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.