Gripes, questions, victories and ideas--if it's about the ADA it goes here.
Posted on: Mon, Jun 23 2008 1:46 AM
Posted by: galed7956 Posts: 3
I know what your saying and the only way I can figure is to get an attorney that you haven't talked to that deals in Malpractice. You have to start over again with a new direction. This is the only thing I can figure you can do. You also have to realize the UPENN is a huge hospital with a lot of pull. Everything in this Country is POLITCALLY MOTIVATED. You have a huge job in front of you and getting knocked off by doing what you just suggested to me would be an item in the paper one day and the only people who would remember are the people that love you. Do you thing the the UPENN would even read the article and if they did would it matter to them? All they would think is that they have nothing to worry about anymore. I hate to say this but you have to play dirty like they do. I got screwed by the hospital that I always stay in but putting me in a room with a contagious patient knowing that I have a non-existent immune system and then becasue of that picking up the Herpes Simplex 1&2 virus could have caused total organ breakdown so I have to sue on grounds of Medical Malpractice. The way you describe what happened to you and considering the people you have to fight you might have to make a fresh start and start out with a Malpractice Suit. Everyone involved will be in that suit - even the police dept. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain if you want someone to pay for what happened to you and you should get pay back. That was unecessary, cruel, and it endangered your life. I almost died 3 times and two of those times they were ready to ship me to the morgue. Believe me I know how you feel!!! But you have to take a different direction and keep coming up with other ways because you are at a dead end. God Bless and I have you in my prayers. Everything will work out in the end but you have to remember you have a big fight ahead and you have to play dirty like they do. I have one more suggestion before I totally sign off. Get a small tape recorder. When you go anywhere and your going to get nto a situation turn it on an put it in a pocket or something so they won't see it. I had to do this and it helps immensly. Just because we're handicapped and chronically ill we're not any more special than anyone else - I'm not saying that but that is the general rule of thumb anymore. Take care. galed7956
Posted on: Tue, Jul 1 2008 4:04 AM
I read the e-mail that you sent about the parapallegic being dumped out of his wheelchair and what happened after that. It's a sad situation in this country today even for totally disabled people and I am one of them. If I cross the street with my scooter and there are two cars way down the street they will speed up on purpose (it seems) just to see if they can catch me and even if I am all the way across the street someone will yell something foul out the window because he had to push on the brake for a second. The speed limit on that street is 25 and my scooter goes 5 miles per hour tops and it's a 2 lane street and they are way up at the end of the road. This is happening to all of us - well and sick people alike but I tend to think they think that the sick people are an easy target. How many times have I called someone to ask a question or something and they are screaming at me. There is too much pressure in our society and a bad attitude in our country. Unfortunately to get respect anymore someone like me and you who really shouldn't a) get upset b) live arguing or fighting because someone did something to harm us or do damage to us even though we have suffered enough c)seem to think they can get away with anything when they see someone sick or disabled. I wrote a editorial in the newspaper about the gas "crisis" and how we have some other alternatives other than Oil and it's by-products to use and should really try using them and got nothing but negative and sarcastic answers back. I should expect this because the people in this country are very negative because of the was the situation is and has been here since 2001 and the current administration came into office. Seems everyone is taking their stress and anger out on everyone else. I have been going to the same hospital for the past 24 years and have been there and average of 4 times a year since then. Most of those times were relapses from the MS and what the disease caused and then pneumonia and lung problems along with cronic pain. I have so many problems stemming from the MS I am sure I could list a shorter list of what I haven't had compared to what I have had. But beginning last June they started putting contagious patients in the rooms with non-contagious patients and one was me. I asked many questions last June because of my non-existent immune system from the 80 some admissions and the steroid use during each one of them. They gave me a mask and a container of foam for my hands but yet I couldn't find out what the woman that was contagious had because she couldn't speak english. So this past January they did it to me again and this time I saved her life by pushing off her contagious waste bins because I was in a wheelchair and had to do that to get the nurses right away since she was laying flat and her lungs were filling up with fluid because she had congestive heart failure. I barely saved her life but because they were gloving and masking for her and I had to push off her bins two days after I was discharged I came down with a 101.8 fever and was re-admitted in the hospital with Herpes Simplex 1&2 and I never had even 1 cold sore on my lip from a cold in my life. The doctor who found it in my lungs when he scoped them told me that I had gotten it in the hospital becasue I had never had it before and they found it in my lungs. He won't sign a letter to the effect that I didn't have it prior to January and I have asked him several times. I asked my internest if he could write me a letter stating this and he agreed but I haven't heard a thing. I turned everything including the journal entries I was writing then (thank God I was doing that because there is a lot of stuff in that journal I was so sick and going through a Hell I had never experienced before) so even without the letter I am hoping I have a case. I haven't heard from the Attorney yet and I dropped the papers off last week. I am not trying to get rich quick because if I wanted to do that I could have sued Phyzier when I had the flu shot in 1984 that caused me to get the MS. (At that point I wouldn't have won because they were a huge drug company with many high priced attorneys so I didn't even try it). But this one I can't take because it shouldn't have hapenned. Just like what happened to you was unjust in every way. I could have died from total organ breakdown and could still die from the herpes if I happen to get a bad eye infection which I could cause. But I try to wake up every morning with a good attitude and the attitude also that no one is going to get away with anything with me that is not right. You have to realize that the society that we live in now is very depressed and overworked plus feeling the effects of something that they think is out of their control. We as a country don't seem to have any guts like back when the Vietnam War was happening and everyone was protesting something that they didn't believe in. For some reason people now are apt to complain to each other and then just change the subject then watch the boob tube. But I live with a couple of theories that I have learned and one is that I wake up in the morning with a good attitude and a smile on my face because life is too short and also I have learned the basic lesson that even though things couldn't look worse at times for each of us everything works out in the end. Maybe this is another route you could go. Did you get in touch with a reporter about what happened? They would probably be interested in breaking open a story of abuse about U of PENN. Why don't you call them and tell them you heard that something happened to someone on the night that you ended up in the emergency room and tell them your story as a spectator and ask them if they are interested in hearing what happened there? That is another way you could get headlines and then help. I bet someone in the press would like some juicy negative malpractice info about them. That would be another way to go about it and also what I suggested. But this country definately is not nice to disabled people. Don't get me wrong there are a lot of people out there that would help yet and give a damn about people like us. You have to hope and faith that God is there (I'm not pushing religion by any means but you have to believe in yourself and something else or nothing will get resolved - I know that if I didn't believe in God and what I am capable of doing and the fact that no matter what the situation I figure out how to handle it) you won't get anywhere. Life is a battle unfortunnately and it's that way for disabled people also. We are thrown in with everyone else sick or well and have to fight our own battles besides. So I don't know if you have any relatives or any help - friends, etc. but maybe you should write a letter to a reporter or an editorial that people can read and maybe you might get some kind of reaction. All I can do is come up with some suggestions and try to help you resolve what is unfortunately happening to all of us. We have to do what is necessary to solve what happens and handle it the way we see fit. Take care and thanks for sending the article. I hope that guy got every excuse plus more from those people. That never should have happened to him, what happened to you shouldn't have happened to you shouldn't have and also the same for me - it's called a breach of our civil rights. Take care and keep in touch. galed
Posted on: Tue, Jul 1 2008 9:02 AM
Posted by: TriDog Posts: 1,897
brodie,
Are you looking for an attorney that is free? Are you willing to pay for an attorney? I can't understand why any private attorney wouldn't take the case.
Posted on: Tue, Jul 1 2008 1:38 PM
Posted by: brodie Posts: 77
ide be lucky to rub two dimes together with the abuse i take on,,,just holds my goals back,,,theres no way you folks are disabled,if so-youd understand
Posted on: Tue, Jul 15 2008 11:01 AM
Posted by: LadyNavyVet Posts: 43
I am familular with UPMC, and I am very surprised by your account. I have been in their ER when my daughter was sick, and I was thoughly impressed by them. I have a question for you, of all the lawyers you have been in contact with, did any of them look into your case before they declined to represent you in this matter? As a former Philly resident I know for a fact they have more than their fair share of personal injury lawyers in that city, and surounding area.
Posted on: Tue, Jul 15 2008 11:30 AM
I'm surprised any attorney won't take this. Of course, there is always the possibility that we are not getting the whole story here.
Posted on: Tue, Jul 15 2008 11:57 AM
Posted by: ShimasChild Posts: 248
Something doesn't smell right to me, and TriDog is correct, we aren't getting the whole story. I cannot imagine any lawyer not wanting to jump on a case like this, unless there is something really off or missing from this story. However, having said that, I've also got to say that there has been a lot of hospital hanky-panky going on lately, as well as some jailhouse stuff that appalles me. First, you must ask for copies of your medical records for that particular visit. I cannot understand why, if you have had a recorded number of visits there for your seizures, why in Heavens name they treated you in such a manner. But first have your records for that day. Then appraoch a lawyer who does medical malpractice suits. If all is as you say it is, then they made a huge mistake. Why a rent-a-cop was allowed around a seizing adult for any reason is beyond me. (I was a rent-a-cop 25 years ago at a hospital. We were not allowed to be within ten feet of a seizing patient!) I also can't understand why any lawyer worth his sheepskin would deny seeing into this case, especially since the evidence will be easy to get. I'm sure that particular hospital has security cameras in the area you were in.
It also doesn't make a lot of sense to bring up other cases such as someone being dumped out of their wheelchair in another incident. Stick to what happened to you, and make a list of witnesses. You'll need them, since you were in the middle of having a seizure and the fog after, so your memory may not be the best. Good luck.
Posted on: Tue, Jul 15 2008 1:16 PM
Posted by: shellGVchick Posts: 1,261
TriDog his story has changed time and time again. Even in the chat room one day many tried to help, and it went around in circles and his story changed several times. I suspect he can't get an attorney because of that same reason.
Most Active Users
These are the users who are most active on our forums.
rainey826
squabwithfibro
sandyfreytag
Lynn
BMWgirl
