October 4, 2010

Deb:

You can hate me as much as you want, you can try as hard as you like to shut me out of Linda's life, and you can let your anger at me get the best of you, but will never get me to stop loving her or trying to get her out of the terrible place you have left her alone in with no one to defend her against the awful doctors who keep hurting her. The fact you feel justified in abandoning her there for days at a time when it is NOT my fault they threw me out of there is completely illogical. They had already decided not to let me back in when they sent me away. My coming back to say goodbye to her and let her know I had not abandoned her had nothing to do with the outcome. The hospital had already decided to throw me out because I tried to expose their incompetence to the press.

They are the bad guys not me. And now you have chosen to be on their side and try to freeze me out of Linda's life. If they kill her it will be your fault for abandoning her to their whims and dismal treatment. They could have done a pleurodesis but waited so long to even think about it that now they say she is too sick to tolerate the procedure. And you let them get away with such awful medical care that you know is bad, when you are a trained nurse. Worse than that, you assist them in depriving Linda of the watchful eye of the only person in the world who ever cared enough about her and how she was being treated to spend 24 hours a day seven days a week in the room with her. You helped them justify throwing me out by making yourself available as a power of attorney when you knew you could not live up to the fiduciary obligations imposed by that position because you won't stay there with her to speak for when she can't speak, and you are just too afraid of her doctors to stand up to them and tell then NO when that is what Linda wants and what needs to be done.

You have screwed things up so badly your sister will probably not survive to ever leave that place, and you are going to let her die there without me or anyone else in the room to comfort her at the end because you won't stand up to their bullying and insist that they let me back in. Don't give me the load of crap Chuck has been trying to feed me about how well Linda is progressing. As long as she can't breathe on her own Tector will never let her go because he is on the Blue Cross gravy train and all he cares about is the money. Everyone at I U Hospital including the risk management people, the care managers and the lawyer is afraid to go against what Tector says because he is the billion dollar a year cash cow for that hospital. You know all of this is true, yet you continue to take their side against me. So be it.

You have earned my hatred, and you have it. You choose not to respond to my reasonable requests for information about how Linda is doing, because you are afraid of the hospital and what they have threatened you with, though they have no legal basis whatsoever for making such threats. You are useless to me and to Linda and once she recovers, if they don't kill her, she will realize that. Try with all your might to turn Linda against me and you may succeed, but it will not be good for her. Hate me all you like, you are in no position to care for her for the rest of her life with me out of the picture, but that's what you will have to do if you succeed in turning her against me as you are very clearly trying to do by cooperating with the hospital in its attempt to cut me off from all communication with her and about her.

I don't care what you may think of me. I don't care what anyone but Linda thinks of me. If I hear from her lips that she wants me out of her life, I will go. Otherwise, I will continue fighting for what I know is right whether it means you never get to see her again, Chuck never gets to see her again, or whatever other terrible consequences they threaten you with. Consequences are coming for those awful people, and soon. I have already initiated a criminal investigation into their interference with my get well cards mailed to Linda, which is a federal crime. If you are part of it and end up in jail because of that, tough.

I have initiated lawyer discipline proceedings against Michele Calderon Johns because she knows there are no guardianship court orders, no domestic violence court orders, and no criminal no contact court orders, and yet she continues to permit hospital supervisors to lie to nurses, other caregivers and visitors about the existence of such orders. I am right now in the process of studying about how to proceed with a disciplinary complaint against Dr. Tector's medical license for his failures in Linda's care and treatment, and his complicity in illegally interfering with my right to communicate with my wife. I will not rest until he is no longer permitted to practice medicine. I will go after all the other doctors who have hurt Linda as well.

I have already complained to the Joint Commission about I U Hospital's abuses in Linda's case and against me, and I will continue to add to that case as additional information comes to my attention, and sooner or later it will all come to my attention, whether you tell me about it or not. Lawsuits are the least of their worries now. I will not rest until I U Hospital loses its accreditation.

You will end up being a witness in many of these proceedings because you will be subpoenaed to testify. You will be a defendant in the court case regarding the validity of my health care power of attorney for Linda, especially if you continue refusing to provide me a copy of the "new" power the hospital keeps telling people Linda has signed excluding me. After all the other lies those people have told me and others about mythical court proceedings and orders of protection, I have no reason whatsoever to believe such a document exists until I see it with my own eyes. Besides, I know Linda signed it under duress, if she signed any such paper at all. The least you could do is fax a copy to me, if it is real, so we can peacefully go to court to determine it's validity. The truth will come out eventually, and you told Chuck at first there was no such document, so you lied about it to someone at some point in time.

If you think I am going to let any of this go without litigation, criminal investigation where warranted, and professional licensing discipline, you are dreaming. I will not stop until everyone who has participated in keeping me separate from Linda for such a long time is punished to the full extent possible. That means your nursing license is in peril as well. For you to sit by and watch those incompetent doctors and nurses continue hurting your sister when you are duty bound as her fiduciary to prevent that sort of thing is a liability you took on voluntarily, and for which you will pay dearly. The standard of conduct for you, as a nurse, is even higher than it would be for someone without training in the healing arts in a similar position. It will be my life's work from here on out to professionally destroy everyone who has had a part in this travesty, you included. Your refusal to even respond to my simple requests for information about my wife is intolerable and unforgivable. I have taken all I can of the isolation, bullying and intimidation you and the hospital have been dishing out. You will all pay, and pay dearly.

Now, even if Linda herself, who neither you or the hospital will even permit to call me on the phone, or me to call her, were to ask me to stop fighting this injustice, I would not stop. You and those around you at I U Hospital have had weeks and weeks to bully her into doing what you think she should be doing instead of what she wants done. I know, because that is what started all of this. She wanted to be let to die in peace, and you and the other right wing religious fanatics down there in the heart of the Bible Belt who kept telling me "Jesus doesn't want your wife to die" have done everything you can to browbeat her into continuing to suffer rather than letting her go peacefully as she made me promise long ago I would help her do when the time came and she chose hospice rather than all the torture you have put her through during the last several weeks. I heard you tell Linda and Pattie "I'm the witch in all this," and that is the last time I heard the truth pass your lips. I knew from the time Linda wanted to die at Northwestern and you didn't want to let her go that there would be a battle royal over this should the situation arise again, and it has and there is. You will have to kill me to get me to stop fighting you and everyone else on this.

I hope you are fully prepared. I am.

October 4, 2010

Well we have reached a new low point in relations with Indiana University Hospital. Now they are returning my get well cards to Linda marked “Undeliverable as addressed – Unable to forward”  despite the fact the envelopes have exactly the same address as on the dozens of cards I opened from all of you when I was in the same room with her that she is in now before they bodily threw me out. I am so angry I phoned the postal inspector and they have opened a criminal investigation in the matter. Interfering with delivery of the mail is a federal crime.

Also, since they have chosen to go down to this level, I am submitting an ethics complaint to the Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission against the hospital’s lawyer who still allows the supervisors there to tell nurses, respiratory therapists and visitors that there are court orders of guardianship regarding Linda and court orders of protection against me when in fact according to my review of the probate and criminal dockets in Marion County, there has never been such an order entered at any time. As for orders of protection, there are none against me anywhere in the State of Indiana. It is utterly unethical for a lawyer to misrepresent a court order’s existence or contents, and even if the original statements to nurses and visitors were the result of “miscommunication” or “misunderstanding” of some sort, the lawyer is ethically obliged to correct the misrepresentation by his or her client once it is brought to the lawyer’s attention, as I did in writing four times to the hospital attorney – copies attached as exhibits to my ethics complaint. Fight fire with fire, I say.

Linda has been back on the ventilator ever since the September 23 botched thoracotomy, and can’t talk for herself, so Deb is back in charge, and when I got the cards back and called to her to see if that meant Linda had been transferred, she never returned the call, though she did return the call from the Blue Cross case manager right away this afternoon. I had to call RML myself to find out Linda was not there, and then had to call Blue Cross to find out she is still at I U Hospital. Now I U Hospital tells Blue Cross there is a new health care power of attorney for Deb alone, but the hospital refused to sent it to Blue Cross, hence the call to Deb to get it from her. I believe they are lying about that too. But, if it exists, I have never seen it and couldn’t say whether or not it purports to revoke the one in my favor, so I don’t really know if Deb has exclusive power or not. Guess I’ll have to go to court here and seek guardianship of Linda. At least if there is a new document, that action will flush it out.

As soon as I have a couple grand I can spare for court filing fees I’m going to get appointed Linda’s guardian and then go to federal court in Indianapolis for a writ of habeas corpus. I’m through letting those bullies push me around just because they get away with this most of the time. They behave imperiously with total disregard for human decency, then they wonder why people come barging into their hospital with guns blazing. They have nothing to blame but their own chutzpah.

I will not be finished with my crusade until Tector has lost his medical license, Michele J. Calderon Johns has lost her law license, Indiana University Hospital has lost its accreditation, and the nurse supervisor who keeps telling lies about court orders of protection has lost her nursing license. And, if I can figure out how to do it, I’m going to get Deb’s nursing license taken away as well. She has no right to participate in this conspiracy on their side.

They all have fucked with the wrong fat old white guy this time!

September 30, 2010

Here’s the latest information I have on Linda, no thanks to Chuck or Debbie who refused to pass along the fact that the doctors at Indiana University Hospital have nearly killed my wife once again last week!

On September 23, 2010, Dr. Tector decided Linda needed a thoracotomy, due to the fact that her pleural effusions had consolidated and become so thick that they wound not drain through her chest tubes. On Monday, September 27, 2010, the surgeons discovered that Linda was bleeding into her lungs as a result of their surgery the preceding Wednesday, and they had to reopen her chest to stop the bleeding. As of yesterday, she was still on drugs to keep her blood pressure up because she lost so much blood as a result of the botched chest surgery.

Blue Cross/Blue Shield is cutting off Dr. Tector’s gravy train now, denying any further payment to IU Hospital after today since BC/BS has determined through its case manager for Linda’s care, that Linda would be much better off at RML, as we have been contending for many weeks now. She may be transferred there as soon as next week, since BC/BS and RML both have everything in place for the transfer except Dr. Tector’s discharge order, which he might sign now that he can’t get paid for holding Linda hostage any longer. Of course, Tector will say Linda isn’t stable enough to be transferred yet, and he will argue she needs to stay in Indianapolis longer under his care.

Just so BC/BS has all the ammunition they need to pressure Tector to let Linda go, I’m going to send her whole history to the case manager at BC/BS, because when I spoke to her she obviously was not aware of how abusive Tector and his crew have been towards Linda, and towards me. Maybe now those facts will have some weight.

Say a prayer for us!

September 22, 2010

Chuck:

I'm not "raging on the internet." I'm merely reporting the true facts about all the ways doctors and nurses at I U Hospital have hurt and continue to hurt my wife. I have not said a single thing in any of my e-mail to friends and family that was not the truth. If Debbie chooses to share these private messages with hospital staff then she is on their side, not on Linda's side or my side. Every one of my e-mails has a statement on the bottom that it is intended only for the individual recipients. Debbie's decision to share them with hospital personnel is an illegal violation of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, for which she will eventually have to answer.

The hospital's portrayal of me as a violent and abusive person is libelous and false and done for the express purpose of justifying their decision to cut off communication between us about her care and all the mistakes they continue to make, which are preventing her from getting better. I am confident Linda told them I have never been abusive towards her, and they know I have not. If they really thought I was they would have gone to court and obtained an order of protection, which they have never done and which they have no basis for doing and they know that. Everyone who knows and loves Linda depends on me to tell them how she is faring, since no one in my family, or among our friends, except you, Debbie and Richard, is allowed to call and get information about her, or to visit her - not even our kids. I U Hospital is only trying to protect the reputation of its transplant program and to keep the truth from coming out in public. They know I have reported their abuses to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals. They know I have told newspaper and TV reporters about everything that is happening, and they are angry because they can't stop me from telling the truth. The only weapon they have is cutting off communication between me and Linda, and they don't care who gets hurt in the process.

Well, now they are shooting themselves in the foot, because their intransigence is going to cost Linda one of her two health insurance coverages, and they aren't going to get paid for their services any more. Maybe that will help then decide to let her go somewhere else. When it happens, they will have no one to blame but themselves. I can't help her with this issue if I can't communicate with her about it. Richard just brushes it off by telling me "Once Linda is off your COBRA, she will qualify for the new ICHIP program until she gets Medicare," like that's a good replacement for the double coverage she has from BC/BS now.

No one wants to take responsibility for helping Linda solve this issue, but nobody wants to let me help, either.

It's up to you whether you want to shut me out of Linda's life now. I can't stop you if that is your decision. Whether you tell me what is going or not, I will eventually find out in the court proceedings, and the world will know because everything in court is public. As for any conspiracy between us, I never meant to imply any such thing. I merely reported what you told me, and drew my own conclusions from the obvious facts. You and Debbie both insist Linda is getting better, yet after all these months she still can't breathe on her own, and no one will do anything to stop the pleural effusions. If they don't fix that soon, Linda will die, and everyone inside and outside IU Hospital knows it. Yet, they won't allow her to be transferred to the one place near here that specializes in just such problems.

I don't have enough information from Debbie, from you, or from anyone else to know whether Linda still loves me or not. No matter, because I still love her, and no one will ever stop me from doing everything I can within my power to help her get out of that awful place. It will be up to her to tell me, once that happens, whether or not she still wants me in her life.

I have never threatened anyone at I U Hospital with anything violent - I only told them they were going to get sued, and they knew that anyway. In fact, on more than one occasion Dr. Tector told me to go ahead and sue him. He pretended that it has never happened to him before, but a review of the state claims database in Indiana indicates he has been sued multiple times before he ever got involved with Linda, so he is no stranger to the process.

The people at that hospital are so full of shit when it comes to respecting what their own brochure says are patient rights, and they lie to their own employees about guardianship and orders of protection, that I don't trust any of them about a single thing. Then even wrote lies about me in their own hospital chart, before they threw me out of there. I pointed them out to Dr. Tector, and he acknowledged they were false, but refused to change the record and tried to blame it on the fact that the doctor who dictated the operative report, who was not even in the building when what he described was supposed to have happened, was dictating in a "second language." Horse manure!

They are cooking up all this garbage about me being violent and abusive just to discredit my testimony in the lawsuit they know is coming. They have nothing at all to back it up. They can't stand the fact that someone knowledgeable and intelligent is looking over their shoulder, and calling them out for their mistakes. It sickens me that they have pressured you into becoming an apologist for what you say is good care for Linda. The reason they have been so abusive to me is an attempt to intimidate me into silence as well. It won't work.

The only reason the hospital feels like people who tell me the truth about what is going on are "spies" is because they have so much about the inadequacies of their doctors and their program to hide from the world. They hate me because I know how to make them give up the truth. Dr. Tector tried to pretend he had never seen a code sheet until I showed him Linda's. Bullshit. He has had to sign off on a lot of other charts with code sheets in them long before this. What pissed him off was the fact I told the press about what happened to Linda, and a television medical beat reporter called him and asked him questions about it. Now the Joint Commission is asking him about it, too.

For Linda's sake and for the sake of all the other patients in the TICU there, somebody has to tell the world what goes on there every day. Feeding tubes clogged because the wrong formula is given to the patient. Happened to Linda three times in one day, and who knows how many more times after they kicked me out. Nurses screwing up the IV tubing connections so an entire bag of IV antibiotic runs out onto the hospital room floor before anyone notices the mistake. Happened to Linda two days in a row before they kicked me out, and who knows how many times more since then. Even if they don't write down these facts in the nursing notes, the pharmacy records will tell the story when you look at why an entire bag of medication was "wasted" and had to be replaced within half an hour of being dispensed.

Do they think I'm too stupid to figure this stuff out? NO. They know I can do it, and that's why they are afraid of me, not because they believe I am a violent person. The only thing they really are afraid of is that the world will find out the truth about the deficiencies of their transplant program.

Just so you know, I'm not sending this to Debbie or anyone else but you. I only sent you the e-mail about Linda's insurance in the hope you could motivate Debbie to get some help from the hospital social workers to solve this, since Richard shows no interest in doing anything to help other than shunting Linda off to ICHIP - one of the worst insurance programs in the whole country - and just letting her lose the double coverage she has now, so she will have deductibles and co-pays on all her care and all her prescriptions for the rest of her life. 

I can't do anything to help if no one will let me communicate with Linda. So, as I said in my e-mail, unless Debbie and Richard are going to resign their powers of attorney, the two of them bear the legal responsibility for fixing this in the very best way possible, or paying the financial losses Linda and I suffer for the rest of our lives as the result of their failure. I didn't put them in this position, they took on the responsibility voluntarily. However, I am completely serious about holding them to their fiduciary responsibilities to Linda under the circumstances. I will help if they will let me, but without communication to find out what Linda needs and wants I can do nothing. Or, they can both resign their powers of attorney and I will take back the responsibility myself, and then the hospital will have a legal obligation to deal directly with me whether they like it or not. And, I will enforce that obligation in court if I need to.

I'm only saying all of this to you because I expect you will tell both Debbie and Richard how serious I am about it, and then they will have to decide what to do soon, while there is still time left to take action before Linda's coverage runs out at the end of October. Once that happens, she will never get decent insurance coverage again for as long as she lives. I hope the two of them are up to the task. I know neither of them has been as willing to fight for what Linda needs as I have. I don't know about Richard, but I am reasonably certain Debbie has no errors and omissions insurance coverage which will protect her if she falls down on the job. Her precious state employee pension fund will end up paying for her sister's health care for the rest of Linda's life, or until the State of Illinois employee pension fund goes broke, whichever comes first. I won't be shy about pursuing her for every dime.

These are not threats, there are merely statements of fact concerning the responsibilities and obligations Richard and Debbie took on when they decided to butt in and take over.

The difference between your position and my position in all this is you are still allowed to see Linda, so the hospital still has leverage over you. There is nothing left they can take away from me except Linda's life, and they do seem pretty intent on doing that, too. So, I am free to spread the truth about what is happening to her, since she and I have nothing more to lose by doing that.

I really do mean to get moving as soon as tomorrow on this health insurance coverage problem, alone or with all the help I can muster. However, I'm not taking anyone's word about what Linda wants done in this regard except Linda's. If I can’t get that from her, those who are legally responsible for sorting out the situation will have to be left to their own devices, and to full responsibility for their acts, errors and omissions in that regard.

 I'm not sending this to Debbie, so no one at the hospital will see what I have said to you. However, please pass along to her and to Richard as much of this as you see fit, in an effort to help Linda get the insurance she desperately needs. Otherwise, we will lose our home, what little money we have left, Linda's and my future social security benefits, and everything either of us is likely to earn in the future while she lives. Be assured I will spend the rest of my life pursuing everyone responsible for the loss.

September 21, 2010

Jim:

     I did tell each of you all the information that either of you shared with me regarding Linda's condition each and every contact I had with her.  I understand that you need to fight for your wife in every way possible.  Why when you knew that all your e-mails were being shared with hospital personnel would you have made it seem that I was colluding with you to find fault with the doctors and nurses at the hospital.  I don't understand and almost cost me the privilege of getting to see Linda. I am one of the few people at this time who can give the time and has the resources to visit her.  Your last e-mail before the insurance issue made it seem like I was a spy trying to find out ways to lay blame on the hospital.  I don't understand why you felt the need to share all this information.  The tirades against the hospital didn't need to be shared with everyone.  You are viewed there as a dangerous possibly violent person who may do harm to the staff.  I don't care if you think this is ridiculous it is their perception and after the recent shooting of a surgeon, the patient and her son they had the police at the hospital.  Linda was questioned by the police regarding her safety and possible spousal abuse.  Don't quote me on this and then send it out to everyone.

            Deb was told it was apparent she was sharing information with someone and that that person was me. They were being reluctant to share anything even with Deb over the phone.  She feared that they would take guardianship of Linda and restrict her access as well.  If you think that I would jeopardize my chance to provide Linda with a little company to ease her isolation and encourage her just so you can rage on the internet then you don't know me very well. 

Chuck

September 21, 2010

Chuck:

It's clear to me now from your message that the only reason for the communication embargo on me is to keep me from finding out facts which continue to prove how badly the folks at I U Hospital continue to perform when it comes to Linda's care and treatment, and not because they think my talking to her would be bad for her health, or because she doesn't want to talk to me. She has never said to me, or even to you, that she doesn't want to talk to me.

I will eventually find out everything they have done to hurt her, and your refusing to tell me what is going on won't help them at all. You originally told both me and Debbie that you would not withhold anything from either of us, and you have apparently told her everything I said to you, to which I never have had any objection. Now, Linda is going to lose her health insurance forever because no one there at the hospital, and not Debbie, and now not you, will help facilitate communication with Linda about the problem. It IS a horrible mess, and would require a lot of cooperation to solve. However, I suppose when IU Hospital stops getting paid they will let Linda out.

I'm sorry you feel I misquoted you, or put you in the middle of my fight with IU Hospital. I never made it a secret from you or from them that I thought they nearly killed Linda on five different occasions before they threw me out. In fact, Dr. Tector himself admitted to me that those things should not have happened to her. Well, as you can see I have put everyone on notice today that if continuing to cut me out of communication with Linda causes her to lose health coverage for the rest of her life, it will be Richard, Debbie, IU Hospital Dr. Tector, Cindy DeBord and Michele Johns who are responsible for all the resulting financial losses. I can't help solve the problem like I would like to if no one will communicate with me.

I didn't create this nightmare, the hospital did when they lied to me to get me out of the building and then sent armed men out to tell me I could never go back to see Linda again. Despite all our differences, Tector and I were getting along fine right up until that moment. I don't understand why health care workers believe they should not be subject to being watched and reported on when they screw up. No one else has that kind of absolute right to control all the information about their job performance, and there's nothing godlike or particularly more worthy about doctors and nurses. They are human just like the rest of us and they ought to be able to acknowledge that they make mistakes and their mistakes hurt and kill people. But they aren't.

So, I'm sorry if this means we're not friends any more. I'm sorry of my letter made the hospital lean on you to cut off the flow of information, but I will still find a way to get to know what is going on with my wife, come Hell or high water. I won't be deterred or intimidated from asserting all of Linda's and my rights against them, no matter who is on the opposite side.

"Neutrality" does not consist of withholding information from one side while sharing it with the other side. I'm sorry to lose you, Tom and Donna as friends over this, but Linda and her situation is more important to me than anything else. You have told me on more than one occasion about doctors you spoke to who said Tector made mistakes, and I never once quoted you or them about such things, only about the FACTS regarding what has happened to Linda. I agree that some of the nurses and particularly the physical therapists take very good care of her. Yet, she still can't breathe on her own after several months of treatment, and the pleural effusions are not getting any better, and it IS their fault they didn't give Linda the definitive treatment for that condition when she was still strong enough to tolerate it. Debbie knows it, you know it and I know it, and THEY know it too. Even the people they talk to at Loyola and Northwestern know it, and now they refuse to have Linda as a patient because of it. Those are FACTS. And, they are not my fault in any way. So, I'm sorry you and Debbie feel everything is my fault. I tried to get the doctors to do as Linda wanted, even though it was not what I wanted or what Debbie wanted, and now Debbie hates me for it, but it was my legal obligation to try to get done what Linda wanted done. No one seems to understand that terrible obligation.

If you thought you could share information with me, and I wouldn't use it against Tector and IU, you really don't know me very well at all.

September 21, 2010

Jim:

     I have tried to keep you informed of Linda's health care and that she was alive and well.  You continue to quote me in your e-mails.  These e-mails have a blocked address until now so I could not dispute any of the statements you attribute to me.  The last message before this one misled people to think that I am providing you with information to continue your battle with I U Hospital, and Dr. Tector.  I have felt sorry for you being separated from Linda and tried to provide the minimum information to calm your fears that Linda was being mistreated.  I have always held a neutral position about the medical staff and found them to be attentive and while visiting her care has been exceptional.

     I am no longer willing to provide you with any other information except that Linda is alive and well.  During my visits I am only interested encouraging Linda to fight return to health.  Please do not use my name in any of your e-mails nor do I want you to quote me without my express permission. 

Thank you.

Chuck  

September 21, 2010

Debbie:

I'm forwarding this to you, with a copy to Chuck, because you never respond to any of my E-mails, and you are cooperating with Indiana University Hospital in cutting off all communication between me and Linda.

As you can see, in five weeks, Linda will be losing her Blue Cross/Blue Shield primary coverage through Huntington Learning Center. I am doing what I can through our State Farm agent and the Medicare and social security disability people to look into getting alternative insurance coverage for her, as even my COBRA BC/BS, which until now has been Linda's secondary insurance, runs out next April, and according to Richard, she can't get on Medicare until November 1, 2011, so she will be altogether without insurance from May 1, 2011 through November 1, 2011 based on what I have been told up to now.

As you can see, we have five weeks to find a solution to this very complex insurance problem. Working through to the best answer is complicated immensely by the fact that neither you nor anyone at I U Hospital will talk to me, or let me talk to Linda about her insurance situation, or anything else. As you can imagine, Linda's continued care and treatment are in serious jeopardy now because Linda and I can't possible pay the millions of dollars her ongoing care and treatment will cost during the five months it appears she will be completely without insurance coverage of any kind.

Legally, solving this situation is up to you, who now holds Linda's sole health care power of attorney, and Richard, who holds her financial power of attorney. I'm not permitted to talk to her health care providers, or the I U Hospital social worker who could help get to a better answer on the Medicare and Social Security Disability issues, and you won't respond to my communications in any way. Obviously, I would like to help work out the best possible solution for Linda to this mess, but I can't do anything for her without the ability to communicate, at least through you, who see her every week and have more contact with her than anyone else.

I have no wish to be antagonistic, however, Linda's and my future financial security is now completely in your hands. If your failure to respond to this e-mail causes either of us any future financial losses, please be on notice that for my part I will hold you personally responsible for every penny.

I know that the staff at I U Hospital pressured you into putting yourself in the situation you are legally in now regarding this, and maybe you can prevail upon them to let me back into the communication loop so I can help find an answer to this problem. I know you are very angry with me about things that have happened, but we have to put that aside for now so we can help Linda solve this very serious problem which will affect her and me financially for the rest of our lives.

The next move is yours. I'm sure you clearly understand my position. I'm copying Dr. Tector and Cindy DeBord on this e-mail so they know what is going on. I will mail a copy to Michele J. Calderon Johns as well, for her file. I hope Richard will also pass this information along to his social worker contact at I U Hospital right away so she can get to work trying to come up with a solution. Unless you get back to me promptly with a phone call or an e-mail in response to this, there will be little more I can do to help. Again, I hate to be antagonistic, but I have to take every necessary measure to protect Linda and me from financial losses which will most likely follow should you choose not communicate back to me regarding this.

One thing you could do to protect yourself from financial liability, should you elect to do so, would be to resign as Linda's health care power of attorney. I would be happy to take back that responsibility from you, and of course that would also solve I U Hospital's communication blockade, as they would have to deal with me if I am her health care power of attorney. If you wish to take that way out of this mess, let me know right away and I'll draw up the papers for you and Linda to sign. If you send me a copy of the power you are holding now, I could get started on drafting those documents as soon as I receive what you have. The same way out of this mess offers itself to Richard if he wants not to be a part of the solution. I'm sure he will let me know what his preference is in that regard. As long as the two of you continue acting under the powers you hold, you are legally responsible for the outcome.

It's your move.

September 19, 2010

Chuck was not able to get a standby flight to Indianapolis today, so he didn’t get to see Linda at all this week. He did talk to Debbie a little bit, and this is what I have been able to learn:

Linda has been able to get out of her bed a few times and go for short walks up and down the hospital halls. However, most of the time her pleural effusions – the fluid that builds up on her lungs – are still large enough that she has to have mechanical assistance for breathing, and as has been true in past weeks, she is on and off the ventilator. Of course, she can only go walking in the halls when she is off the vent.

Chuck and I talked about a procedure called pleurodesis, where talc, or some drug, is injected into the space between the pleura – the membranes lining the chest cavity and covering the lungs – causing scar tissue to form and stick the membranes together, so there is no place for the fluid to build up and collapse Linda’s lungs. It’s a common procedure in cancer patients who have the same sort of fluid buildup Linda is having. Chuck talked to Debbie about pleurodesis for Linda. I had suggested to Dr. Tector that this be done two months ago. Our friend the respiratory therapist tells me that Dr. Tector had a spat some time ago with one of the pulmonologists, and won’t let them work on his unit any more. Debbie tells Chuck that now, the lung doctors think Linda is too weak to have the procedure, so once again Dr. Tector’s obstinacy and pigheadedness have caused delays which deprived Linda of a chance to control the pleural effusions and get better so she can come home.

Chuck is suggesting transferring Linda to a transplant center in Chicago, but none of the centers here will take her now because of how badly Tector has messed up her condition – they don’t want to be responsible for the effects of his many mistakes in her case. And of course, Dr. Tector would have to sign a discharge order for her to be transferred anywhere or Blue Cross/Blue Shield won’t pay her bills after she leaves Indianapolis. In a very real sense, then Linda is his prisoner until he decides to let her go or she dies in his hospital. It’s most unfair to her, but there is nothing more we can do except pray for her and hope for the best. I would like the chance to talk with the lung doctors and find out if they think Linda will ever get well enough for a pleurodesis procedure, but of course not a soul there will even speak to me, including Debbie. Linda must feel completely alone and abandoned down there, because they won’t even let me talk to her or write to her.

In case Debbie is still showing her these e-mails, I will include that the house and yard are in good shape, and ready for Linda to come home. I got rid of the tree service and the landscapers, and bought a lawn mower. I cut the grass twice a week, and it is green and growing now that we have had a good deal of rain this weekend, and I have trimmed the crab apple trees and the shrubbery back for fall. Everything looks neat and tidy. I have been doing all the chores Linda used to do, including the laundry and the daily trip to her post office box to get the mail, and the marketing a couple times every week. I’m trying to use up the canned goods in the pantry and the meat and vegetables in the freezer before I buy anything fresh except milk, eggs and bread. There is enough pasta sauce, pasta and canned soup to keep me going for another couple months before any major grocery shopping will be needed. I try to be inventive about what I cook for myself, both because it is a fun, and because it passes the time and gives me a little break from the terrible loneliness of living in our beautiful home without Linda here.

When I don’t get any news about Linda for a week at a time I have a lot of trouble sleeping, wondering if she may have taken a turn for the worse, whether she is hurting with nobody there to comfort her, and whether in fact Debbie or anyone at that awful hospital would even call me if she were dying. I suspect they will not. I haven’t heard from our friend the respiratory therapist at all this week, and I note that another respiratory therapist at I U Hospital who was a neighbor on my Facebook Farmville farm, who never ever took care of Linda or ever talked to either one of us, has taken herself off as my Farmville neighbor. Apparently I U Hospital is still actively on the warpath against anyone who might be a conduit to me of even the smallest tidbit of information about Linda or how she is doing. I just don’t understand how they can be so cruel.

Our friends Mark and Marcia were kind and generous enough to invite me to go stay at their house in Albuquerque for a while, but I am afraid to go that far away because if something bad does happen to Linda I am sure the hospital would not call me soon enough for me to get back from there to comfort her before she died. I’m not even sure they will call me at all until after she is either transferred or dies, and I doubt Debbie would tell me anything about such an event either until it was too late. Not knowing from day to day is tearing me up inside.

I don’t have anything else to report now.

September 13, 2010

Kelly:

I wish I could tell you how Linda is doing but I can't.    

On August 6 and 7, 2010, multiple instances of Linda’s IV antibiotics being spilled onto the floor of her room because of nursing errors in tubing connections, and multiple instances of clogging of her feeding tube because of inappropriate feeding product being prescribed for Linda, disputes arose between Linda and me and her doctors about her continued care.   Due to these disagreements, Linda’s doctors had me forcibly evicted from Indiana University Hospital on August 10, 2010. I am no longer permitted to visit her there, or to speak with Linda on the phone. Calls from my home and cell phone numbers to all I U Hospital numbers are blocked, and the caregivers and administrators at I U Hospital will communicate with me only through my Indiana lawyers.  Despite attempts by Linda, me and my attorneys to arrange for Linda’s transfer to RML Specialty Hospital in Hinsdale, Illinois for her continued rehabilitation treatment, and by the I U Hospital social worker, I U Hospital care planner and I U Hospital’s own attorneys to facilitate that transfer, the doctors at I U Hospital refuse to discharge Linda, and are holding her there in a “nondisclosure” room, where all communication between me and Linda is prohibited.  

I only know this much: she now has chest tubes in both her right and her left chest cavities. Fluid accumulation forces her back on mechanical breathing support just about every Friday. A respiratory therapist at I U Hospital who was kind enough to hand Linda an E-mail from me, because all other avenues of communication between us have been blocked, has been suspended with pay on the grounds she violated some alleged court order prohibiting contact between us, although as far as I am able to determine, no such order has been entered by any court whatsoever. The hospital's attorneys prepared a new health care power of attorney naming my sister in law Deborah Cetar as sole power of attorney for Linda, and forced Linda to sign it, so now they refuse to acknowledge that I even have any right to current information about Linda's condition or situation, and Debora, Linda's sister, refuses to communicate with me about what is going on.

In my entire life I have never heard of such inhumane treatment of a patient or a family member. The doctors asked me to leave the hospital grounds while they "interviewed" Linda about the incidents of spilled antibiotics and clogged feeding tube, and then they sent five armed guards outside to tell me I would be deemed a trespasser if I came back into the building. I went across the street to the student union and tried to call Linda's room so I could tell her they were not going to let me back in, because I didn’t want her to believe I had abandoned her there. I was told both Linda and her sister were "unavailable." When I asked just to be able to say goodbye to her, they routed my call to the security office and I was told I was no longer permitted to communicate with Linda in any way. Not wanting to leave her there without hearing from me what was happening, and wishing to retrieve my business laptop which was still in Linda's room, I went back into the hospital. As I approached her room the nurses were shouting at each other to close her door so I couldn't speak to her. I pushed the door open, packed up my computer, and told Linda I was being forcibly removed from the hospital.

Three security guards wrestled me up against the wall, and held me there until a city police officer cane to arrest me for trespassing. When the officer told the security guards he was just going to take me outside and write me a ticked, they contrived a story about how I had knocked a nurse down while pushing the door of Linda's room open, and insisted that I be arrested for battery and taken to jail. I was held in jail in Indianapolis for 30 hours until my brother could come and post a $150 cash bond. Since then I have not been allowed to see, speak to or get any information about Linda.

In addition, hospital supervisors have told the respiratory therapist that there is a domestic violence order of protection against me, which is a lie, and that Debbie has been appointed guardian for Linda, which is also a lie, as justification for her suspension for handing Linda the e-mail, which Linda had asked her to see and read. They dragged the respiratory therapist out of Linda's room before Linda could tell her what she wanted to say to me in response to the e-mail.

Now, all I know about how Linda is doing is what I can learn from friends of ours who are still permitted to visit her on the weekends from time to time. I don't know when she will be discharged, or what her condition will be when that happens. Unless I hear from a friend who has seen her, I really don't know from one day to the next whether she is dead or alive. Blue Cross/Blue Shield has made it clear to RML Specialty Hospital that if Linda were to leave Indiana University Hospital against medical advice, without a discharge order signed by Dr. Tector they would never pay for any care she received after she did so. So practically, if not legally, she is the prisoner of Dr. Tector until she dies or he decides to let her go.

I don't know what else to tell you.

September 13, 2010

Dear James,

I tried to reach you today and was unable to.  I wanted to see how Linda is doing and if you need any further information.  It’s been some time since I’ve been able to reach you and I’m concerned that you’re okay.  The best part of my day is hearing from my families and so I’m hoping you’ll send me a quick update.  We are a free service for families and so we’re only able to help so many families at one time.  If you’re no longer in need of help or care, please let me know so that I may close your file.

Warm regards,

Kelly Feterick

Eldercare Advisor

(877) 311-6102

kellyf@aplaceformom.com

www.aplaceformom.com

September 12, 2010

Well, Chuck was with Linda all day today in Indianapolis, and he called me from the Indianapolis airport to give me a report on what he learned. Linda still has a chest tube on the right, and tomorrow they are going to put one in on the left as well, as she had a reaccumulation of fluid on both sides Friday and had to go back on mechanical assistance with her breathing as a result.  She had been getting physical therapy three times a day at her own insistence last week, and maybe it was a bit much for her in her weakened condition. She won’t have any PT again until Tuesday. Chuck says the swelling in her arms and legs has gone away, except some localized swelling at her left elbow. She doesn’t have much pain except in her left shoulder which she broke in a fall at home in April. They are giving her Lidoderm patch pain medication for that. There’s nothing else they can do about the fractures in her shoulder until she is back on her feet.

Chuck says she is stronger, and that the physical therapist says she is making good progress. He gave her arm and leg massages, and he says she is gaining weight and her muscle density and circumferences are increasing. Linda did sign a new health care power of attorney for Debbie only, apparently at the request of RML to expedite her transfer there if Dr. Tector ever lets her go. There is no guardianship and no domestic violence order of protection. Debbie keeps a folder of my E-mails for Linda to read. Since that is the case, I completely don’t understand what all the fuss with our friend the respiratory therapist is all about.

Chuck did ask Linda to answer the four questions I sent down there with him, but he left the written answers in her room when his taxi arrived to take him to the airport. Maybe Debbie will be kind enough to favor me with a copy of Linda’s answers if she locates the sheet of paper in Linda’s room. Anyway, this is what he told me her answers were:

Do you want to come home? YES

Do you want me to be here for you when you come home?

Chuck says she cried when he read her this question, and she wouldn’t answer it one way or the other.

Do you want me to keep fighting to get you out of Indiana University Hospital? NO

Do you want me to call you in the evenings and read to you at bedtime like we used to do? NO

Chuck says Linda told him she wants me to take care of our home and have it ready for her when she is well enough to come back. Right now she says she wants to focus on getting better and stronger and well enough to come back to Chicago. Chuck says Debbie wants her closer to Chicago as well, but with all the complications with RML and BC/BS and their rules, that won’t happen until Dr. Tector signs a discharge order for Linda. So, I will honor Linda’s wishes and stop fighting to get her out of Indianapolis, and just wait for her to get well enough to come back to a place nearer to our home.

No one will say anything about how long they think that may take. According to what Chuck said, it would be several weeks or several more months. I don’t really know what I’m going to do with myself during such an extended separation from Linda. I hope the friends who do visit her, including Debbie, will give me updates about her condition and situation every day or two so I will at least know how she is coming along. Otherwise I won’t be able to keep the rest of you in the loop at all.

There’s nothing else to report today.

September 11, 2010

Dr. A. Joseph Tector

Indiana University Hospital

550 North University Boulevard

Indianapolis, Indiana 46202

            Re: Linda

Dear Dr. Tector:

            O.K. You win. It is very clear to me now that no matter what I do or say, you and Indiana University Hospital are never going to let me speak with my wife again.

            Linda is yours now. If she dies, it will be your fault. If she stops loving me, it will be your fault. Rest assured that in either event, I will spend the rest of my life using all legal and political remedies available to make sure you and Clarian pay dearly for the consequences.

            I hope you send her home to me soon, healthy and still loving me. If she becomes terminal while in your care, I hope you have the human decency to get in touch with me, and let me back in to comfort her in the last hours of her life.

September 10, 2010

Well, the lies continue to build up. This afternoon I was told by hospital security at IU that they were told by their legal department that there is a new health care power of attorney signed by Linda giving Debbie sole power and excluding me, and that they will no longer communicate with me in any way. Yesterday, Debbie told Chuck that the only document she has is the same one she has had in her purse all along naming us both. Someone is lying. I asked the hospital to fax me a copy of the alleged new document, and I have received nothing from them. At this point I tend to believe that it is Debbie that is telling the truth, and that the hospital continues to make things up just to stall the day when Linda comes home and tells me all the horrible things they have done to her since they threw me out.

Anyway, if Debbie is telling the truth to Chuck, and she is giving Linda copies of all these E-mails, at least Linda will know what is going on, and that I still love her and am fighting for her as best as I can. I guess they are never going to let me talk to her again until she gets well and walks out of there on her own two feet. I only hope she is seeing these letters and knows I want her back in my life and for me to be back in hers. I know how lonely this forced separation is making me, and it must be even worse for her, if she still loves me, since she is the one who is sick and in pain.

Today the social worker Nancy told Richard that Linda is back on the ventilator and unable to speak. I think Chuck plans to go down there and visit Linda over the weekend, but I’m not sure. I hope he can get Linda to answer the four questions I sent along with him, so I know what the future holds for us. If Linda tells me she wants me out of her life, I guess I will just have to start making plans to go on without her, but that is sure not what I want for us. I want her to get well and come home and go on as we were before her transplant, even if that means I stay home to care for her for the rest of her life. That would be better for me than living without her.

Nancy told Richard they were going to do another bronchoscopy on Linda today, probably to try lung lavage to seeing whether they can suck out any of the built up mucous which keeps causing her lung to collapse so fluid can build up in her chest cavity. Every time Linda goes through this cycle of being off and back on the ventilator the risk increases that she will become dependent on the vent for the rest of her life. I hope that doesn’t happen, but if she has to come home on a ventilator, I will be here to care for her forever unless she tells me to get out of her life. I’m never ever going to believe that is what she wants until I hear it from her.

I can’t give enough thanks to Chuck and Richard for everything they are doing to help us get through this. I can’t give enough thanks to the rest of you who listen to the tale of woe and pass along your encouragement for me to keep fighting for the one I love best of all. Debbie tells Chuck Linda is getting physical therapy three times every day, and is making progress, though I don’t know how much progress she can be making if she is on and then off the ventilator a couple times every week. It’s hard to build up your strength when you can’t breathe. No one will tell me what Linda’s situation is with nutrition and weight gain or loss, or how she has been affected by the repeated infections that she suffered in that awful place. Every time she seems to be improving, something else goes wrong. It’s just not fair.

Our friend the respiratory therapist is still suspended for handing my e-mail to Linda, though I don’t understand how the hospital can do that since there was no order in place for her to violate when she did it, and Linda did ask for the letter from her. I guess it’s just part of their plan to cut off all communication between me and Linda no matter who gets hurt in the process or how many lies they have to tell to keep us apart. How people like that can even call themselves professionals is astonishing to me. I can’t imagine how anyone could think such lying and conniving can be helpful to a sick, hurting, lonely woman who needs all the emotional support and love she can get if she is ever going to recover from all the harm they have done to her.

September 10, 2010

Things have taken a different turn, but not necessarily for the better. Debbie tells Chuck that there has been no guardianship proceeding, and no order of protection has been entered against me. I U Hospital has not directly confirmed this, but I have repeatedly insisted they send me copies of any such orders, and none have been produced. Today when I called Dr. Tector’s office, I was put through to the TICU nurses station. I was told it was OK for me to call Linda through that means. However, the first time I called, around 12:55 p.m., they told me she was “having a procedure.” The next time I called, around 3:30 p.m., I was told she was sleeping. The nurse took our number here at home and said she would place a call back to me at the house in about an hour and a half when Linda awoke. No call came, so I called back about 5:20 p.m. and was diverted to the security office which said they had been advised half an hour earlier that she didn’t want to speak to me and that since I didn’t have the “password” no one would give me any information on her condition or situation.

Chuck and Richard, has anyone given either of you a “password” you needed when talking to social workers or nurses about how Linda is doing? Would you please tell me what it is? I don’t know whether this is just people not communicating with each other at I U Hospital, or whether it’s a new tactic to keep me from communicating with Linda.

Debbie told Chuck that Debbie has printed out all of the E-mails I send Debbie and kept them in a folder in Linda’s room for Linda to read, and that Linda does read them. If this is indeed true, why did the hospital suspend the respiratory therapist for giving Linda a copy of one e-mail from me? I still don’t know who to believe. Debbie refuses to return my calls. Linda’s cell phone is turned off and goes straight to voicemail when I call it. I leave messages but I doubt anyone is playing them for Linda to listen to. I have followed up each of the three letters I wrote to Dr. Tector and the lawyer at Indiana University Hospital with phone calls, but no one there has returned my calls, though I leave voicemails and leave messages with secretaries. I won’t believe Linda is telling people she doesn’t want to talk to me unless I hear that from her. Debbie tells Chuck Linda talks to Debbie and the nurses, so she could at least get on the phone long enough to say to me not to call her, and put a stop to this round robin of refusals on the part of the Hospital to let me speak to her.

I’m going to keep trying to call Linda through Dr. Tector’s office two or three times a day to see if I can get through to Linda, but it is probably a futile effort. Meanwhile, the risk manager form RML called me today and said there is no point in my copying them on correspondence with I U Hospital as RML is not going to do anything more about arranging a transfer for Linda until Dr. Tector signs a discharge order for her. If they are still doing “procedures” on Linda – I don’t know for what – apparently that is not going to happen any time soon.

I do hope it is true Debbie is printing this e-mail out for Linda to read. At least she will know I haven’t given up on her and that I am mystified why she doesn’t want to talk to me on the phone. I love her so much and miss her so much, and not knowing what is going on with her medical condition day to day tears my heart out every minute. If talking to me on the phone would be too tiring for her, I would love just to call her in the evening and read to her for 10 or 15 minutes like we used to do here at home at bedtime so she could go to sleep more easily. Our forced separation like this is driving me to despair. If she were to tell me she doesn’t want me in her life any more, that would be different, but I do not believe that is true, and no one at all has said to me that it is, or that Linda has ever said anything like that to them. Even Debbie, who won’t return my calls to Debbie, or let me speak to Linda, tells Chuck she expects Linda to be home with me again when she has fully recovered from all of this.

My worst fear of all is that Linda is getting sicker and sicker from the repeated infections she gets in the hospital down there, and the fluid that keeps building up in her chest cavity, and that her will to go on living is getting weak because of our forced separation by the hospital.  I don’t want her to die down there all alone, thinking I have abandoned her or given up on her. I absolutely do not understand how her doctors and nurses can believe keeping me away from her is doing anything positive for her outlook.

I do hope Debbie will show this to Linda, and let Linda read it before some misguided nurse snatches it away. Belief that it is possible Linda will be reading this is the only hope that keeps me going now.  Our beautiful life together is crumbling before my eyes, and I have nothing left to cling to in the hope it can be restored.

September 9, 2010

Linda:

I love you dearly and miss you very much. Sometimes when I telephone the Hospital they tell me you don’t want to talk to me. I need you to please answer these four questions for me, by circling YES or NO and giving the paper back to Chuck for him to bring it to me. Please, whatever the answers are, I need to know what you want and to hear it from you.

1.     Do you want to come home?

YES                                                                                                                             NO

2.     Do you want me to be here for you when you come home?

YES                                                                                                                             NO

3.     Do you want me to keep fighting to get you out of Indiana University Hospital?

YES                                                                                                                             NO

4.     Do you want me to call you in the evenings and read to you at bedtime like we used to do?

YES                                                                                                                             NO

Everything else we can talk about whenever they do let me talk to you on the phone. I just need these answers to guide me day by day.

I love you and miss you.

Jim