Can You Hear Me Now?

This afternoon I did my Major Good Deed of the Week. Month. Year? I feel really good! I know random acts of kindness and all the good/nice stuff we do for others are supposed to be kept to ourselves or it looks like we did it for selfish reasons or to look good to others. Screw that! I already look good to others! Heh. I have a blog, I’m talking about it, because I can, and maybe it will inspire you to help someone in your own way.

Of course, I do many, many, many other random acts of kindness that I don’t talk about. Maybe. You’ll never know.

Anyway, I met Brenda last week, when an Access taxi picked me up to take me to the pub (for work!). She was sitting in the front seat. I noticed she had a white cane. We chatted a little bit, and she made a comment that she hasn’t been blind for very long so wasn’t used to it yet. I asked her what had happened, if she had an accident? It turns out, she was screwed over by a neurologist when she went to emergency with symptoms that included intense head pain and numbness in her foot. He sent her home, telling her she had a headache. She returned via ambulance two days later, and was told by the same neurologist she had a “personality disorder” and sent home again. Two days later she was taken in by ambulance again, with worse symptoms and no feeling in her left leg. The neurologist told her to go home as there was nothing wrong with her. She stood up, then fell to the floor. He told her to get up, go home, and to stop coming to the hospital because she was a disturbance and wasting their time. She argued that she was sure she was having strokes and wanted to be checked. She insisted they help her. He finally agreed to admit her, but only did a basic nerve test (”can you feel this” sort of stuff). He stopped all medications she was on for unrelated medical conditions (she was already an AISH recipient due to another health problem) without telling her. He brought six medical students into her room and humiliated her by telling them “this woman is experiencing psychological strokes”. Meanwhile, her vision was getting blurrier and the pain worsening. Finally, she went totally blind. It wasn’t until that happened that the neuro actually sent her for an MRI, which revealed she had indeed suffered multiple strokes, and had several burst blood vessels in her brain.

Due to this neuro’s refusal to believe her symptoms and test her sooner, she is now completely blind in one eye, has partial vision in the other, and no feeling in the toes on her left foot. The doctor apologized to her, but when she called him pompous and warned that he would pay for his mistreatment of her, he gestured towards her with his hands shaking, pretending to be scared, and said “ooooh, what are you going to do about it??”

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Brenda said she was trying to compose a letter but was having trouble with it. Also, she has no computer nor does she know how to use one. So, that’s where I come in. There is not much in this world that angers me more than pompous arrogant assholes or organizations that think they can just get away with treating people badly because they think they’re so damn powerful and the rest of us are pee-ons. I refuse to sit there and take it myself, and I will gladly be a voice for others who can’t. I did it for the 92 year old room mate I had in the rehab centre I spent 6 weeks in a few years ago (another victim of a stroke that was overlooked for a week by the nurses and staff as they yelled at her for wetting the bed and spilling her food; I did not take kindly to that one either). (Okay now I am thinking Christine Hurley had a point when she said I was a born activist and a voice for those with disabilities).

I can write, I can type, I can print and fax things. This afternoon I had Brenda over here. I had her walk me through everything that happened, took notes, then had her leave my office to go watch TV or something (I SO cannot work with someone watching me, blind or not!) while I wrote a well-documented letter to the College of Physicians and Surgeons for investigation. Brenda can’t afford to hire a lawyer so going this route will at least get it looked into, and I suggested we also send copies to the news media. If they do a story on malpractice or mistreatment in hospitals maybe they will use her. Then if the neuro wants to sue her for slander, there’s her law suit, and she can then counter sue him for malpractice. In the meantime she will continue trying to find a lawyer willing to take on this doctor… no one wants to touch him (he is a very powerful man, and he knows it, which is why he thinks he can get away with shit like this). THAT MAKES ME SO ANGRY.

After I finished the letter and faxed it, Brenda asked me what she owed me. It never even crossed my mind to charge her! I laughed and said “nothing, just make sure that asshole burns”. She gave me a big hug and kiss as she thanked me and left. I think I’ve done all I can do for her, but if anyone has any other ideas, use those comments!

On a lighter note, I am currently reading what may very well turn out to be the best book I have ever read. Conversations with the Fat Girl By Liza Palmer. I am only on page 71 so have hardly made a dent, but so far I am just loving it. It is about two best friends since age 12, Olivia and Maggie, both overweight, Olivia more seriously than Maggie. In her 20’s Olivia has gastric bypass surgery, loses a ton of weight, meets a rich, handsome surgeon, and I’m at the point where she is planning their wedding. It is written from the point of view of Maggie, who lives inside my head. I have stopped so many times to just hug this book and laugh out loud because I didn’t think anyone else thought this way, holy shit. I just read a paragraph where Olivia is talking about how incredible it feels to look at the tag of a piece of clothing you’re wearing and see SIZE TWO just staring right back at you, it’s amazing. Maggie thinks “I try to picture size 2 staring up at me. That would be incredible, because I would probably have a tiny person stuck in the back of my pants, struggling to free herself”. Ahahahahahaha!!!

P.S. I just noticed in all my old entries prior to Oct. 18, the apostrophes have turned into weird symbols! It’s going to take me forever to go through every entry and fix them so just bear with me if you’re reading the archives. We had a hacker and it messed up Innereyes and forced Russ to shut it down. Some of us still have our blogs, others weren’t so lucky.