Following the first person account of Kathryn Stewart-McDonald
On Oct 27 07 I spent the night with my 97 year old grandmother, Elsie Botkin, at Charleston General Hospital (CAMC) in Charleston WV. I am from Alexandria, Virginia. I was visiting my grandmother, she had a recurring incurable illness and frequently was taken by ambulance
to the hospital where she would receive a regimen of therapy requiring very little deviation.
The next morning I was in the corridor and was approached by a woman in scrubs. She pointed a gun at my head and forced me to beg and pray for my life in front of witnesses. I prayed for my life for 20 minutes, she threatened my grandmother and a nurse and was eventually disarmed by a man wearing a stethoscope. I was in shock but managed to text message US Secret Service
on L St NW in The District of Columbia where I had previously made inquiries about obtaining a press pass to cover my candidate during campaign events. I worked for a lobbyist and lived in a nice apartment in Virginia. CAMC and the Charleston Police do not respond to e-mails or anything dropped into the webpage which asks for comments and remarks. The Congress of the USA votes electronically. Electronic Communication is a way of life, after antrax many Federal Agencies did not encourage paper mail. The failure of public institutions to reply, with even an automated answer is in my opinion fradulent. More on this opinion late. I called CAMC by phone, I hand delivered letters, I followed up.
Many things were odd about the manner in which CAMC handled the problem, I worked previously at at District Attorney's office and also at a police department as a dispatcher.
CAMC did not report the crime, I was told the man who disarmed my assailant and removed
bullets from her gun would do so. CAMC did not reply to my report of the incident and neither did the local police. So I wrote to the Department of Justice, AARP, Attorney General and other
law enforcment agencies. Finally the police told me that I did not have a case number because they were waiting for a report from the hospital. That seemed very fishy to me. So I began to research the people who are involved in the hospital, what made this hospital so different from
the hospitals other places I have lived and I was appalled by the apparent "Good Old Boy Club" which operates the hospital as a political organization as opposed to a hospital which is supposed to respond to patients and the needs of the medical staff.
CAMC had canceled an emergency training session for employees facing violence which was scheduled before my grandmother and I were attacked. When I telephoned Charleston General Angie Casto said the hospital did not have any problems with violence, but in the spring and summer of 08 many articles in Charleston newspapers described the staff problems with violent incidents.The hospital has a web page requesting comments from community members. It seems to me this is a good thing, if I learn a family member is ill and is in an ambulance in transit to the hospital I might be able to provide information about family physicians, etc. through the web page. My information dropped into the web page was ignored and then provoked bery virulent denials by staff who said I was crazy.
It seems the woman wearing the scrubs might be crazy on drugs ,but then CAMC does not require drug testing for employees. It is common knowledge hospitals are favorite locations for people with drug problems. Since the 60's the problem of medical personnel who abuse drugs has become a subject of serious concern in the most of the medical community. CAMC seems to have their head in the sand when it comes to implementing procedures in place at most hospitals in the USAm such as drug testing for employees, security cameras, sign in for visitors, metal detectorswalk throughs by uniformed security personnel .
The hospital cannot argue they lack money for these simple industry wide acceptible procedures.
I am told that the new wing CAMC is building, at a cost of millions of dollars is paid for with funds obtained by the Rockefeller Foundation but also paid to a construction company partially owned by Senator Rockefeller. I am told the hospital on the early weeks in November 07 filmed commercials at Thomas Hospital in Kanawha City which cost at least $450,000.
I am beginning to think the people who take their loved ones to CAMC are merely more sheep to the slaughter.
My family doctors told me they need better equipment, specifically imaging machines, X Rays and possibly MRI and CAT Scan machines which are up to date because the equipment they use is obsolete. In other words an obese person cannot be penetrated by X Rays at a depth which would disclose problems easy to discern on better equipement. If you have an infection near an arthritic joint the X Ray won't show it and infection can be life threatening. Also the surgical saws used at CAMC hospitals are a source of annoyance to surgeons because the blades are dull. If you are a diabetic requiring amputation some surgeons have attempted to use their own equipment which is insured by their own insurance and purchased by the surgeon. CAMC refuses to permit the MD's to use their personnally insured equipement.
CAMC is vicious in their collective retaliation toward anyone who criticizes their staff or the direction money for hospital use is actually applied. Dr. Edward Hamrick, from a family noted for their remarkable contributions to the medical community in Charleston, sued CAMC for slander and libel and won. This proves an established corporate culture of retaliation to anyone who is upset over the direction of funds used by the hospital .
to the hospital where she would receive a regimen of therapy requiring very little deviation.
The next morning I was in the corridor and was approached by a woman in scrubs. She pointed a gun at my head and forced me to beg and pray for my life in front of witnesses. I prayed for my life for 20 minutes, she threatened my grandmother and a nurse and was eventually disarmed by a man wearing a stethoscope. I was in shock but managed to text message US Secret Service
on L St NW in The District of Columbia where I had previously made inquiries about obtaining a press pass to cover my candidate during campaign events. I worked for a lobbyist and lived in a nice apartment in Virginia. CAMC and the Charleston Police do not respond to e-mails or anything dropped into the webpage which asks for comments and remarks. The Congress of the USA votes electronically. Electronic Communication is a way of life, after antrax many Federal Agencies did not encourage paper mail. The failure of public institutions to reply, with even an automated answer is in my opinion fradulent. More on this opinion late. I called CAMC by phone, I hand delivered letters, I followed up.
Many things were odd about the manner in which CAMC handled the problem, I worked previously at at District Attorney's office and also at a police department as a dispatcher.
CAMC did not report the crime, I was told the man who disarmed my assailant and removed
bullets from her gun would do so. CAMC did not reply to my report of the incident and neither did the local police. So I wrote to the Department of Justice, AARP, Attorney General and other
law enforcment agencies. Finally the police told me that I did not have a case number because they were waiting for a report from the hospital. That seemed very fishy to me. So I began to research the people who are involved in the hospital, what made this hospital so different from
the hospitals other places I have lived and I was appalled by the apparent "Good Old Boy Club" which operates the hospital as a political organization as opposed to a hospital which is supposed to respond to patients and the needs of the medical staff.
CAMC had canceled an emergency training session for employees facing violence which was scheduled before my grandmother and I were attacked. When I telephoned Charleston General Angie Casto said the hospital did not have any problems with violence, but in the spring and summer of 08 many articles in Charleston newspapers described the staff problems with violent incidents.The hospital has a web page requesting comments from community members. It seems to me this is a good thing, if I learn a family member is ill and is in an ambulance in transit to the hospital I might be able to provide information about family physicians, etc. through the web page. My information dropped into the web page was ignored and then provoked bery virulent denials by staff who said I was crazy.
It seems the woman wearing the scrubs might be crazy on drugs ,but then CAMC does not require drug testing for employees. It is common knowledge hospitals are favorite locations for people with drug problems. Since the 60's the problem of medical personnel who abuse drugs has become a subject of serious concern in the most of the medical community. CAMC seems to have their head in the sand when it comes to implementing procedures in place at most hospitals in the USAm such as drug testing for employees, security cameras, sign in for visitors, metal detectorswalk throughs by uniformed security personnel .
The hospital cannot argue they lack money for these simple industry wide acceptible procedures.
I am told that the new wing CAMC is building, at a cost of millions of dollars is paid for with funds obtained by the Rockefeller Foundation but also paid to a construction company partially owned by Senator Rockefeller. I am told the hospital on the early weeks in November 07 filmed commercials at Thomas Hospital in Kanawha City which cost at least $450,000.
I am beginning to think the people who take their loved ones to CAMC are merely more sheep to the slaughter.
My family doctors told me they need better equipment, specifically imaging machines, X Rays and possibly MRI and CAT Scan machines which are up to date because the equipment they use is obsolete. In other words an obese person cannot be penetrated by X Rays at a depth which would disclose problems easy to discern on better equipement. If you have an infection near an arthritic joint the X Ray won't show it and infection can be life threatening. Also the surgical saws used at CAMC hospitals are a source of annoyance to surgeons because the blades are dull. If you are a diabetic requiring amputation some surgeons have attempted to use their own equipment which is insured by their own insurance and purchased by the surgeon. CAMC refuses to permit the MD's to use their personnally insured equipement.
CAMC is vicious in their collective retaliation toward anyone who criticizes their staff or the direction money for hospital use is actually applied. Dr. Edward Hamrick, from a family noted for their remarkable contributions to the medical community in Charleston, sued CAMC for slander and libel and won. This proves an established corporate culture of retaliation to anyone who is upset over the direction of funds used by the hospital .
The present hospital administrator is only a graduate of Shermansville, a college which was not accredited when he was admitted with what he describes as low scores. The administrator does not have a degree in hospital administration and seems to favor nurses who also graduate from this school which has ery dubious academic standards. The nursing staff do not have standard grammer, I will testify I often had to tell nurses about my grandmothers' broken bones which had not fused because the records did not make it to the floor on which she was taken from ER. More the once the surly staff said it wasn't their job to get the records, some tried to argue and told me my grandmother did not have broken bones. I posted signs over her bed and reported these incidents and others to her doctors. Records management is a serious issue in patient care. I didn't not find CAMC practices to be adequate. The favoritism of nursing staff from this Shermansville School seems to be a matter of personal and political convenience. The nurses at CAMC are opposed to mandatory and on the spot drug tests for staff. After the woman in scrubs held a gun at my head I began to wonder how many friends she had at the hospital who might share her problem.
I began to wonder a lot about West Virginia politics when I lost my job at home and my apartment in Virginia. West Virginia Legal Aid cannot assist anyone with issues against a
public institution, and most of the public institutions in this state have honored elected
officials with some sort of paid positions. WV Legal Aid is more limited than Legal Aid
offices in other states, it is for poor people, what I became after loosing my job.
Poor people often have housing problems landlord tenant disputes are one of the legal services they need but WV Legal Aid can't represent this category, it is not any wonder the names of property owners in the slums of the East End of Charleston and the West Side of Charleston are almost impossible to find unless you know the names of WV Legislators children .Most of the
slums near the capitol are owned by the WV Legislators and some of the scary and vacant buildings on the side of town where Charleston General is situated are owned by the state or some very prominent people .( Perhaps positioning property for acquisition by the hospital ifor anticipated expansions is the WV Politicians desire to protect real estate investments but the tenants can't protest to the Legal Aid for help, the Legislators are their Slum Lords) Ibelieve that
West Virginia Legislature is obstructing the administration of justice by preventing access to Legal Services people need. Further I believe that the West Virginia Bar Association refusal to permit reciprocity between WV and Va practicing attorneys prevents me from obtaining a pro se attorney and without my paycheck I can't hire one at this time. I mailed dozens of letters, dropped requests for contingency payment options into at least 30 Charleston area attorney websites. All said I have a good case, just a weak bank account. Legal Aid does not represent victims of sexual harassment, as far as I know, and is it not the poor and helpless women who need jobs who are often the victim of exploitive employers?
I have requested Crime Victim Compensation. The bullying gang of people responsible for the dismal and unprofessional conduct toward me and my grandmother, when my grandmother and I had a gun pointed at us reflects the real mentality of West Virginia ,one which I have found to be immature, arrogant and irresponsible. In fact it is my position that certain incidents I experienced after the attempt on my life are felonious acts of criminal retaliation. I think CAMC is a Crime Gang which was whipped up when the administration tried to deny the "unfortunate incident" ever occured.
My Request for Victim Compensation is on the 3rd floor of the WV State Capitol at the Court of Claims, good luck. WV doesn't think brains or intellect matter, my position is if my brains which were almost all over the floor and walls of the hospital aren't worth much, as one nurse told me, why do they have brain surgeons on payroll ? Or perhaps it's just that the sociology of WV depends, much as in Sicily among Mafia, on loyalty to the group and not the law.
I have never encountered such childish people, as I have in WV, people who live in a world of their own.
The Appalachia culture I observe rewards ignorance and imparts virtue to individuals who maintain consensus within the group. I am appalled. The people are not exposed to mainstream values which accept a desire for transparency in government and interest of members of the community in examination of the influence of elected officials on their industry and public institutions. Plums offered as political favors are often distributed to people who have no character ofrinterest in public welfare much less the credentials necessary to manage or comprehend the nature of the positions they are gifted.
Charleston is a declining, rural industrial slum, the legacy of the industry in Charleston are brain cancer clusters. The poverty rate is highest in the USA and the number of college educated people between the ages of 25-65 is only 7 % statewide. The cancer clusters were repressed by the local newspapers, both having shares owned by the local politicians. The Rockefeller Foundation paid West Virginia University to track brain cancer clusters in the Charleston in the 70's and 80's but the results were never released to the public, the newspapers board includes Rockefeller and Byrd family members. People in WV are among the most poor in the United States but the state decided to place on gold leaf the dome on their capitol as a taxpayer supported expenditure.Children in nearby neighborhoods do not have enough to eat, the educational system is very poor, standardized test scores are very low compared with the national average. This is the Democratic Party legacy in WV. Brain cancer is terminal. If the people had an education, one which I believe is also the responsibility of the press, they might have relocated and some people's lives could have been saved. A free press promises the community information they need to make informed decisions will be provided to them.
I wonder if the local US Senators from WV had financal interests in the chemical plants at that time in Kanawha Valley or if the factories made campaign donations to either Senators campaigns. The image of Senator Byrd and Senator Rockefeller in The Washington Post (articles can be Googled) where they actually work on national issues is very different from the image perpetrated by the media they control in West Virginia, the local public broadcasting also is influenced by board members the wives and family members of the Senators
defend the job, not protect the patient. West Virginia is dominated by illusions, smoke and mirrors in local, state and national political representation. It is difficult to feel sympathy for people in West Virginia after I have encountered their bigotry and requests for bribes in exchange for my requests.
I loved my grandmother, I want to know why compensation for the crime is being considered as worth less than the money she paid to the hospital to stay alive? A man from the hospital security who also told me he works at the city police department accosted me 3 times once at Taylor Bookstore and once at my grandmother's home and once in the lobby of the hospital. He asked me if I had an abortion three times. At the Bookstore he was wearing a police uniform, at the hospital he wouldn't let me relieve another family member sitting with my grandmother for 11 hours before I arrived to relieve her. This was so weird. No I haven't had an abortion. I certainly understand why women in WV would want them. The men in WV are apes, it must be fun to be a King, to Lord over the poor, the uneducated, the hungry, those dirty masses that we are, the rabble, I speak many languages and have a good education , I have been patronized and
pushed around ever since I began to complain about what happened. I don't know many people here, I suppose I am fortunate in that regard.
1 comment:
My attorney telephoned US Secret Service Agent on L St NW in The District of Columbia, the Agent recalls I did identify the male perpetrator. Agent Jiminez did speak with Clara another witness.
Since returning to the USA after I accepting a job in South Korea. I was very ill and required medical attention. I was referred to CAMC General Although terrified of the hospital I thought I could go quietly with my mother to have tests and treatment. Dr. Bailey was very rude to me.
I had 4 CT Scans at CAMC I was accosted on my way out of the hospital by Keating, his niece Ellen and an attorney from Huntington, WV There were witnesses including US Navy, and the man whose photo is captioned with Captain Harold Bolin's name. The man who was present at the hospial was Pat Richardson, the same man whose photo image is identified as Captain Harold Boltin MV Lopez. Richardson said he visits Mark Hughes a psychiatrist. Apparently someone started a rumor I was crazy because I told them I lived abroad with my late husband Captain Jospeh Coluzzi and gave them my job title.
I complained about Tara Ray before the first attack upon me. Ray is an associate of Mark Hughes she presribed barbituates to my grandmother before she died without consulting my grandmother's medical team. My grandmother took heart medication and the barbituates would have slowed her heart rate and respiration. My grandmother was dizzy after taking the medication and fell out of bed breaking a bone near her neck. I sent a CD to Mukasey at US Dept of Justice before I sent it to Agent Jiminez.
When I had a medical treatment at CAMC after my grandmother died and after I returned from South Korea I was attacked by a man in the room where I had a procedure in front of witnesses. The man who attacked me used guitar pick on his finger to cut me.
When the man who attacked me was followed into the corridor I overheard a man with long blond hair in a uniform say to someone I could not see, "Steve is that you?" The man with blond hair wanted me to go with him. The physician's assitant chased him away.
About a month ago I was at a vet clinic and was harassed by Richard Neely, an attorney. He maliciously wounded me. I find it ironic he authored an article concerning why the court system fails. This man was previously a Judge on WV Supreme Court but he called me a liar concerning my education background and occupation. I will take my expired canceled US Passports with my to court these passports were returned to me at my request and are in a memento book which was very useful when I applied for US Intelligence Service Clearance.
My attorney is Donald Chavous MD JD Palm Desert California.
West Virginia's courthouse gang is coming undone. Justice in WV is where the money is. Donald Chavous, MD JD Palm Desert California is taking my case pro bono and assisting the US Navy investigation into individuals in West Virginian's suspected of illegally representing themselves as my legal counsel or medical doctors for the purpose of collecting my late husband's life insurance while I was out of state.
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