As I skirted past the communication problems with the Kern Valley Healthcare District in a previous post, making light of the fact that the ER wrote in a report they were "looking" for my appendix, which I say again, was removed when I was 12, I was only trying to digest what I only recently learned about my "incident" at the ER in January.
There's nothing funny or light about what has happened to people in this ER, and I will explain exactly what went wrong in my case.
But I didn't know about it until two weeks ago about this cardiac condition.
It's called Bradycardia
What you maybe able to see in this picture above is an EKG from the ER at KVHD, the heart rate is 45 beats per minute. For those of us unfamiliar with heart rates, the medical profession considers a heart rate of 60 and lower to be "Bradycardic," meaning the heart is not pumping the juice fast enough.
Generally, when people are diagnosed with bradycardia, according to a wide variety of websites, the next step is a trip to the cardiologist and likely a pacemaker, unless it can be directly linked to an acute drug overdose.
The relation of this picture to my case is that this picture of the EKG, was that it is from November of 2010.
I got the news a little late don't you think?
My "9/11" occurred on 1/20/11 when I arrived at the KVHD ER with my dog in the car as I had palpitations and weakness, and though I regularly tried to get help for my gastric problems which were becoming so severe as I could not get the ER doctors or even my own PA to take the situation with some immediacy.
There's not a day that passes that I wish I had not gone there that morning, but the point is we take tests and then we don't get results or we get a missed signal that could have halted a mistake or treated an underlying issue.
There's a scratch in our record keeping
Why didn't my doctor know I had Bradycardia and why did the hospital who knew and I didn't, never even make a diagnosis, when you can see my pulse was much the same as it was on 1/20. I also had a second event, or at least noticed event that was so bizarre I can't believe it.
I fell in my room, fainted I would say, as I had been weak and sick for a couple of months. It also made no sense that I was sleeping as much as I was during this time, as I'm an insomniac. My neighbor was actually entertaining my dog as I slept the days away.
It would have been nice to know that I had a problem, and the tests that were paid for again, were of no use whatsoever. Those test were for nothing but a path that was never followed up on and not by me, as I notified and made complaints all during this time frame.
Nothing has been followed up on
I'm in a new place and a new time, with different conditions to wrestle with, and it's because I came home from fainting at the hospital, the diagnosis was a "panic attack and pain of unknown etiology." There is an EKG again with Bradycardic symtptoms, yet nothing is done, or said about it.
Again we the insurance of the government of the United States paid for a useless test I was never advised of nor was I treated for. And now it's nine months later and the insurance is paying away as I have had to take this all on myself, outside the valley.
Does the government know about what happened to me and others I know of directly, are my numbers part of a "quality control" system for this Critical Access Hospital, how they are doing in terms of actually "healing" patients and not making patients out of people who were well or even better before they entered the KVHD death trap?
No, and that's why you and your friends should stop relying on the figures out there regarding medications, hospitals, doctors as you know nothing until you see them close up, what they are really about.
The Jaguar program
I don't think KVHD could have been more clear than they were last year when they gave the CEO a raise, froze the raises or increases for the "regular" employees, and asked the community to bail them out of bad decisions financially all at the same meeting.
It's very clear this is like Dr. John Owens, OBGYN, in Bakersfield told me in regards to his former visits to the valley to keep us from having to travel, he said, " it's like a third world country up there, so I'm doing what I can to help."
Sounds like an honest approach, but not one generally found around the feeding dish we call KVHD.
I'm sure Owens made nothing coming up here and there are others that have been overextended two of which are leaving, and another one is suing the hospital.
Is this the kind of company we want to trust with our "health" or future as Dr. Gross again, I must say, makes a point.
I trusted KVHD and I've trusted the medical profession, and I am dealing with them in the best manner possible at this juncture. My feelings are more of disappointment in the people who actually would mix my politics and medicine.
In fact, I asked that question only a couple months before this whole drama began, and I was told with a certain "how dare you even question me" response that it would never happen.
But suddenly it's an emergency call poison control
I imagine that everyone who has been hooked on pain management has a story or two to tell, but this is not a story that should have happened, and the outcome was damage.
The point of pain management which is not being met in my opinion, is to educate the patient to monitor their own pain relief, as the only real antidotes to certain pain is opiate related. There are contracts a patient will sign in order to receive these medications from a "specialist" in pain.
On my records I gave KVHD the name and number of the doctor, Ashok Parmar, of Bakersfield, as the ER was blaming the drugs which I had taken for a year with no adverse effects, then had only taken a sample of the new drug, and had seen this doctor the day before.
Now suddenly my heart rate becomes an emergency. If that is the case, then it was emergent on November, 11, and December 25th, as my heart rate was the same and I was not using that medication.
No call is made to my doctor, but poison control, which I have had to break up into several videos below, is the first call Dr. Martin makes in his attempt to treat this two month old emergency.
He also does not offer the full information which are on the records, as he then has no problem admitting there's a history of bradycardia, but why are we treating it as a poison control issue suddenly?
I would have like to have known about this, I think it would have been best explored at a cardiologists office and also with the endocrinologist and rheumtologist.
We all have paid for this service, and due to the maltreatment and misuse of a drug known to cause serious side effects, called Narcan, or generically, Naxolene, the costs are skyrocketing.
They don't use it much except on overdosing heroin addicts, though it has other therapeutic uses, it's commonly administered routinely in the back of an ambulance. And the nurse who administered the drug to me, my best guess, is he hadn't done it in a long time or ever.
If only it was a paramedic
The drug was put directly into my vein, it was not dripped in a bag at a low dose to deal with a long acting medication, as the Narcan lasts only about 45 minutes. It would have to be slowly infused easily and gently if the person is awake and treating pain, but if someone is turning blue it goes up the pipe and many a successful heroin addict has his story I'm sure.
The nurse would have to had regular experience with this drug to know that when he ran to get more pain medication that he would be giving it to me while the anti-opiate was still working, thereby making that pain even more intolerable.
I don't know how much Narcan is used at the hospital, it could be a good question, but I don't imagine they have a tremendous use, therefore the nurse was as confused as he seemed to me to be as he was putting this in my vein and not the bag.
(Pictured above is my final EKG as I was released from San Joaquin hospital with a 30 beats per minute pulse, which is lower than the pulse I had when I entered KVHD four days earlier. I guess I was a walking emergency)
The second issue that has cropped up for me is the tape of poison control and the discussion with the hospital. I do think they had a problem getting correct information from Dr. Martin who openly told them I come in a lot for and take a lot of "drugs." On the record from the two times I saw him regarding what has now finally been treated and is a hiatal hernia, a hole in your gut, he gave scant history. He gave incorrect history his own records refute.
What happens when a doctor asks poison control whether or not they should admit a patient? I don't know how it happened, but I knew somehow that poison control would have a record, and upon hitting the welcome sunlight of the day leaving San Joaquin, I went straight home to my computer.
You see nobody told me anything. From here to Bakersfield and back, I didn't know what had happened to me and why I would be in the shape I was now in. It was like the date rape drug, I was in and out of it, and transferred with nobody in my family notified, my friends were on the list and all they got were death threats once I arrived home. (Post and recording of death threats below somewhere on here)
Oh, the government will protect you
I looked up the Narcan, then called the FDA, as I was never told about the bradycardia from November and December, therefore, I assumed they were treating the drug I was trying, a once a day, called Exagol. That's what I told the FDA as I assumed something had gone very wrong.
But then I remembered hearing the phone call, as I had a migraine and could hear a pin drop and Dr. Martin was talking to poison control. I made a few inquiries and found them, though they don't want to deal with this situation, (more in a moment), I called them and wrote to them.
I ended up with the tape you will hear below, if it works.
By the way there are certain "apps" you require to see the video on an Iphone and such. So, to see these videos you will need a computer and speakers as well.
But when I heard it finally trying to edit it, I really began to hear it. I really began to hear the things that had happened that have left me damaged for months.
It could be you, it could be anyone in this town, and albeit odd to have to write first person this is my story, I did complain, I will continue to complain, I will also add to this story, as it effects my ability to do many things. I know my story telling has taken a dive, but give me a chance and I'll make sure you won't be disappointed.
These are slightly out of order...consider this blog still under construction, if there are any problem listening to the tapes, I'll be pulling some quotes, but the best way to experience this nightmare is to hear it....
"Ape shit" "Ballastic" and "crazy": The KVHD medical record glossary....Part One: Dr. Martin getting poison control to do his job.
Part two, we hear Dr. Martin flat out give incorrect information to the the poison control operator. Martin is heard saying, "she was in a week ago," (no I wasn't). If anyone can make sense of Dr. Martin write to me and I'll add your comments to the responses I've already received.
Again, a "top notch" doctor such as Dr. Martin who I had to complain to the hospital, told me he didn't believe in "white blood cell tests." Then I assume he believes in only the tests that he wants to, or he isn't making any sense. In fact, they didn't seem to believe in Bradycardia either, but rather, they did believe in making monkeys out of a large organization called Poison Control.
I am not completely researched yet, but it seems Dr. Martin asked Poison control if they should admit me even if the heart rate returns to normal. Now Cathy Marquart doesn't even know that she's talking to a doctor and even asks with a serious tone if Martin is a "doctor." But Poison control is giving the ORDERS....based on Martin's confused tale of my health.
Then Poison control called back to see how everything went after speaking to the "doctor" earlier, and the nurse who administered the Narcan without telling me, admits to them that the Narcan didn't go so well...we had to give her more drugs...she went "ballistic" which was the term used in my records. Now what does it mean when a patient in hospital is written as "ballistic?" It means she was under "stress."
ER Director, Dr. Sacapano, receives the final phone call from Poison Control. At this point there may have "been a mistake" as there's a line in the transcript where Sacapano admits the problem isn't coming from the medication...What, why it was an emergency?
Next up: No help? How to stake your claim....with the rest of the community...It's a problem for us all to solve.
