Fourteen Years and Counting
On June 12, 2009, my life was forever changed. Kaiser Permanente administered a Gadolinium-based-contrast agent (GBCA) injection during an MRI, despite it being contra-indicated for my condition. Despite my injuries, Kaiser physicians refused to acknowledge that the Magnevist injection was the cause. The GBCA was and still is manufactured and sold by Bayer Pharmaceutical and is known as Magnevist. I suffered renal failure and collapsed and the subsequent injuries were severe and I was rendered permanently disabled.
For the last thirteen years, I underwent multiple surgeries, more than one hundred procedures, to treat the four toxicities caused by the GBCA, and the ensuing diseases and sequalae of injuries and symptoms. Yet, the surgeons repeated denials to accept Medi-Cal obstructed me from timely access to our health care system, enslaved me to the social services and caused me many years of immeasurable suffering. I turned to Medi-Cal, our politicians and the judicial system for help, but my pleas for help went unanswered; I was ignored and mistreated.
I now require about a dozen more surgeries but no surgeon in California will perform them, not even our county hospitals. I have logged thousands of miles traveling throughout the state, pleading for my life. The medical providers–those refusing to accept Medi-Cal–refer to Medi-Cal enrollees like me as, “Medi-Cal Migrants.” The repeated denials of prescribed surgeries, unwarranted delays now exceeding ten years, led to protracted pain, medical incapacitation and exacerbated disabilities.
Since my injury in 2009, I have filed numerus legal actions, all to no avail. Regarding the injustice in healthcare, Martin Luther King Jr. stated, “Of all inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.”
My story is one of pain, suffering, and injustice. It is a story that needs to be heard, so that others do not have to suffer the same fate. I urge you to read the information contain herein to learn more about the corruption that contributed to my ordeal and then visit my website, justcareforall.life, to learn how I am fighting to keep my dream alive. I hope telling my story will inspire us to make positive change in our public policies and laws to protect our six life-care services and to prevent others from experiencing the same tragedy.