Re: [silk] Fwd: [IRR] A call to action

[" Frank Pohlmann" <fp_wroxindia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just forwarded this to my ex-wife. She lives in San Francisco and knows a
few lawyers. Not sure she can help but it is worth a try

-frank

----- Original Message -----
From: "Udhay Shankar N" <udhay@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <silk-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, April 05, 2001 9:23 AM
Subject: [silk] Fwd: [IRR] A call to action


| Marcia is a personal friend, and a good person in various senses of the
| term. If you can help, please do so.
|
| Udhay
|
| >Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2001 12:29:51 -0600
| >From: Marcia Blake <marcia@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
| >Organization: Automagix!
| >Subject: [IRR] A call to action
| >
| >Dear Friends,
| >
| >I received some very bad news on Monday, and now must urgently seek
| >assistance from as many people as I can think of. I am writing to you to
| >ask for your help.
| >
| >Some of you on this blind-copied list know that I had a total hip
| >replacement at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego in January 2000. Some of
| >you also know that within a few weeks after the surgery, I knew it had
| >been a failure. A lesser number of you know that I have obtained "second
| >opinions" from three orthopedic surgeons, all of whom agree that the
| >prosthetic stem was inserted crooked, that it has made the leg on that
| >side almost two inches too long, and that revision surgery was required.
| >A few months ago, one of those surgeons also informed me that the
| >prosthetic socket cap was inserted incorrectly as well, and that the
| >prongs on the back of the cap are dissolving bone with every motion.
| >
| >I have been battling for over a year to get Kaiser to "make good" on
| >this very faulty surgery. (They did go so far as to schedule revision
| >surgery for August 26, 2000, but the Kaiser physician who was to have
| >performed the surgery became unavailable, and on August 31 my job in San
| >Diego ended, I moved home to Santa Fe, and I became uninsured - and
| >uninsurable.)
| >
| >In my attempts to obtain remedial care since then, I have diligently
| >followed every avenue available to me, ranging from Kaiser's internal
| >appeals process to the State of California's Department of Managed
| >Health Care. I have met with no success. I have been frustrated and very
| >angry at the relentlessly increasing level of pain and disability I must
| >live with, but until Monday, I thought that at least it was temporary -
| >something I could deal with until a means became available for me to
| >have the required revision surgery.
| >
| >On Monday, however, the orthopedic surgeon I'm seeing here in Santa Fe
| >informed me that without the surgery, the damage being caused by the
| >loose prostheses will inevitably leave me _permanently_ unable to walk.
| >I had not known that the delay in getting the revision done could have
| >such a dramatic consequence, and it has taken me until now to "process"
| >that information.
| >
| >It finally occurred to me last night that, since there has been no
| >appropriate response inside "the system," it's time to go outside of it.
| >This is a perfect opportunity to put my background in communications and
| >publishing to work, so I am going to mount a media campaign in an effort
| >to draw appropriate attention to this matter. (I've already learned,
| >thanks to my younger daughter, that Good Morning America ran a piece
| >sometime last week about a group of doctors who have formed a coalition
| >to fight HMO power at the federal level. That's perfect: It means an
| >issue like mine is already on GMA's radar and I may be able to generate
| >some interest there in this particular story.)
| >
| >I am asking you for any help at all that you can provide, from
| >suggesting media contacts to writing letters on my behalf. All of us
| >have networks of family, friends, and colleagues, and if we are to
| >believe the business writers, there are only six degrees of separation
| >from any one person to just the right contact. I hope you will tell my
| >story to everyone _you_ can think of.
| >
| >While I readily grant that most of my interest in drawing media
| >attention to my situation is driven by my wish to avoid spending the
| >rest of my life in a wheelchair, it does go beyond the personal: every
| >one of us almost certainly knows someone else who has been failed by an
| >HMO. I want this to be a New York Times cover story and a network TV
| >feature not just for myself, but because it's time to show President
| >Bush how wrong he was in vetoing the recent legislation that would have
| >returned to medical consumers at least a little of the power that HMOs
| >have appropriated from us.
| >
| >To those of you who are reading this outside the USA, I ask that you not
| >dismiss it as something that doesn't affect you. You may be right - you
| >may never have to deal directly with an issue like this - but you may
| >know someone who _would_ care. If you, too, put the word out, someone
| >six degrees or less from _you_ may be just the person I'm looking for.
| >
| >Most of you know me as a rather proud, "I-can-do-it-myself" kind of
| >person, but these events have changed me. This is something I know I
| >cannot do alone, and I earnestly ask - no, I am _begging_ - for your
| >help.
| >
| >Some time ago, I added a quote to my email ".sig" - for no reason other
| >than I liked it and felt it to be true. I ask you to read and consider
| >it now.
| >
| >My thanks to you,
| >Marcia
| >
| >Marcia Blake  http://www.automagix.com  Automagix!
| >E-business Strategies | Cross-media Communications
| >__________________________________________________
| >A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle.
|
|
|