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.
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
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
