I am going start with the handicapped parking/bathroom issues. I will then go on with the false imprisonment.
Handicapped issues are very near and dear to my heart, especially with both my husband and I being handicapped. Malcolm Randall VA Hospital has literally gotten on my last nerve regarding handicapped issues. The straw that broke the proverbial camels back happened last night, I will get to that in just a bit.
Posted below is a picture of the women’s handicapped restroom that is located just past the main information desk. I was fortunate and able to take pictures of this when the cleaning crew was cleaning. The cleaning cart gives you a very good idea of the dimensions of the double door entryway into this restroom. My wheelchair has a very small footprint compared to the ‘scooters’ that VA issues to veterans. It is almost impossible to maneuver into this restroom if you are alone in either a wheelchair or scooter. Once you do get in, (and there is NO handicapped opener to open these doors either going into or out of the restroom) the doorway into the stall closes behind you. I don’t know about any of you, but trying to get to that door in a wheelchair to close it, it is nigh on to impossible to do. Add to that really having to “go” adds insult to injury. Once in the stall, I had less than 4” of maneuverability, and that is being very generous. How they can say this (and other restrooms within the hospital) is handicapped accessible is beyond me. Handicapped inaccessible is a far better term. If you are in a hurry to either get in to or exit from these restrooms - you are in a world of hurt, literally.
Now, lets talk about handicapped parking. It’s enough to make me want to spit nails. If we go up during normal business hours, we use valet parking and it is a godsend. If you have to go after hours, it is hell on earth. The first picture below is taken from the valet parking driveway. The first, relatively empty parking, you see from here is what used to be the handicapped parking. Now, this is dedicated to VA and DAV Van parking only. In the evening and on weekends, they go so far as to put cones up so you can’t use it – even though they are not there to use it. Do you see the parking lot that is beyond that? This is where they have a limited number of handicapped parking spaces. If you will go up about 3 1/2” or so from the bottom of the flagpole – that is MY vehicle that is being cut in two by the flagpole. My husband is legally blind and an amputee. He cannot walk that far on a good day with ease, and later in the day it is impossible for him. So, I have to let him off at the main entrance to the hospital and drive down to this parking lot that is located farther away than where regular parking starts and farther away than where the doctors park. Then, I have to get out on crutches, unload my wheelchair, then wheel myself through the lower parking lot, through the valet parking drive (which is blockaded, around the outside of the building past the ER and around the front of the hospital to get to the main entrance where I dropped my husband off at. Lord help me if I ever get up there without a fully charged wheelchair. I will be in the middle of that very smelly creek we so often refer to. On the best of days this is very difficult to do. There is normally a handicapped parking area fairly close to the main entrance that we can park in, but the last couple of times we’ve been up there, the parking lot was full, even after hours. Last night, they had that lot cordoned off with “police line” tape because there was a crane in the lot. So, I rolled down the window and asked the security guard who was standing out there in the rain where to park. I guess she didn’t understand my question because her response to me was “DUH – can’t you see the crane?” This rather ticked me off and I politely told her that it was my husband that was blind, not me, and asked if I could park in the lower parking lot since it was after normal hours. She told me that no, I could not; that I had to park in the handicapped parking that was located past that. She went on to state that my vehicle would be towed if I tried to park where the DAV Vans only parking was. I had to drop my husband off and go to the parking lot located in the north 40. Did I mention that it was raining? How about the severe lightening and wind? Raining does not come close to describing what it was doing last night. Typhoon is a far better description. I initially tried to use the umbrella, but the wind made quick work of turning it inside out, not to mention it did not work well with the crutches. By the time I was able to get the wheelchair unloaded and up to the hospital I was drenched, and that is putting it mildly. Not to mention the fact that it put me in jeopardy of becoming a moving lightening rod. To say that I was as mad as a wet hen was quite literal.
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Now, on to the false imprisonment; I know I have written about this previously, but it bears writing about it yet again. For over 15 months I have questioned how VA can Baker Act someone. I have questioned how a State Magistrate Judge could come into a Federal facility and hold court! Once again, when my friend was Baker Acted two weeks ago, I contacted the attorney I had spoken with previously on her behalf. I was informed that they thought this had been resolved previously when I had called. I told them that no, it had happened once again. I was told that my previous phone call had caused them to make several phone calls, to as high up as Tallahassee and that they had been told that there were NO VA hospitals that were designated as Baker Act Receiving facilities; that they had requested something in writing but had yet to receive anything. Yesterday I received an e-mail from the attorney that they had received and e-mail from the Department of Children and Families director of Substance Abuse and Mental Health at Department of Children and Families headquarters yesterday by email: there are no VA hospitals designated as receiving facilities.
So, what does this really mean? It means that Malcolm Randall VA Hospital cannot legally Baker Act a veteran to their facility on 5E, as it is referred to. If they “Baker Act” someone, they would have to transfer them to a hospital that is designated by Florida Department of Children and Families. Once there, the veteran could request to be transferred back to a VA facility. But that doesn't happen.
Vetwife's husband was doped up and was told to sign documents and that he was being put into the VA. They shipped him off to The Vines, a private mental hospital, and then the hospital sent them a $64,000 bill. He is a 100% total and permanently disabled veteran, service connected. When he came up missing for those five days he had never seen by a psychiatrist at the VA. He was never sent back to the VA, even after requesting it per Title 38. The Vines and the VA have both told Vetwife that there is no written contract agreement between them, only a verbal agreement. The same thing happened to whatgodmade's boyfriend. The issue with Vetwife's husband was not resolved until she went on the Hal Donahue Show. (All this started with The Vines in 2012). Also, just this week I was sitting with Vetwife when she received a letter from Medicare questioning VA billing them for her husband's heart attack that VA has not paid. He was sent to the closest hospital upon talking to VA's telcare. They still "owe" that bill.
On 13 August, "Susie" was given documents stating she was "being taken to court" the following day, even though the documents stated she was given these documents on 12 August. The Public Defender that was assigned to her came and saw her the afternoon of 13 August. "Susie" told the Public Defender that a) she wanted a second opinion from an outside professional regarding her diagnosis; and b) that she wanted a continuance until she could get the second opinion and mount her case. She was told by the Public Defender that "they didn't need that." "Susie" then told the Public Defender that she wanted me as a witness for her.
I arrived at the hospital at 11:00 am on 14 August 2014, an hour before the scheduled "court" time. The Public Defender arrived at approximately 11:40 am, but never came and introduced herself to me, much less speak to me. She was in the room that the "court" was being held in talking with the State Municipal Judge assigned to the case and to "Susie's" doctor that was requesting she be involuntarily Baker Acted and given six months time, possibly including long placement at McClinney, the State psychiatric hospital. We were called into the "court" room at 12:00. No one in the room was introduced. The only person that was sworn in was "Susie's" VA inpatient psychiatrist. Everything that she told to the judge regarding "Susie's" condition and the reason she was requesting the six months was based on things that took place over a year ago. I was never acknowledged nor did the Public Defender ever call me as a witness.
We have contacted the press as high up as we can go. We've sent letters, you all have sent letters. We have called Congresspeople. Now what? It has been reported and reported.