(My webmaster was on a well-deserved holiday. Now that she is back the Editor can announce this website’s next big story. We are covering the ELDERLY in prison. I’m going to call it “The cAGEing of Women in Perryville”. This is a sneak peak of two stories that will be featured.)
MJ reported numbness and tingling in both hands, feet, and abdomen. She was struggling to even write. After a very long time MJ finally got an off site appointment for an MRI. The cervical MRI found a lesion on her spinal cord suggestive of neoplastic etiology. On July 17, 2022 the Provider requested a neurological consult . This consult was not scheduled until a month later. Eventually, on September 1, 2022, a consult was scheduled for Barrow on February 14, 2023, seven months after the first request. This appointment never occurred because Barrow left a message that it would not take Naphcare as insurance provider. Trying to find another facility to take an inmate was problematic. At last, Western Neuro in Tucson agreed to take her as a patient. Western Neuro received a message from Naphcare that the status on this patient was ” Corporate MD pending “, meaning Naphcare had not authorized the payment. So MJ continues to deteriorate, requiring a wheelchair, she can’t stand and is incontinent.
MM has metastatic breast cancer that includes lymph nodes and her left leg. Before her MRI diagnosis of cancer, she struggled to get the San Carlos medical department to listen to her symptoms. After repeated ICS’s (emergency), the nurses told her to ” knock it off or she would get a ticket”. This woman could not walk and she was in constant, severe pain. The Provider Johnson diagnosed her with arthritis and gave her muscle rub for pain. He denied her a lay in for meals, no wheelchair, or pain meds. Eventually, she was granted an off site appointment which was cancelled. The 2nd appointment she had to borrow someone else’s wheelchair to make it to the V-gate. Even after her MRI diagnosis of cancer on 3-9-23, which was labeled SERIOUS and EMERGENCY, she has had zero care for cancer.