Of The Impact: Retaliation. The Hearings Continue.

     As discussed in several recent articles, while hospitalized at The Arizona State Hospital, on September 06, 2011, I was unlawfully transferred from the one of the most peaceful patient units at ASH, the Palo Verde East unit, to the arguably most violent unit, Desert Sage East, precisely one business after a very well formulated 14 page grievance report had been submitted on my behalf by a representative of the state Office for Human Rights. As such, and consistent with my prior allegations specific to the inept and arguably criminal misconduct carried on by the Hospital's senior ranking medical staff, as well as in relation to the various representatives of the administrative offices responsible for meeting the obligations of any such public resource (both there at ASH as well as in the Arizona Department of Health/Behavioral Health Services Office of Grievances and Appeals), I found this action to be highly retaliatory, both at the time of the transfer itself, and increasingly so as the immediate first few weeks following the transfer transpired. As such, it quickly became clear to me that my immediate primary care physician (Dr. Pervais Ahkter) acted in complicity with the Hospital's chief medical officer (Dr. Steven Dingle) to willfully subject me to very dangerous residential conditions in order to try and impress upon me their bottom line willingness to do whatever they have to (had to at the time) when it comes to keeping someone like myself subordinate, fearful of their authority and in contexts such as this. 
     I had, (by then, 7 months into my 13 total months at ASH, been centrally involved in a formal state level investigation of staff rendered illicit substance trafficking there in main part of the Hospital itself, as well as provided the local media with an extensive body of information specific to the May, 2011, coverup of a violent patients' escape from ASH, a coverup that in time directly contributed to the brutal slaying of a young Phoenix woman named April Mott; I was also increasingly taking on the role of a patient advocate by this time, in terms of my own rights and treatment needs, and on behalf of my patient-peers, to whatever extent I could. (It should be noted that no patient has much opportunity to act on behalf of their peers at ASH, this as a matter of the twisted structure of the state's general policies relating to patient care in public facilities such as ASH. But I tried.) So, in effect, come early September, 2011, the experience of having a three paragraph letter, drafted and signed by Dingle as well as the Hospital's brand new chief executive officer, Cory ""crazycorycorner.weebly.com" Nelson, delivered to me by the Pakistani educated man, Ahkter, exactly 24 business hours following the above mentioned delivery of a formal grievance report, a letter informing me that I was to be moved whether I liked it or not from the one unit to the other, had the effect of being a political prisoner who had angered the executive staff of a third world country undergoing a coup. Bottom line. I knew not what I was experiencing, the felling of it at the time, that is, but it was intense, and only contemplation and reflection on the history underlying this period of time granted me full understanding of how extensively unjust these individuals actions were at the time. Unjust, mind you, and to hell with any concerns for my health, right? Those rat bastards treat each and every patient as though we are not patients at a hospital, in fact, but rather something along the lines of criminal, subhuman, or otherwise deserving of the worst treatment existent in America's contemporary health care system. Bottom line.  
    As already stated in previous articles, this past December 17, 2012, I represented myself on behalf of the ASH patient community in general (see Of Retaliation, Intimidation, and Criminal Abuses of Authority: The Hearings Continue, Dec. 07 and Dec. 19 2012, and Joel Rudd, assistant Arizona Attorney General, Dec. 20, 2012), in a hearing convened by the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings, and as described therein, I faced an obvious pattern of tactical mischaracterizations specific to the factual details underlying this matter, including an untruthful body of testimony provided by Dr. Steven Dingle (via affidavit, with no opportunity for me to cross examine his testimony), and the blatantly self serving attitude of an Arizona Assistant Attorney General named Joel "the mortician" Rudd, who- as a matter of trying to reject certain aspects my testimony-  chose to demean the significance of the tragic death of the young Phoenix woman mentioned above. As always, the Machiavellian evil that I witnessed on virtually every goddamn day I was hospitalized at ASH reared its twisted head in classic fashion and tore into my good faith attempt(s) to speak out in defense of the rights and treatment needs of the ASH patients. Frightening stuff, indeed, and as stated, I still harbor great worry for my former patient-peers at ASH, because it is as clear as can be that the conditions at ASH are still dismally substandard as they were when I was there, from early January, 2011, to late February, 2012. 

      Central to the underlying story in this context, whereby senior clinical staff at ASH (Dingle) and at least one executive member of the administrative staff (CEO Cory "crazycorycorner.weebly.com" Nelson) ignored my plea to remain safe and free of the trauma of being immersed in a crowd of patients whose behavioral characteristics reflect a range of violent and related aberrant behavior, and instead, forcibly relocated me in defiance of applicable hospital rules and state and federal law specific to such actions, I was indeed subjected to immediate damage, both physical and psychological/emotional following that  transfer to the Desert Sage East unit, including at least one event wherein a staff charge nurse literally instigated and encouraged certain patients to attack me one particularly traumatic evening. It was insane (no pun intended), the glaringly stark differences in the atmosphere of these two patient units, and it was only a matter of hours before I sensed the message intended by the new who implemented the transfer itself: 
      
        "You asked for this, and now you will pay the consequences."

     
     And as time passed over a period of five full months, I was repeatedly assaulted, threatened, and otherwise subjected to the full brunt of ASH senior staff's willingness to ignore their most fundamental obligations and responsibilities as health care providers and state employed administrators, at times to such an extent that I found myself afraid to reenter Desert Sage East each day, this following the various therapeutic activities that I engaged in throughout the rest of the Hospital campus on any given day. It was as terrifying a period of time that I can imagine going through, the fear of not even being able to enter your own place of residence without being attacked, threatened, or otherwise traumatized; but truth be known, I was subjected to conditions of this nature when I was a child, and due to this issue, the worst underlying effects of that childhood abuse arose again in 2011, when this transfer occurred, leading me to experience an ongoing tirade of very disturbing dreams, panic attacks, and other like episodes consistent with post-traumatic stress, etc. Take a moment, then, to consider the fact that shit  occurred in a hospital. A mental hospital, at that, obligated to care for the treatment needs of someone just like me, and the other seriously mentally disabled patients at ASH. 
     But that's how it is at ASH. Surreal, and in no way consistent with the expectations that any reasonably minded citizen of our nation possesses in terms of medical care.    
     Needless to say, imposing such trauma on any patient, in any hospital or other like public facility, is in gross contradiction to established health care ethics, not to mention clearly mandated protections afforded to any American requesting services provided by a state entity such as ASH (and the Arizona Department of Health Services) by a host of very critical federal laws and policy. But to date, I have been exposed to a staff that for some goddamn reason doesn't believe such standards apply to them, a condition that I find utterly unacceptable, and I know that I am not alone in this thinking.  

     THAT SAID: On Monday, January 07, 2012, I will again be representing myself in specific relation to this issue- and again, on behalf of the ASH patient community in general, because my experiences at ASH are in no unique- in a hearing convened by the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings in downtown Phoenix. At that time, I will be presenting my allegations in as formidably clarifying a manner as I can muster via my accrued evidential materials and via my well documented recollections, and again, I will be doing so in contest with the state of Arizona's most powerful law firm, The Office of Arizona Attorney General, and the weaselly little man known to many as "the mortician", a man who has become somewhat of a nemesis, Joel Rudd. It is an insult to me and my familial background to even have to share a room with someone like this rat, but it has to be done.

paoloreed@gmail.com








   

which my referring physician specifically requested I be treated on in accordance my behavioral characteristics, underlying diagnosis, and fundamental treatment needs