO of Santa Rosa. In fact, much the care I received was reckless, and cruelly dismissive—causing me to spend much of my financial savings seeking evaluations and treatments outside of Kaiser HMO.
By the year 2000, I had become so damaged by iatrogenic injury, that I became devoted to the cause of Patient Safety and the enforcement of “Patient Rights” in America today. I knew too many friends and patients who had been harmed by Kaiser HMO Care, and I knew if we did not try to improve “Patient Rights” and “Patient Safety” in this country, we would all be doomed.
Alas, I didn't realize that by using my voice and writings, to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights in the United States of America, to publicly advocate for “patient safety” in America, as a disabled, injured patient myself, I would soon be destroyed, and abandoned by the various Health Care Systems I needed and now urgently need to survive my complex iatrogenic injuries. I also didn't realize that my legislators would forsake me.
I learned how deeply entrenched physicians are with their “for-profit” Hospital Systems and HMOs and with their “profit-driven” wealthy Medical Malpractice Companies at the moral and real expense of sacrificing human lives, like fodder.
All the while, most of these profit-driven companies, and many of their physicians and clinics, receive and abuse taxpayer monies to actually do harm to unsuspecting patients like Jupirena Stein of Stein vs. Kaiser as seen on You Tube, (a once unsuspecting woman of Latina heritage/who learned the hard way about the plight of innocent patients in the United States), and so many other damaged bodies and souls that you can see strewn all over the internet on Patient Safety and Consumer Watchdog websites.
Senator Feinstein, these are real people who went to a doctor or hospital for help, but instead got severely harmed, or killed in the United States of America. Just like me! And after we got injured we learned about the Tort Reform Laws that the AMA tells us we need to make healthcare “affordable,” but which actually only serve to force the taxpayers via our government programs to pay for the carnage our legislators have allowed our Mega-Medical Industry to leave in its path.
Most recently, the medical-corporate maiming and killing of patients is not even covert or secret anymore, as you can see in the letters I've presented here that I received this month, stating they will “cut off” my air supply and medical help, following the DAMAGE that a surgeon of Sutter Health did to me after he grossly misinformed me about all the risks of his surgery.
I could breathe just fine before I was cut open by Dr. G. James Avery of CA Pacific Medical Center, a Sutter Health hospital, and harmed so recklessly. Now I have such severe surgically induced sleep and airway obstruction which over time developed into COPD and asthma so severe that a common cold virus almost killed me last month. During this virus I was refused a rescue inhaler by Dr. Jason Cunningham of Sebastopol Community Health Center, an affiliate of Sutter Health. Did Dr. Cunningham want me to die? Or did Sutter Health's risk management attorneys tell him to do this. After all, a dead damaged patient is better than living proof of the harm they did.
And, after the harm is done to so many of us, these wealthy medical companies once again “cost-shift” the harm they do onto the taxpayers of the United States, who must then support us disabled patients of iatrogenic harm in the form of Medicare, Medicaid, Affordable Care monies, SSI, SSDI, subsidized housing and more. Is this OK with you? If not, what will you do?
I'm sincerely hoping you will take some action to save my life and stop this “sanctioned patient murder” in your state. Who else will stand up for patients struggling to survive iatrogenic injury, disability and death? Our Mega profit-driven Medical Malpractice Industry has no accountability for the maiming and killing of patients, and the Affordable Care Act is NOT going to change this, nor save my life or others. Please! Time to say “ENOUGH!”
Thank you!
Sincerely, [signed] Ms. Bobbie Jane Jenke, age 56, CA Special Educator, Community Health Educator, former teacher's union representative, Disabled by Medical industry crimes and abuse. Proud granddaughter of former MI State Representative, and former MI State Deputy Auditor General, also a teacher, Mr. James Knox Jamison (maternal-side) and proud granddaughter of hard-working Jewish immigrants (paternal-side).
MEGA MEDICAL INDUSTRY GROUPS spending MILLIONS to stop drug and alcohol testing on doctors and surgeons. How would you like your surgeon to have a few drinks before he/she puts a scalpel to your body. YIKES! YES, it happens--and patients pay for it--with their lives. see [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg4tieISE5M] to read a list of doctors and Medical Industry giants paying millions to STOP doctors from having to PEE IN A CUP! If bus drivers are required to do it, why shouldn't a surgeon 'PEE IN A CUP' before he/she cuts on a patient, etc...
---
"Doctors, medical staff on drugs put patients at risk"
2014-04-15 by Peter Eisler from "USA TODAY" [http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/04/15/doctors-addicted-drugs-health-care-diversion/7588401/]:
Anita Bertrand doesn't remember much about the first time she stole narcotics she was supposed to administer to surgical patients. She doesn't remember exactly when she installed the intravenous port in her ankle so she could inject the drugs more efficiently. And she doesn't remember how many patients she may have put at risk before getting into treatment.
But she remembers how easy it was to get away with it.
"I was absolutely impaired, using narcotics while working. … And no one ever noticed," says Bertrand, 49, a nurse anesthetist in Houston. "Did I make mistakes? I don't know, and that's the scary part. I'm not aware of any, but I certainly would not say I was immune to that."
America's prescription drug epidemic reaches deep into the medical community. Across the country, more than 100,000 doctors, nurses, technicians and other health professionals struggle with abuse or addiction, mostly involving narcotics such as oxycodone and fentanyl. Their knowledge and access make their problems especially hard to detect. Yet the risks they pose — to the public and to themselves — are enormous.
A single addicted health care worker who resorts to "drug diversion," the official term for stealing drugs, can endanger thousands. Nearly 8,000 people in eight states needed hepatitis tests after David Kwiatkowski, an itinerant hospital technician, was caught injecting himself with patients' pain medicine and refilling the syringes with saline. He infected at least 46, mostly in New Hampshire.
It was the third hepatitis outbreak since 2009 linked to a health care worker using patients' syringes (the others were in Denver and Jacksonville, Fla). And for each of those worst-case scenarios, there are countless more practitioners whose drug-related errors are more isolated — a botched surgery, an incorrect dose of medication, a worrisome vital sign missed.
Much of the damage goes unnoticed or undocumented; oversight mechanisms to detect, report and address drug problems in health care settings are haphazard and limited. Still, a USA TODAY review of state and federal records identified hundreds of cases in recent years in which physicians and other health care practitioners were disciplined or prosecuted for drug diversion or other medical misconduct related to substance abuse.
The toll also can be brutal for the medical professionals who suffer with addiction — often in high-stress jobs with little help. Many struggle with guilt and despair, physical and mental health ills, and indifferent professional environments. Last year, New York's Supreme Court ruled that a hospital was not liable for the overdose death of a physician who, after returning from drug rehabilitation, was given operating room duty, where she had ready access to the propofol that killed her.
"Drug diversion affects so many people, and the systems for dealing with it are completely broken," says Lauren Lollini, 45, who was infected with hepatitis C in the Denver outbreak and now works with HONOReform, a patient safety group.
Bertrand, who returned to practice after treatment, now counsels other health care professionals with drug problems.
"The medical community thinks it's immune from this disease, but that's not true," says Bertrand, who had no history of drug use until she got hooked on pain medication after an abdominal surgery. "There are so many practitioners working impaired and we have no idea. ... We're doing a terrible job addressing this problem."
"See difficulty patients have in believing the BRUTALITY of our carefully engineered defensive Mega Medical Industry that will KILL patients to protect!"
2014-04-25 report from Bobbie Jenke:
I saw Dr. Rhonda Berney at that Sebastopol Clinic twice -- Aug and Sept 2013. I made it clear to her on a written intro of me and summary I gave her about who i was, what I'd been thru and what I hoped for in a physician.
She thought it was GREAT! and we got along fine--at the 1st appt. And she collected her Medicare money for that appt and the second one.
However, at my second appt.--she was totally different. She acted like she HATED me!!! (I did not know she was a former Kaiser doc. til AFTER i looked her up MUCH later)....She told me at my second appt. in front of my caregiver---that I would NEVER get referrals to any more specialists, and that I should just learn to LIVE in my deteriorating body.
I was actually in SHOCK! I had been friendly and professional, and she came in the exam room this way--standing in the doorway--as if i was too contaminated for her to enter the room.
So, I Called Dept of Health Services in Sonoma County--and told them I was being "DENIED care" out at Sebastopol Community Health Center.
They basically did NOTHING--and later told me they had NO POWER to make any doctor order tests or refer any patient to specialists.
However, I thought maybe, Dr. Jason Cunningham--who was now director of all 3 West County clinics--MIGHT help me, as he had seen me just as a D.O., at one of the clinics in 2006(repeatedly)-and he seemed like a really nice guy.--that is the letter you see on that Northbayrising website from him dated 2006. He was kind to me, back then--and did a few things that attempted to try to help me. (Minimal tho)
So, i finally thought I'd set up an appt to go back to Sebastopol Community Health Center where he worked also now, and also acted as director of all 3 West Co clinics.
Beforehand, I had asked for an apology re this Dr. Rhonda Berney's prior behavior--or at least and explanation of her abuse toward me. It NEVER came, prior to my appt with Cunningham, as I had asked for and hoped for. I realized then --that Dr. Cunningham would NOT go against Dr. Berney--cuz I read up on Dr. Berney and she used to be DIRECTOR at Palm Drive Hospital in Sebastopol--and she had 13 years PRIOR exp. at Kaiser, probably learning to DENY care to patients.
I knew any appt at that clinic would probably be a "set up" for MORE Abuse--so I cancelled the appt. in PLENTY of time ahead.--also my caregiver was unavailable as I thought she was going with.
I don't think it is legal for a federally funded clinic to DISCHARGE a patient for ONE timely cancellation (more than 24 hrs in advance) of an appt. This is politics of x- Kaiser docs--who are all over Sebastopol clincs, etc. spreading bad rumors about me--and, ESPECIALLY, the fact that this Sebastopol clinic is affiliated with Sutter Health!! It's always about the MONEY and BLAME--i.e. DEFENSIVE medicine of HUGE malpractice companies affiliated with these HUGE hospital systems. I had done an IN PRO PER lawsuit against Dr. AVERY and Sutter Health for his mutilation of me in San Francisco. I was too disabled--and had no attorney due to TORT REFORM laws in CA-that cap. non-economic damages--and so unless one is REALLY rich it is nearly IMPOSSiBLE to find a malpractice attorney in CA. The case got dismissed--but at least I filed it in the SF Superior Crt to document the DAMAGE I incurred by whom and where. I believe that is important!!Sutter Health is the HOSPITAL SYSTEM that INJURED ME with TOS surgery in S.F. in 2004--aka CA Pacific Medical Center-- a Sutter Hospital. Sutter Health is one of the LARGEST hospital chains in No. CA and Central Valley area--I think.
Do you think they WANT to diagnose their OWN surgical injuries from one of their old surgeons from their own hospital network--who a patient made a legal CLAIM against for harming me so badly?
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