E M E R G
E N C Y
!!!
Thursday, June 14,
2007
Faxed to # 918 762 3476
at 0935 hours
Department of Human
Services, Pawnee
County Oklahoma:
I am 70 years of
age. I live
alone. Last evening I
was released from Hillcrest Medical Center and sent home to
recover the rather extensive quadruple coronary bypass performed
June 6th and 8th.
I have a long list of
restrictions I must abide by. I doubt that I could
even get in my truck, much less drive it which I am not allowed to
do for four weeks.
I have nine prescriptions
that need filled now to prevent
fatality. I have no
way of getting them filled.
I need to go to Wal-Mart
for my diabetic requirements.
I have future
appointments I must keep and no available
transportation.
What emergency “services”
does the Department of Human Services provide in such
circumstances for such a significantly disabled senior
citizen?
Attached is list of
restrictions/prescriptions needing filled now.
Signed,
John
Schoonover RR 1 Box
67 Cleveland Oklahoma
74020
Faxed to # 918 762 3476
0935 hours
Also faxed was the single
page list of restrictions that included “Do not drive for 4 weeks”
I “may do light housework – making bed, dusting, cooking one meal
per day.” But no “vacuuming, sweeping scrubbing changing linens
& other things for 8 weeks.”
Also faxed was the single
page of “Wound Care” instructions and when to call/return to
doctor’s office.
Including when to call physician: Fever greater than 100
degrees…which it was the day before and weekend following the fax
to DHS…If incisions are red, warm to touch, swelling,
draining…they were and are as of June 18th, the day of
this posting, Difficulty breathing…every day, “Fast or irregular
heartbeats” …most
definitely into the morning I faxed DHS for help.
NEEDED IMMEDIATELY: Amoxicillin-Pot
Clavulanate, 875 mg X2 daily for the infection that was cause of
the fever.
NEEDED IMMEDIATELY: Metoprolol Tartrate
50 mg Every 12 hours for the ‘irregular’ heart beat.
NEEDED IMMEDIATELY: Lisinopril 5 mg 2 times
per day to keep blood pressure low.
Again, this
emergency request was Faxed to # 918 762 3476 0935
hours Thursday.
I wait for a quick
response…which comes in the Saturday afternoon
mail:
“We received your faxed letter
requesting information about services that are offered by the
Department of Human Services. In order to determine
which areas we may be able to assist you with, you will need to
complete an application…Please fill out this out completely, sign
and date it. When we
receive the completed application in our office, we will set up a
time for you to be interviewed with a social worker. Eligibility for services
is based on need as well as income and resources.”
At the earliest the form
would go out in the Monday afternoon mail.
By then the infection
would have spread throughout the lungs; the incision would be
oozing all over the place, the blood pressure would be so high and
heart beat so irregular…if beating at all…
There are nine pages of
information Pawnee County DHS requires before consideration. The beginning page is
headed:
VERY
IMPORTANT
Starting
out with requiring last year tax records and tax refunds …copy of
current Social Security Income award…life insurance policies,
Utilities, Phone, Truck payment, credit card payment, What you will need to bring
to your interview: (5 items, none having
anything to do with emergency life sustaining medication)
paraphrased conclusion, “If you don’t give us all the
information we want, we may not be able to help
you.”
I did not ask for any
‘handouts’ or money.
I did not ask for any help in paying for my life dependant
emergency prescriptions.
I did not even ask for a “free” ride. I have a truck, I
simply cannot drive it.
All I asked was help where I could not help myself. DHS has a $billion
annual budget and this severely disabled septuagenarian
Veteran did not even ask DHS to supply the gas it would take to
get the life saving prescriptions.
Had I no option but to
rely of our $billion DHS for the needed emergency service I would
be dead now, without question, from their negligence.
I made two other
calls: A reputable
company in Sand Springs responded by allowing an employee time off
to transport me where necessary. I filled their gas tank at
QT. The Disabled
American Veteran’s Outreach volunteer asked me one question:
Directions to my home.
They would not even let me put gas in their van. A small
Baptist Church in Miami heard of my emergency
situation called me and sent a car/driver …and they had only
one question: Directions to my home.
I did not ask Pawnee
County DHS for a “free ride.” All I ask DHS for was
emergency transportation for immediately needed life sustaining
prescriptions.
As of this writing,
Sunday June 17, 2007 at 2100 hours, I am still fighting an
infection with a little over 100 degree fever. One of my lower ‘weep
holes’ is still draining.
And this is with
the emergency drugs.
My heart rate is regulated as well as blood pressure. There is no doubt in my
mind that if I had to rely on our DHS for my life…I would not have
it.
Now I question: Does our DHS treat ALL emergency situations
similar to this one with the same superfluously fatal inducing
procrastinations or am I singled out because of my battle to get
my son back from their greedy clutches? There is no denial that
The Pawnee County Department of Human Services would benefit from
my death. Just for starters, Mikah
McCray would not have to get on the stand to be cross examined as
to why she falsified information on my son’s OSU hospital
records.
