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?

The Dangers of Evil Minds in Medicine

Good morning! Wednesday! So I haven't written much or said much lately about "God's Miracle Among Corruption in Idaho" except for in my writing classes. The book is packed with information. So much so that I think I need to unpack it. But I will always believe that in Idaho Falls there are physicians there placing minorities, women and children on anti-psychotic drugs for no other reason than to promote pharmaceutical sales. Those who knew Robyn, know that she had no medical problems that any of us knew of. She'd had a few numbing sensations in her limbs when we visited the neurologist. She was an athlete, honor student, etc. After this doctor realized these meds caused her to have a massive stroke - leaving her near death - he changed her medical records to reflect she had a history of migraine headaches and that she was constantly missing school. This was recorded in his deposition under oath to tell the truth. All of these lies could have been easily verified by checking her school records and with friends and family who associated with her. Her attorney and the doctor's attorney knew this, so they decided to undermined me and lie on the expert witness. Until that moment, I had not met with, nor stood toe to toe with such evil. Believe me, you are never the same again when you come that close to such sick spirited evil minds, and to know that they destroyed my child's life, and because they were cowards, did as cowards often do, lied and attempted to intimidate me to cover their tracks. The book gives explicit details: medical records, copies of depositions, emails from the local police, letters from the bar association and the medical boards and other officials, showing their lies. It also contains an eight page testimony from the expert witness who concludes that the neurologist took away any chances of Robyn living a normal life and another letter that states he never recanted his statement. Robyn's attorney lied to the Idaho Bar Association stating that the expert recanted his statement. Of course the Bar Association, too, could have verified these were lies but didn't. All of them were more concerned with protecting this reckless doctor's reputation than the life of the thirteen-year-old child who was destroyed by his carelessness and greed. But they didn't consider that I might not walk away without a fight, and that God would give me the strength to place all of their lies in writing, and believe me, had He not walked me through all of this I would be an emotional wreck today.