& Lief Gilbert's Legal Expenses

[Guest guest]

Dear Community:

Donations for 's Legal Defense should be sent to the IHMA

Foundation and designated " PLDAF: Gilbert " Note whether you want

unused funds sent directly to under the Relief Fund, or designated for

future legal actions like this or applied to research or refunded to you.

This is the only way that the PLDAF will be able to guarantee the retainer

for the attorney, as noted below. We are willing to do our part if the

community will step up to the plate.

Thank you for calling while we are in Oklahoma coordinating the

various IHMA Foundation projects on the community's behalf. I also want to

thank Dr. Peery for his support and willingness to be an expert witness on

short notice should that be necessary. As a member of the IHMA Foundation

Advisory Board, in charge of the Neo-natal and Birth Trauma treatment

committee, your expertise is invaluable to the community.

Anita will call Jim Sloto tomorrow and will find out what he requires

as a retainer and look at the funds that have been donated to make sure we

can meet those obligations. It is the IHMA Foundation that is being asked

to guarantee these funds, not and not Hartsoe, nor

Hartsoe's attorney son. The IHMA Foundation is being asked by 's

attorney to do this.

Note that the IHMA Foundation is able to take credit cards, something

that herself cannot do. All donations to the Foundation are tax

deductible. Anyone wishing to verify this will be faxed or mailed a copy of

the IHMA Foundation's IRS determination letter.

I can see from the posts that there is a fundamental misunderstanding

in the community, which , as usual, has done his best to foster.

Some people out there think this is Anita Duncan's organization, or

laughably Bill Duncan's organization. It is not. It was created because

the community wanted to get access to treatment, have insurance

reimbursement, and have hyperbaric medicine become the standard of care.

This is your organization!

The two corporations, the IHMA and the IHMA Foundation, are legitimate

non-profit organizations registered with the IRS. Many of you know members

of the board of directors. Bill Duncan doesn't serve on the Boards. I is

strictly a volunteer. Anita Duncan is the Executive Director volunteering

since the reorganization in 2003 and serving without salary. She spends her

days helping people find access to treatment, and coordinating each of the

projects that will make hyperbaric medicine the standard of care in two to

five years. Anita and I have devoted hundreds of hours and thousands of our

own dollars to help make the organization a success.

The readers of this list know Freels, a parent Board member.

They know Gordon of MUMS, a parent board member. All of you,

including , benefit because of Dr. Harch's pioneering work when he

treated the first child treated who suffered from cerebral palsy and

reported those results. He was using the stroke protocol developed by Dr

Neubauer, who is also a board member.

The IHMA Foundation belongs to this community. You've been

disorganized, and the medical establishment, insurance companies, government

regulatory bodies, and the legal establishment, largely simply

unknowledgeable about hyperbaric medicine have either ignored you or walked

over you.

Any time you put an organized group of people up against and

unorganized group, the organized group will simply crush the unorganized

group. These non-profit organizations exist so you, the readers on this

list, can be organized and fight back.

Working together the community can make hyperbaric medicine the

standard of care in two to five years. Hartsoe believes it is too

ambitious. He simply lacks understanding of the medical system and how it

is integrated and how the legal system interfaces with the system. The plan

will work. It will require teamwork and resources and the community's

desire to make it happen.

The Patient's Legal Defense and Assistance Fund was voted into

existence by members of this community. It will be members of this

community who decide whether they want it to work.

, for his own reasons, despite the numerous efforts to work with

him, has decided yet again to poison the well. It doesn't take much poison

to sow suspicition and doubt. Ultimately no one knows what to do, and no

one sends donations anywhere. If would like to guarantee the

attorney's retainer, we welcome him to step up to the plate and do so.

and Lief are sitting in the middle. It is the IHMA Foundation

being asked to guarantee the funds. Those funds, as the committment the

Board made states, are to be used for the legal defense of patients who need

it. They are not for other purposes. Ideally the Foundaiton would like to

have enough money to engage in a case all of the way to trial. That costs a

miminum of $10,000. Generally people don't donate that kind of money unless

they can tax deduct it. This activity is a legitimate function of a charity

like the IHMA Foundation and it took a year to get the IRS's approval.

A complete accounting of every donation made to the PLDAF will be made.

If donors so designate on their donation, if their donations are not

completely used for legal defense, they can be put into the relief fund and

provided directly to . It is doubtful that there will be funds left

over from this battle, but if they are, the way the donor wants them spent

is the way they will be spent. No funds from the Patient's Legal Defense

and Assistance Fund can be used for any purpose other than legal defense and

assistance, and none can be used for Foundation overhead.

The IHMA Foundation has already incurred several hundred dollars in

expenses on 's behalf with the corporation's attorney, Tom . The

Foundation is now being asked to further guarantee a retainer to help .

The Community has to decide whether they will be organized, or let

drift on her own. The Foundation stepped up to help, activated their

network, and incurred expenses. As noted, it has already provided

with needed help and hope that she and Lief can prevail.

The Association and the Foundation belong to the community. The

community's parent representatives are involved in governance. The

community's physicians are involved in the governance. They are people like

Ken Stoller and Charlie Peery and Harch to which many of you have

trusted your children's lives. We all know the years of struggle

Freels and Gordon have made.

If you want the IHMA Foundation to be able to spring into emergency

action, and drop lawyers by parachute when someone decides they want to take

your child away from you for their own selfish purposes, contribute to the

PLDAF. If you want Lief or the Weiss boy who needed acute treatment, or

someone like them to be on their own, stay disorganized and those who oppose

real treatment for brain injures will keep winning. It is the community's

choice, and that of each individual reading this list.

Bill Duncan

>From: Gilbert Reply-medicaid To:

>medicaid Subject: Re: [ ] Legal fund

>for Lief Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2004 19:00:48 -0800 (PST)

>

>

>Hi everyone,

>

>Thank you Dr. Peery...it's great to hear from you and will call over as

>soon as I get a chance. Thank you also for offering to testify; it could

>very well be needed the way things are shaping up.

>

>Bill/Anita/IHMA,

>

>I spoke with Jim Sloto this evening, the guardianship attorney here in

>Florida who was helping me till last Tuesday. I told him about the IHMA's

>involvement and he has agreed to work with Tom and provide any legal

>services needed in this case. I also told him about the Voice of the

>Retarded and our difficulty finding an attorney through them who

>specializes in this type of thing. He would like for you to call him

>directly to discuss any retainer/financial issues. His specialty is

>guardianship law and he is very familiar with the former and pending

>petitions as he has been involved since November 2nd. I gave both his cell

>and office number to Anita this afternoon. Please call him as soon as you

>can or arrange for him, Tom and I to speak. So at least there's Jim Sloto,

>who is here in Florida and has the expertise to help with this.

>

>,

>

>Jim's the attorney I told you about earlier. The chain is Romano to Fox to

>Sloto.

>

>Sorry all that this is so brief. I'm on the run again and will only be

>reachable by phone till Thursday. My new home number is 954-467-6364, as

>of tomorrow. I'm literally running out of the door...so sorry not to say

>more right now.

>

>Please take care and thank you all so much for your kindness, love, support

>and strength. With love, J

>