ZANNA ~ did I miss something???

October 18, 2002

Hi Zanna....

The gal was talking about was one of my original members. Helen

was born and raised in Australia but had moved to Hawaii some 20 yrs

earlier. She was diagnosed with DM. At one time the MAA had a

picture of her sitting on an exam table posted on there web site. One

day she started getting sick with a chest cold. She kept calling her

doctor and he kept telling her to try the over the counter cold

medications. Three weeks into it her friend took her to the ER. She

was asperating food into her lungs and she had pneumonia. By then she

was very weak so they put in a feeding tube. Eventually that failed and

the hospital removed the feeding tube and decided to put her in another

wing where there was less traffic... the doctors did nothing after that

to help her. I believe she passed one week later. She was just 41

yrs old. The worst part of all of this is when she got sick with the

DM they wanted to deport her back to Australia. She had lived in

Hawaii for 20 yrs and she loved it there so she didn't want to leave.

Once she was admitted into the hospital her family alerted the hospital

in Sydney and the doctors were waiting for her arrival. If only she

had left that hospital she would still be alive today. Her best

friend Greg flew in a couple of times to visit with her and he said that

he really felt they put her in that wing so they wouldn't have to take

care of her. It was just such a senseless waste.

~ Vicki ~ Myositis Info Links

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