From: hound23x@gmail.com   
      
   Harborview Treats Epilepsy On Involuntary Psych Ward   
      
   By Vonne Worth   
   Copyright (c), Vonne Worth,  2002.   All Rights Reserved.   
       
   Last December, I regained consciousness in 5-point restraints.  I knew I'd had   
   epileptic seizures and my epileptic seizures had been misdiagnosed as a   
   psychiatric episode for the fourth time in 25 years.  I asked the psych aides   
   what day it was.  Since    
   they told me it was the same day that my seizures had started, I knew they   
   were lying.  My epileptic seizure episodes last at least two days.  I had no   
   idea why I was in restraints.  To me, it was punishment for something I hadn't   
   done.   
       
   I found out was in the Harborview Psychiatry Intensive Care Unit for treatment   
   of my epileptic seizures.   
       
   Two psychiatrists, Maryanne Bolte, M.D., and an unknown male doctor came to   
   see me.  I told them epileptic seizures were the problem, although I knew they   
   would not believe me because they had designated me to be a mental patient.  I   
   was right.  I told    
   them misdiagnosis and improper treatment could be the basis for a lawsuit.   
       
   The man said, "Everybody says they're going to sue me."   
       
   "I'll bet they do," I replied.   
       
   I later learned they had written in my medical chart:  "She blames her   
   behavior on her seizures."   
       
   I also asked why they were not following my Advanced Directive (AD).  Turns   
   out they didn't know I had one even though it had been in my medical records   
   at Harborview since at least 1997 and they are required to read it because   
   they work in a Medicare-   
   Medicaid certified hospital.  Also, because of a recent court decision,   
   Hargrave v. State of Vermont, they are required to follow a Mental Health AD   
   in the same way they would follow any other AD.  Since they didn't follow it,   
   they're now respondents in    
   a federal civil rights complaint based on Hargrave.   
       
   The papers with "Rights and Responsibilities of Psychiatric Patients" had been   
   thrown on my bed behind my back while I was lying on my back in 5-point   
   restraints so I could not read them.   
       
   They put me back in behavioral restraints because I did not deserve medical   
   treatment for my medical condition.  I deserved punishment for my bad   
   behavior, such as escaping from restraints.   
       
   A psychiatric worker jerked my right arm down to put me back into tight   
   five-point restraints and I screamed.  My bad shoulder hurt and I felt a pop   
   in my elbow.  No medical people came to see if I were injured.  Nobody looked   
   to see that my previously    
   dislocated and repaired should that had calcium deposits and osteoarthritis   
   had been strained badly.  No Harborview medical personnel diagnosed, treated   
   or cared for my strained shoulder or my torn elbow ligament.  Because I was   
   designated a mental    
   patient, I couldn't get medical care in this hospital.   
       
   That night, a psychiatric person brought a partial dose of my epilepsy   
   anti-seizure medications.  When I asked for the rest of them, he took all the   
   anti-seizure medications away from me.  Since I was designated a mental   
   patient, I couldn't get anti-   
   convulsants when I was having seizures on a mental ward in this hospital.  It   
   seems I may have gone without proper anti-seizure medication for three days.    
   I had experienced seizures on at least two of those days and maybe once in a   
   while on this third.     
   I came out of the seizures in spite of Harborview's treatment.  If I had never   
   come out of seizures, I would have been locked up forever, denied anti-seizure   
   meds, given medications that cause seizures and other brain damage (most of it   
   irreversible),    
   and I probably would have died.   
       
   I did not receive proper anti-seizure medication in the appropriate doses   
   until I had come out of my seizures and could supervise Harborview's personnel.   
       
   I told them I wanted a phone and my purse.   
       
   I finally was able to call the person who has power of attorney (POA) to make   
   decisions for me during health care crisis.  I had written a Durable Power of   
   Attorney, an end of life Health Care Directive, a mental health advanced   
   directive (AD), and a    
   crisis prevention plan, all of which Harborview ignored until I told them   
   about it.  They ridiculed it in medical records, saying I had written a   
   "novel" of over 30 pages, proving I was self-focused and grandiose.  They   
   would have known all the proper    
   medication to give me and they would have known the proper doses if they had   
   read it.  Actually, when I first wrote the AD, one of Harborview's own   
   department heads signed a statement that said I was rational and able to   
   execute the document, which    
   Harborview's psych personnel now call a "novel".  They had to say the AD was   
   irrational as a result of my so-called mental illness in order to justify   
   their ignoring an AD in a Medicare-Medicaid hospital.   
       
   Anyway, after I called my POA and I told him I wanted to sign myself out   
   against medical advise, he called the psychiatrist and found out that I was   
   involuntarily committed for 72 hours, which meant I was locked up for seven   
   days.   
       
   I finally got fed for the first time in days.  Somebody even figured out how   
   much I love hot chocolate and brought it to me often.   
       
   According to my records, I had been in retraints for at least 32 hours for the   
   treatment of epilepsy.  I could have died if I had experienced a grand mal   
   seizure.  I do have grand mal seizures sometimes during the 2-5 day episodes.    
   Many people have died    
   in behavioral restraints.  After they took me out of behavioral restraints for   
   treatment of a medical condition, I could hardly stand up.   
       
   After four days of sleep deprivation, I got a little bit of sleep but not   
   until after I was released from restraints.  Then I got the first bath in   
   days.  Clean hospital gowns, even.  Then the nurse told me I could go out and   
   have dinner with the other    
   patients on a "trial basis."  I wondered how this would treat my epilepsy.   
       
   One night, a nurse beckoned to me and handed me a post-it note.  It had his   
   name, Frank Coleman MHT, on it.  He urged me to file an incident report about   
   "excessive use of force" regarding the arm injury.   
       
   I did that.  I was told that only a professional could file an incident   
   report.  I got something to file anyway and did so, but it was not followed up   
   on.  Coleman said he would "take care of the professional part of it."   
       
   I also had a newly-chipped tooth.    
       
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)