Maryland Department of Health, "Do they really investigate citizens complaints?"

When you decide to write letters to the government you write what directly affects you and at least expect the agency can utilize their power to assist you, hoping their would be no retaliation. I was diagnosed with a chronic illness which causes ER visits.  I contacted Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Office of Health Care Quality regarding Holy Cross Hospital ER visit. I explain in detail what happened, my experienced and concluded that (all) Emergency room (ER) crowding has become a widespread problem in hospitals across the United States.  These problems can be resolved by direct methods discussed to improve the hospital quality for all citizens.

I registered at the ER Holy Cross hospital in Germantown, MD and it was poorly managed, the employees were very overwhelmed and short; the ER registrar had an attitude problem and very abusive to every patient while the emergency room patient’s witness sat and watches the poorly ran emergency room, the worst management style. I watch the Security Director yelling at sick patients who was not mobile while the patient advocates allowing this abuse. According to the federal government, first, emergency medicine is the only specialty in the “House of Medicine” that has a federal mandate to provide care to any patients requesting treatment. Another issue, Holy Cross hospital can't handle chronic recurring patients. The triage nurse can't recognize the prevalence of chronic and under treatment of pain, including chronic pain, continues to be common. The failure to properly diagnose or adequately treat pain has multiple causes, including a lack of educational opportunities for providers, inadequate quality improvement programs, concern about opioids addiction and abuse, the relative paucity of rigorous ED-based pain research, and the difficulty of accurately assessing our patients' subjective pain experiences.

You can read more about my experiences which I shared with DHMH, Mary Gail, RN Suryeryor HMO and Hospital Assurance Unit  Please see blog: http://disabledlivesmatter2016.blogspot.com/2017/03/holy-cross-hospital-emergency-room.html      

                                                                                                                               

Mary Gail, RN, DHMH Surveyor wrote me a 5 sentence letter and claims she completed the investigation, however, spelled my name wrong and couldn’t substantiate any of my allegations? Because she never contacted me for any evidence such as photos, witnesses, etc., to substantiate any of my allegations! How do the agencies complete an investigation without talking to complainant or request any evidence? Now let’s talk about government accountability, openness, and transparency! The Hospital ER problems regarding the quality of healthcare and it are treated like bureaucracy and then it’s thrown like “trash” lost!  Why waste the paper to write if the agency refuses to conduct a proper investigation? Or pretend to conduct an investigation to make the lives better for citizens.  Maybe DHMH need to file one page 5 lines file document and store it in the file cabinet without clearly explain responsibility or what actions were taken; about being able to explain, clarify and justify actions. Maybe citizens should not dare to consider the notion of accountability from the public sector?  

The Internet has become popular over the years exposing such injustices and oppression. Citizens are smarter and beginning not to trust the word from the government due to corruption and lies. I learn one thing they might try to suppress and ignore my letters about my experiences hoping that I might just go away but they can’t suppress my freedom to post and voice my grievances over the internet supplied with evidence with pictures, videos, tape recordings to expose my grievances and truth to the public.  Sorry Ms. Mary Gail, RN, DHMH your letter and the false investigation is unacceptable, unprofessional, unethical and dishonest.

Later, I received a formal 2-page letter from Ms. R. Webster, DHMH follow-up Ms. Gail fabricated letters. Still much is missing in her letter, however,  I was clearly misdiagnosed by the hospital with an anti-fungal infection (downgraded to non-emergency) they just try to humiliate me. DHMH suggest I file a complaint against the doctor, yeah right let them off the hook with ER bad management, right? Bureaucracy! During the ER visit, I was wearing a urine bag which I was diagnosed with a chronic bladder syndrome (IC), acute pulmonary disease and auto - immune disease, therefore, I do go to the ER even though I don't like hospitals, I guess no one does! They never checked me for an X-ray, either. Then I had a panic attack I was put in a room by the nursing administrator talking on the phone that wasn't in the DHMH report either, I wonder why? 

Because I don't look sick I am overlooked by triage nurse then I am later admitted in the hospital friends calls me a "Diva" because I don't look sick! The triage nurse just can't  assess "look" at a person to say patients are or not sick! At the Holy Cross patient who went before me ask for my name and phone number for a date in the ER waiting room and the triage nurse claim he was sicker than me, they scale him #2 and scale me #3. There are many people in this world with a chronic illness that don't look sick but I guess triage nurses initial assessment needs to be evaluated while DHMH not present, "who are they actually listening to?"  The hospital of course!  Not the patient which put us at risk. How is that monitored?  By what scale? How many citizens have to complain and get acknowledged by DHMH? So if  Hospital ER's is so perfect and don't need proper investigation or monitoring processes, "What is the purpose of this particular DHMH department?"

Another issue, there are over 1,000 negative public reviews concerning Holy Cross ER bad management, now "all"  Maryland citizens can't be fabricating? Can they? Holy Cross Hospital is not going to get better if DHMH continues to be one-sided and impartial which means DHMH still never ask me about any my evidence, witness, pictures, etc.,  she said my evidence wouldn't change her report! She claims she talks to me for 45 minutes by my phone records she totally inaccurate. DHMH just talk with Holy Cross Hospital personnel which only demonstrate impartial against patients who complains about the ER management? I called and left a message to Ms. Webster but it was waste of time and energy; it's based on patients source of income, classification focused on capitalism, I am 99%. At least, I can walk with integrity as the one telling the truth provided with evidence of what really happened as a chronically ill patient who needed medical attention at Holy Cross ER faced with bureaucratic injustice and untruths. Just another falsified letter in the DHMH file cabinet. I just want to prove to citizens that the government isn't always right they have unethical issues and act unprofessionally when they are exposed then willing to lose their integrity instead of fixing the issue that we citizens have to suffer.  I will put on social media the recorded incident what happen to me so the world to see vs the fabrication, we think President Donald Trump fabricates and lost his integrity we have those sort of attitudes all around the governement. The public deserves the truth and I encourage any citizens to use your phone press record! 

Chronic and Acute Pain

As I was diagnosed with an incurable disease which causes intenseness chronic pain, I conduct research to discover more about this pain and to understand it.

Pain is a feeling triggered in the nervous system. Pain may be sharp or dull. It may come and go, or it may be constant. Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors. Pain can be helpful in diagnosing a problem. Without pain, you might seriously hurt yourself without knowing it, or you might not realize you have a medical problem that needs treatment. Once you take care of the problem, pain usually goes away. However, sometimes pain goes on for weeks, months or even years. This is called chronic pain. Sometimes chronic pain is due to an ongoing cause, such as cancer or arthritis.

I discovered that the word suffering is sometimes used in the narrow sense of physical pain, but more often it refers to mental or emotional pain, or more often yet to pain in the broad sense, i.e. to any unpleasant feeling, emotion or sensation. The word pain usually refers to physical pain, but it is also a common synonym of suffering.

The words pain and suffering are often used both together in different ways. Or they may be used in 'contradistinction' to one another, as in "pain is inevitable, suffering is optional", or "pain is physical, suffering is mental". Or they may be used to define each other, as in "pain is physical suffering", or "suffering is severe physical or mental pain".

So What is Pain? Pain, in the sense of physical pain, is a typical sensory experience defined as the unpleasant awareness of a noxious stimulus or bodily harm. Individuals experience pain by various daily hurts and aches, and occasionally through more serious injuries or illnesses.

Pain is highly subjective to the individual experiencing it and is a major symptom in many medical conditions, significantly interfering with a person's quality of life and general functioning.

Typical descriptions of pain quality include sharp, stabbing, tearing, squeezing, cramping, burning, lancinating (electric-shock like), or heaviness. It may be experienced as throbbing, dull, nauseating, shooting or a combination of these.

Pain may range in intensity from slight through severe to agonizing and can appear as constant or intermittent.

Diagnosis is based on characterizing pain in various ways, according to duration, intensity, type (dull, burning or stabbing), source, or location in body. Usually pain stops without treatment or responds to simple measures such as resting or taking an analgesic, and it is then called 'acute' pain. But it may also become intractable and develop into a condition called chronic pain, in which pain is no longer considered a symptom but an illness by itself.

To establish an understanding of an individual's pain, health-care practitioners will typically try to establish certain characteristics of the pain: site, onset and offset, character, radiation, associated symptoms, time pattern, exacerbating and ameliorating factors and severity.

Medical management of pain has given rise to a distinction between acute pain and chronic pain. Acute pain is 'normal' pain, it is felt when hurting a toe, breaking a bone, having a toothache, or walking after an extensive surgical operation. Chronic pain is a 'pain illness', it is felt day after day, month after month, and seems impossible to heal.

Types of Pain:

• Psychogenic pain: Also called psychalgia or somatoform pain, is physical pain that is caused, increased, or prolonged by mental, emotional, or behavioral factors. Headache, back pain, or stomach pain are some of the most common types of psychogenic pain.
• Phantom pain: The sensation of pain from a limb or organ that has been lost or from which a person no longer receives physical signals. Phantom limb pain is an experience almost universally reported by amputees and quadriplegics. Phantom pain is a neuropathic pain.
• Acute pain: Pain that comes on quickly, can be severe, but lasts a relatively short time. As opposed to chronic pain. Acute pain serves as a warning of disease or a threat to the body.
• Chronic pain: Defined as pain that persists longer than the temporal course of natural healing, associated with a particular type of injury or disease process. Chronic pain impairs the ability to direct attention, in particular when compared to peers with low intensity or no chronic pain, people with high-intensity chronic pain have significantly reduced ability to perform attention-demanding tasks.

Pain Awareness Information

The month of September is Pain Awareness Month, a time when various organizations work to raise public awareness of issues in the area of pain and pain management. Understanding more about the underlying causes of pain can help improve treatments and alleviate suffering.

If anyone knows if there is a specific awareness ribbon color for pain, please contact us.

Quick Facts: Pain

• The Brain Doesn't Feel Pain.
• Chronic pain shrinks brains.
• Scientist don't understand pain.
• Pain Is Both Physical and Emotional.
• Back Pain is The Most Common Pain Condition.

Statistics: Pain

• A study of 4,703 patients found that 26% had pain in the last two years of life, increasing to 46% in the last month.
• Pain is the main reason for visiting the emergency department in more than 50% of cases and is present in 30% of family practice visits.
• Several epidemiological studies from different countries have reported widely varying prevalence rates for chronic pain, ranging from 12 to 80% of the population.
• A survey of 6,636 children (0 to 18 years of age) found that, of the 5,424 respondents, 54% had experienced pain in the preceding three months. A quarter reported having experienced recurrent or continuous pain for three months or more, and a third of these reported frequent and intense pain. The intensity of chronic pain was higher for girls, and girls reports of chronic pain increased markedly between ages 12 and 14.

Latest Pain - Acute & Chronic Publications

1. Determining the Origin of Hip and/or Spine Pain
2. Effective and Safe Options to Treat Pain
3. Pain Scale Chart - 1 to 10 Levels
4. Pain Described As Multi-layered Gradual Event
5. Spinal Cord Stimulation Reduces Chronic Pain Emotional Aspect

“Abraham Lincoln triumphs over mental illness and succeeded as President of U.S.”

A man in America had a meaningful vision that impacted the United States; he made sure that America never forgets his legacy the “Emancipation Proclamation” freeing slaves. He questioned the Founding Fathers actions who wrote the Declaration of Independence and the contents, “That all men are created equal”. He took a risk while slavery was popular and the economic power U.S. But he was driven by his belief that “those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.” In his own personal life, Lincoln overcame many trials, a failed business, abandonment, bankruptcy, deaths and lost elections. He believed, “If you are courageous and refused to give up on yourself”, you will succeed. He believed in the spiritual being that guided him “God”. He went on to become the 16^th President of the United States despite suffering from a lifelong mental illness; this visionary name is Abraham Lincoln.

What most Americans seek in a leader is someone who is handsome, athletic and a charismatic person. However, Lincoln was genuine; he was tall, thin, compassionate, and empathetic and had great leadership characteristics. The three elements of Lincoln's mental illness history is the deep, pervasive sadness of his mother who died, the strange spells of his father, and the striking presence of mental illness in the family of his uncle and cousins suggest the likelihood of a biological predisposition toward depression. His father didn’t support his education and Lincoln decided to leave home in his early twenties. Lincoln self-taught and passed the law bar exam and became a lawyer in Illinois. After less than a year in New Salem, Lincoln declared himself as a candidate for the Illinois General Assembly; he was twenty-three years old. He lost the race but got nearly every vote in his precinct, which, said another candidate, was "mainly due to his personal popularity." When he volunteered for a state militia campaign against a band of Native Americans under Chief Black Hawk, a part of the bloody Black Hawk War, his company elected Lincoln captain.

Lincoln went into business at the age of 31, and then he went bankrupt. At the age 32, he contested for legislative office in America and was defeated. He went back into business at age 34, his business failed again.

At the age of 35, his wife died. At the age of 36, he suffered a nervous breakdown. In 1835, Lincoln’s depression was pushed out into the open. After several weeks of worrisome behavior talking about suicide, wandering alone in the woods with his gun an older couple in the area took him into their home. When he recovered two years later he went back into politics and suffered another defeat at the age of 38. He never gave up!

In January 1841, a young Abraham Lincoln suffered his second breakdown. He collapsed and was treated by a doctor who may have done him more harm than good.

At the age of 43, he contested for a seat in the Congress and was still defeated. Yet, he never gave up on his vision, at the age of 46; he contested again for a sit in the Congress for the second time and still was defeated.

At the age of 55, he sought a sit at the house of senate and was yet defeated again. At the age of 58 he made an attempt at the office of the vice president of America. Everybody gave up on him but he still refused to give up on himself and refused to be refused.

At the age of 60, he contested for the office of the president of the United States of America and worn and emerged the 16th president of America, ABRAHAM LINCON. Out of 11 attempts, he failed 10 times and succeeded once as “President of the United States of America”.

During slavery and the growth in economic power, Abraham Lincoln issued the “Emancipation Proclamation” that declared forever free those slaves within the Confederacy in 1863. (You can imagine some believe that he was still suffering from mental illness freeing slaves). Lincoln’s spiritual beliefs conquered humanity thoughts and decisions.

On a “Good Friday” April 14, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated at Ford's Theatre in Washington by John Wilkes Booth, an actor, who somehow thought he was helping the South. (Good Friday was connected and symbolizes Lincoln’s own spiritual beliefs that were the day Jesus was crucified, died on the cross and buried in a tomb).

He was murdered but Lincoln’s life was not in vain however predestined and for a purpose! Even though there were many trials, tribulations, and mental illness he pressed forward with his vision. Lincoln was never forgotten however remembered and among one of the most famous Presidents of the U.S. today!

Disabled & Inspired: Still believe, achieving dreams and renewed hope

It takes “unusual” people to change the world.