Medical Conequences of Racism for a 13-year-old Black gril

After  Robyn O. Edwards surgery on October 6, 2007, we were given 72 hours. If the swelling of her brain didn't began to recede, she would not survive. Robyn's brain kept swelling. On about the 8th or 9th of October 2007, my family and I were told she was braindead. I don't remember which day because by then the knowledge of the days and time had slipped away from me. 

I've already told you how it affected my being. But as I sat there. I remembered my conversations with God weeks earlier and I felt all eyes were on me. My only response was, "God gave me life when I prayed." I then excused myself from the meeeting. I needed to talk with God because I needed to know that I wasn't crazy. 

My words left everyone, including my family, questioning my mental state. I was questioning my mental state. The only space I could find to talk with God was a bench infront of two elevators. I sat and began my converstaion with Him.  

  "Dear Lord, I've tried to be the Christian mother you would have me to be. I've failed many times....I went on for a while laying my case before Him. Then he responded to me. "I was the one who woke you at three in morning to touch Robyn in My name. I was the one who compelled you to testify before the church of what I instructed you to do. Trust Me and only Me."   And this was the only reason I was able to stand because I knew that God had indeed given me life for Robyn.

Today, I still have so many questions for God. I believe one day he will reveal the answers to me. I do know that too many African Americans die and/or are maimed or left disabled because of adverse medical events, and many of the adverse events are a consequence of racism.

When I watched the story of Emmett Till, I often wondered how his mother was able to endure the open casket, the trauma, but she wanted the world to see the inhumanity, cruelty, and sickness of racism.

Robyn, a Black teen, who survived after family was told she was braindead in 2007.

 

Good morning! I pray all is well. As many of you know, it was in October of 2007 that we were informed by a medical team of doctors that Robyn O. Edwards was braindead. I can remember it like yesterday. I remember how the words “braindead” wreaked havoc on my neurotransmitters – alarms were going off inside my head and then all of a sudden, I was numb. The pain was there but it was numbing, and I remember wanting to bash my head in a wall because of the numbing. I also remember asking God, “How are you going to fix this?”

I sat in a Neuro ICU for about 30 days, watching sick children and their families come and go. Some went back home with their families, and some went home with the Lord. I had several doctors tell me that “no one survives brain death.” On their morning rounds, If I shared something that I thought was positive, like Robyn moved a limb, they’d shake their heads and tell me it was only a spontaneous movement, nothing to be hopeful for.

Today when I look back, I know I wouldn’t have survived had the Lord not walked with me because not only did I have to deal with almost losing Robyn, but I also became painfully aware of the inherent dangers for Black people within doctor’s offices and medical facilities.
My post over the next few days will be on the Goodness of God and the silencing of Black women’s voices and the destruction of their children.

On a side note, I want to encourage everyone to get their vaccines. I struggled with trusting the vaccines as many of you did, but I decided that it was better to take a chance on the vaccine than someone at a medical facility deciding whether to save my Black body or someone else. So, I prayed about it and took it.

This morning I pray that God will comfort and give peace to the patients and families impacted by COVID-19. I pray for the healthcare workers who are overwhelmed by COVID-19, and I pray for those who’ve been confused because politicians have made taking the vaccine a political ploy. It’s sad that as a nation we never get it right when the choice is humanity vs political gains.

A Black Mother on Systemic Racism - Dear President Trump

 

Dear President Trump,

         After hearing you question whether systemic racism exists in the United States, I felt compelled to write you and share my family’s experience with systemic racism in Idaho Falls, Idaho. I have rewritten this letter several times because my desire is not to offend you, but the reality is that Black lives are destroyed and Black voices are suppressed when good White people, many who claim to love God, will walk away from God if it means upholding the rights of Black people when a White person commits a crime against a Black person. “And what does the Lord require of you? To Act justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

          My name is Veverly Edwards. I am a Black mother, a patient safety 

advocate, and a consumer representative for FDA Neurological Device Panel. I 

became an advocate for safer patient outcomes after my daughter, Robyn, almost 

lost her life to medical negligence in October of 2007.  After Robyn’s life was 

altered, I learned that Black people are more likely than any other people to 

become victims of adverse medical events.

            Robyn was thirteen years old when Dr. Erich Garland, a neurologist in Idaho Falls, Idaho 

prescribed two powerful drugs to her for numbing sensations. I requested an MRI, but he denied my 

initial request because he said it was not necessary. When Dr. Garland prescribed an antipsychotic and a

 drug for migraines to my daughter, he assured me that her numbing sensations would eventually go 

away. But the numbing sensations were mini strokes.If Garland had requested an MRI when I asked, 

instead of prescribing these drugs, which caused a massive stroke, Robyn would probably be in

graduate school now. President Trump the harsh truth is, Black patients are seldom referred on for 

diagnostic testing when they need them even when accounting for economic differences. 

             President Trump, before Dr. Garland destroyed my daughter’s life, she was 

an A student. She was inducted into the honor society the spring of 

2007. She was the anchor of her seventh-grade relay team. She 

choreographed praise dances for the children at church, and she

 sang in the choir. After taking the medication prescribed by 

Garland, she had a massive stroke. She had to be airlifted to the 

Children’s hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah, and on October 8, 2007 the 

medical team at the Children’s Hospital, told my family and me that 

my daughter, Robyn, was brain dead.

                 While my daughter fought for her life, Dr. Garland was in Idaho Falls reconstructing her

 medical history to cover his tracks. After Dr. Garland falsified her records, she had a history of

 migraine headaches and had missed days out of school becuase of them. But President Trump, there 

are some things that cannot be concealed. My daughter did not have a history of illness because she had

 not been sick prior to the numbing sensations which 

occured sparodically. Dr. Garland concocted lies that I could not refute

 

because the officials in Idaho Falls refused to recognize her civil rights.

Again, I share this with you because I also saw the interview you had with 

Pastor Carl Day, and your response to him, “Well, I hope there's not a race

 problem. I can tell you, there's none with me,” troubled me - as an African

 American mother, who in 2012, found herself fighting systemic racism in

 

Idaho Falls, Idaho.

            Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most 

shocking and inhuman.”

            President Trump, in June of 2012, I had no alternative but to file pro se (Edwards vs Garland) in

 the civil courts in Idaho Falls, Idaho after my daughter’s lawyer, Lance Nalder, suddenly discovered,

 within six months of the trial date for the medical malpractice lawsuit that the case against Dr. Garland

 was nonviable. Nalder withdrew from representing the case. When Nalder could not convince me, the

 primary witness, to dismiss the case with prejudice, he began spreading false information about the

 case. He also informed me, in a letter, that if I withdrew, he would forgive the cost incurred at that

 point, but if I persisted with the lawsuit, he would bill me. President Trump, “Why would he be 

concerned with me refiling, and why would he threaten to bill me if I did?

        After I discovered that Nalder and the doctor’s lawyer appeared to be conspiring to undermine 

Robyn’s case by introducing false evidence into the civil court proceedings, which is a felony offense 

(Idaho Statute 18:2601 and 2602) in Idaho, I reached out to the Idaho State Attorney General’s office 

for assistance. I was told that the Bonneville county prosecutor in Idaho Falls handled such cases and 

that I needed to file a report with the Idaho Falls Police Department whose responsibility is to forward 

the report to the Bonneville County prosecutor.

            In my first attempt to file the report, the policeman assigned to speak with me, Officer Deedee,

 said “I don’t even know how to write such a report or what to do with it.” When I returned a few days

later, to, again, file a report, Officer Deedee became indignant and suggested that I was angry because 

Nalder withdrew from the case. He still refused to take a report. President Trump, I was so 

disheartened. My daughter’s life had been destroyed and this public servant was refusing to take a 

written report. I eventually made an appointment with Police Chief Steve Roos who also refused to 

take a written report from me. President Trump not only had they destroyed my daughter’s life, but my 

entire family was impacted.

        I then wrote the Mayor of Idaho Falls, Jared Fuhriman and asked him to intervene. I only wanted 

a report to be taken and forwarded to the county prosecutor. Mayor Fuhriman forwarded my request to 

the city attorney, Randy Fife. A few weeks later, I received a letter in which Fife concluded it would 

not be “proper” to prosecute the doctor. President Trump, why wouldn’t it be proper? Fraudulent 

information was introduced into a civil court process for the purpose of defrauding a civil court case.

        When the mayor’s office refused to act, I wrote the city council.  One White woman, Sharon 

Parry, on the city council, wrote the police department and asked their responsibility in the matter. 

Afterwards, the police department purportedly assigned a policeman to investigate. But, whenever I 

contacted him via email for an update, they were always looking into it but never took a report from 

me to forward to the county prosecutor. President Trump, have you ever heard of the police refusing to 

take a written report of an incident from a citizen?

        Another consequence of the medical negligence – my bank account and retirement funds were 

drained. My children and I had to move from our three thousand square foot home to a nine hundred

square foot apartment, and my sons gave up extracurricular activities. I was 

also working on a master’s degree at the time. I began to borrow the 

maximum amount in student loans to support my children and to rehabilitate 

Robyn whose brain was severely impaired. When we returned home, after

being in the hospital five months, Robyn was able to lift a fork and sit

upright.

While the systems of oppression in Idaho Falls suppressed Robyn’s case to protect Dr. Garland from taking responsibility for destroying her life, no one counted the cost to her or my family. President Trump this is why the Black Lives Matter movement is important. The same Jim Crow laws that allowed J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant to walk away after killing Emmitt Till, allowed Dr. Garland to walk away after his negligence almost killed my daughter – leaving her disabled for life; and they allowed Brett Hankison, Jonathan Mattingly, and Myles Cosgrove to shoot into Breonna Taylor’s apartment - killing her – violating her rights.

After returning to school in 2017 to work towards an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing at the University of Memphis, my soul still tormented by the violations of Robyn’s civil rights, I was compelled to study African American literature, art and history. As I read and studied the horrors of the past, I gained a better understanding of what happened to Robyn. When my daughter’s attorney, Lance Nalder, shouted to me in his office “You can’t win. You can’t win.” I didn’t fully understand the implications of his words then - that regardless of the evidence, no White official in Idaho Falls would allow this case to go forward in their civil courts. My daughter’s rights were subordinate to Dr. Garland.

While appealing to the police to take a report, I also filed a grievance with the Idaho Bar Association regarding Nalder’s fraudulent actions. Instead of investigating, they accepted his word. One of their reasons was that the expert whom Nalder retained for the case had recanted his statement. The expert witness, in an eight-page statement, wrote that Dr. Garland took away any chances of my daughter living a normal life. I have a letter from the expert witness; he never recanted his statement. The Idaho Bar Association, who is supposed to provide oversight of their licensees, also failed to do their jobs.

President Trump, about a few weeks after Nalder attempted to coerce me into dismissing the case with prejudice, an article appeared in the Idaho Falls Post Register – the local newspaper. Dr. Garland was receiving a gold seal from Joint Commission for his work in preventative stroke care. He couldn’t receive this award with an active medical malpractice case. This was a community initiative. It all started to make sense to me. Robyn’s life-threatening event conflicted with a community initiative in which multiple stakeholders in the community had an interest. I often wondered had Robyn been a white girl, would someone have stood with me to fight for her rights. As an American citizen she had a right to redress, but every door that I knocked on, a White face refused my request. President Trump systemic racism is still a problem in this nation.

  Lastly, President Trump, as a mother whose child’s life was destroyed and who experienced the gross negligence of not only the medical system but the justice system too, I understand the nagging pain and sleepless nights that torture the soul which may lead to protests and riots. I felt like burning something down too, but instead I placed the letters, lies and evidence within a book God’s Miracle Among Corruption in Idaho. It is incredulous that such a miscarriage of justice is possible within the United States of America today. Yet, everyday Black people, somewhere in these United States, experience some form of racism, but we don’t hear or see it because many voices are suppressed.

Best regards,

Veverly Edwards

Citizen of the United States

Memphis, Tennessee

Wake up America!! Vote!

Good morning,

President Trump's rhetoric and actions remind me of a book I read years ago, The Allure of Toxic Leaders. One chapter of the book references Hitler's rise to power. Trump's rise to the White House is so similar to HItler's rise to power in Germany, it is frightening. Insecure, privileged people, afraid that they may become the minority, elect a tyrant, watch him destroy other people's lives, allow him to deregulate and create laws that are contrary to the wellfare of the people of this nation, watch as he consistently embarass this nation on the world stage - destroying the reputation of this nation, and then they boast about what a great job he is doing.

"When Hitler attacked the Jews I was not a Jew, therefore I was not concerned. And when Hitler attacked the Catholics, I was not a Catholic, and therefore, I was not concerned, And when Hitler attacked the unions and the industrialists, I was not a member of the union and I was not concerned. Then HIlter attacked me and the Protestant church - and there was nobody left to be concerned."
- Rev Martin Niemoller

Wake up America!!! Vote!

H.R. 1215- Protecting Access to Care Act of 2017

Dear Rep Steve King:

You are not my Congressional Representative but since you introduced H.R. 1215, I am addressing this letter to you. As a mother of a child whose life was destroyed by medical negligence in 2007, I am deeply concerned with what you’ve proposed.

Representative King, have you ever had a family member harmed by medical negligence? Have you ever sat by your child’s bed wondering if the next breath will be her last? Have you had your child’s scull removed because her brain continued to swell from a stroke brought on by a negligent physician prescribing a drug for a condition your child didn’t have – off label use of a drug. Have you seen your child’s head swollen so big that she was not recognizable and have you had your heart race every time the heart monitor or the monitor measuring blood flow to the brain started to beep because the numbers were either too high or too low?

Have you sat in an ICU and watched other mother’s (parents) lose their children and while praying for them praying all the while that yours don’t code (cardiac arrest) too. Have you sat night after night in a rocking chair waiting and watching, afraid to leave your child’s bedside because she’s been declared braindead knowing everyone thinks you’re crazy for believing she’ll awakened from the coma.

Have you had to spend five months away from your other children while sitting at the bedside of another who was fighting for her life? Consequently, missing moments that won’t be recaptured. Missing the basketball games of your older son’s last years in high school. Missing parent’s night, when the parents of seniors are honored but your child has to have someone else’s mom to stand in your stead because you are away in the hospital with his sibling. Missing the geography bee of your youngest son, again, because you are sitting at the bedside of the child fighting for life. Representative King, I ask you, “have you ever experience this?” What do you think it costs? Or can there be a price placed on it? 

And finally, as one of the parents responsible financially for your family, have you ever had to resign your job, give up your house, change your lifestyle completely to bring home a thirteen-year-old who was once vibrant and full of life but because of a brain injury brought on by a preventable medical error, has been reverted back to an infant state. What would you do in this case Representative King? I was told to place my child in a long term care facility. The prognosis was grim, but I brought her home. In February of 2008, I returned home with my thirteen year old daughter and the only tasks she could perform was holding a fork and she could sit up. It took a while before she was able to perform her self-care again. It took a year before she was able to walk again. Even today she is still progressing recovering from the preventable medical error. Her life, my family’s life, nor mine will ever be the same. So many losses none recoverable. So Representative what caps do you place on this, $250,000?

Representative King, I wish my experience on no one, but I wish before people like you and your cosponsors of bills like H.R. 1215, legislature created to protect those who harm patients, seriously consider the families harmed by negligent medical professionals instead of trying to protect the medical professionals and the insurance companies after serious harm has occurred. Consider the families and the irreparable damage inflicted upon them because they trusted the medical professional to do no harm. And while you consider that, consider what it would cost you to have walked in our shoes. Then seriously think about the limits you place on noneconomic damages. These are the damages that affect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Can there be a limit on taking that away from a person and their family? Is $250,000 reasonable after destroying years of a person’s life and their family’s?

Sincerely,

Veverly Edwards

Mother of Robyn Edwards

Declared braindead in 2007 from a preventable medical error.

Corrupt practices that Kill Medical Malpractice Cases in Idaho

It took me a while to realize that Robyn’s medical malpractice case was not supposed to be won. As a matter of fact, I imagine the young attorney that was assigned to us, when we retained the firm, was probably also surprised. He thwarted early efforts of the defense team’s request for summary judgement.  After conducting research, I realized summary judgement kills a lot of medical malpractice cases in Idaho. Idaho code 6-1012 requires the plaintiff retain an expert to testify that the defendant negligently failed to meet the Community Standard of Healthcare that existed at the time that the harm occurred. Let me just say this, in Idaho Falls or the surrounding area, you will not find many doctors courageous enough to stand up. Robyn’s attorney could not find one in the Idaho Falls area. He said it appeared that they all had taken a vow of silence. He found an expert neurologist in California willing to testify as an expert witness, but he too had to become knowledgeable of the standard of care in Idaho. This required the assistance of a neurologist in Idaho speaking to the standard of healthcare in Idaho Falls. Of course no one came forward. So the defense filed for a summary judgement. The judge ruled against the defense and gave Robyn’s attorney more time.

According to the files I received from Robyn’s young attorney, he finally found a neurologist to speak to the expert, but then without notice the neurologist from Idaho pulled out and could not be contacted again. A few months later, I received a letter from the law firm representing Robyn’s case that this young attorney had left the firm and relocated. Sounds suspicious to you, well, at the time I was too busy raising my children and had placed my trust in this law firm.  

Slide Presentation Presented at FDA hearings in November of 2016

I haven't posted this slide show in a while, but since we will be at a Book Expo on Saturday, I thought I'd share it again. This is a shorter version of the original video. This presentation was used at the open FDA hearings last November regarding the marketing of off label drug use. We presented on the dangers and consequences of prescribing drugs for off label use. The letter at the end shows how inefficient our systems are. After writing the book, I again appealed to the US Department of Justice regarding the corruption in Idaho. I sent a copy of the book, God's Miracle Among Corruption in Idaho, with detailed confidential information published within it. Whoever sent the letter didn't even have the decency to fill it in, and the person cc'd hadn't worked for the Department of Health and Human Services in five years of the date of the letter. I never heard from HHS and couldn't get any of our representatives to help me inquire about the status of my letter or the lack of thought or competency of the person who sent the letter at the end of this presentation. What level of competency requires filling in a form letter, and I don't mean to be offensive to anyone. My point is, it's just fill in the blank, right?