THE
PRESS LAYS OUT A TERRORIST PLAN
TO KILL
82-YEAR-OLD SARAH NOME
by Virginia McCullough Tuesday, March 8, 2005
THE
PRESS LAYS OUT A TERRORIST PLAN
TO KILL
82-YEAR-OLD
SARAH NOME
by Virginia McCullough
Tuesday, March 8, 2005
A reporter named Chris Rooney wrote a column for the Twin Cities Times suggesting a terrorist murder plot that would help San Rafael's Kaiser Hospital rid itself of a troublesome 82-year-old patient who had overstayed her welcome by a year. The patient, Sarah Nome, recently received national news coverage when she refused to leave the hospital until issues involving bad medical care and exorbitant billing were resolved. In the March 1-7, 2005 issue headlined "Morons in Office, in the Hospital, on the Highway", contributing editor Chris Rooney wrote the following about Kaiser patient Sarah Nome, who, contrary to his opinion, is actually an intellectually sharp and politically active woman:
Morons in Office, in the Hospital, on the Highway
Instead of blaming moronic politicians for the woeful
state of health care in America, not that they don't deserve it, maybe it's
time to take a look at some of the professional, forward-thinking and
progressive leaders in the health business itself.
For instance, there's an old woman chewing up over $3,000 a day at Kaiser
Hospital in Marin because they can't or won't find her a room in a local
nursing home. Sarah Nome, 82, broke both of her legs in 2002 and just
celebrated her one-year anniversary as a patient at Kaiser.
Problem is, they've been trying to get her out for months and months. She
won't budge because Kaiser wants to move her to a nursing home out of the
area and far from her family. She apparently needs full-time care, as her legs won't
mend.
"The point is, I need care," she told a KCBS reporter. "I have to have two
people even to turn me....It's incumbent upon them to find me a place in
Marin County."
So, while no one seems to have the common sense to either find a place in
Marin for Nome to live and mend, or quietly sneak into her room at night and
smother her with a pillow, she's racked up more than $1 million in medical
costs.
Oh, but the folks at Kaiser, always looking out for everyone's best
interest, did find one way to defray some of the costs. They stopped
providing Nome a newspaper and eliminated her TV privileges. Otherwise,
those medical costs could have exploded up to $1,00000000001 million.
Nome's case might not be so one-sided, through. One local nursing home
won't take her back because she's, you guessed it, suing them. Apparently,
she's suing a few facilities. For a gal who loves Marin, and wants
desperately to stay put, she's not doing herself any favors. She admits to
having no need to stay in the hospital; she takes no medications. But she's
alienated all the places in Marin that would have been able to provide care
and keep her in the county.
She's in room 502 if anyone wants to drop by with a newspaper --- or a
pillow. Anyone seen "Million Dollar Baby"?
Maybe both sides have their hands tied, as this situation seems to shine a
light on what is a nationwide problem , said Anthony Wright, executive
director of Health Access California, a health-care advocacy group.
"This issue is becoming more and more contentious because...we don't have a
long term care policy in this country, so there is no set way that we take
care of seniors who need ongoing care," he told the
Whittier Daily News.
In the meantime, don't expect the health care issue to get any better.
At the very end of the column Rooney makes a "disclaimer":
"This column
doesn't really endorse the killing of frail, sickly old ladies, even if it
does save everyone a lot of money in the long run."
Post 9-11, the Patriot Act took away many of the constitutionally guaranteed
rights of American citizens under the auspices of Bush appointed United
States Attorney General John Ashcroft. The United States Congress buckled under to
the demands of newly "elected" President George W. Bush and immediately
imposed new laws to prosecute acts of "terrorism". Several high profile
cases have been prosecuted under the Patriot Act. Despite his disclaimer,
"contributing editor" Chris Rooney and his publisher could easily be charged
with threats of terrorism to put forth a plan to kill a helpless and
defenseless senior citizen whose whole life stood as evidence that she was a
life-long, politically-active warrior for civil rights.
What precautions then did Kaiser Hospital in San Rafael take to protect its
very vulnerable patient upon notification of the article appearing in
print? On Sunday evening at approximately 7:00 p.m. Sarah Nome was brought a
copy of the publication by a friend. By 7:03 p.m., having notified Kaiser
nurses, Sarah Nome was moved to a new room for her own safety. No one was
moved into the now vacant room 502. Twice more in the course of twenty-four
hours 82-year old Sarah Nome was moved to different rooms as Kaiser sought
to limit it's liability in the event that some "lone nut" assassin moved to
act on the suggestion so well detailed by the
Twin Cities Times.
In the course of the moves, however, Kaiser made certain that senior citizen
Sarah Nome was denied any contact with the outside world.
San Rafael's Kaiser Hospital had moved early on to isolate her from
any intellectual stimulation and/or contact with the outside world.
Shortly after she made allegations of negligent medical care by Kaiser that resulted
in the destruction of her lower femur bones, Kaiser removed the television
from her room, restricted her access to daily newspapers and refused to
allow her to have a radio plugged into their electrical outlets. In other
words Kaiser, working in concert with others, isolated her while she was a
patient under their care and control, causing her mental suffering which was
intensely aggravated by their previous negligent medical care.
So Kaiser's solution to the terrorist instructions in the local Twin
Cities Times, to kill their
patient by smothering her was to continue to move their patient from room to room. These
moves isolated her from the outside world so that she could not determine
for herself what was happening to her own physical safety. Despite
this stress, her mind remained strong, inquisitive and active.
Although Kaiser made room changes to protect the body of their patient, it
controlled what Sarah Nome could learn about these security precautions.
The question was troubling -- what did Kaiser do other
than move her from room to room to protect her? It was as though Sarah
Nome was kept in a state of suspended
animation watching what was happening to her body while her mind was not
allowed to participate in her body's survival.
When this reporter interviewed Ms. Nome for over an
hour on Monday evening, her warm and gentle spirit came shinning through.
She said "Kaiser is doing everything intellectually and diligently
correct to protect me from harm." She also said that, to the best of her
knowledge, Kaiser had not put another patient in her old, vacated room 502,
maybe because they were fearful that some "lone nut" would sneak into the
room and act on the suggestion published in the newspaper.
Twin Cities Times, Chris Rooney and
Kaiser Hospital and their principals and attorneys share equally in the
endangerment of Sarah Nome's life.
The remarkable fact is that despite all odds she possesses such a magnanimous
soul.
The human spirit and never ending faith in individuals doing the right thing
is eternal and everlasting. Sarah Nome is poof of that. Her response to
the chilling cruel events forced upon her at an age when most people should be entitled to
enjoy life renews our faith in the
human spirit.
By Virginia McCullough © March 8, 2005
vmccullough@hotmail.com