The
Sennin’s Blog – Entry No. 5
Sunday,
January 17, 2016, 16:41 hours
Title: A self-evolving
fortress
Today, I am both in recovery as well as awaiting
further treatment. The trials and tribulations pertaining to the blood clot
that resulted from the surgical insertion of a portable catheter into my jugular
vein have been more demanding than the chemotherapy itself – which had to be
placed on hold until the clot was appropriately dealt with. (See below.) The
last several weeks have been a trying testimony to resilience as a result not
entirely of my current health issues, which can be summarized as the metastatic
return of my former colorectal cancer to my right lung, but instead of a spat
of medical negligence which I have documented in the blog titled “GROSS
NEGLIGENCE, DISCRIMINATION, AND UNETHICAL CONDUCT AT UCSD MOORES CANCER CLINIC”.
The executive summary of my case is as follows:
JANUARY 7, 2016 – UPDATED
JANUARY 11, 2016
TO: RECIPIENTS
LIST
SELECT OFFICERS OF UCSD
HEALTHCARE SYSTEM
HONOR ROLL OF DONORS
MOORES CANCER DONORS
OFFICERS AND REGENTS, UC
SAN DIEGO ACADEMIC AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICERS
OFFICERS OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
UC SAN DIEGO
FOUNDATION BOARD OF TRUSTEES
(For full details of
RECIPIENTS LIST see:
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
My name is James A. Overton. After being diagnosed with colorectal
cancer in 2007, I underwent treatment at the UCSD John and Rebecca Moores
Cancer Center where I originally received radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and
surgery. After being in remission for several years, I was recently diagnosed
as having metastatic cancer in my right lung, at which point I was referred
back to the UCSD Moores Cancer Center for further treatment.
The present report provides interested parties, their agents, and
readers with detailed and documented facts regarding a pattern of gross
medical negligence[1]
and ethical
misconduct involving several members of the UCSD Healthcare clinical
staff. It is a pattern which dates back to my original treatment in 2007-2008
and which has recently recurred – not unlike my cancer itself – in December of
2015. It is a pattern of negligence and misconduct which placed my life at
risk, caused me a severe loss of quality of life, professional opportunities,
excessive – and unnecessary – amounts of physical pain and suffering, as well
intense emotional distress to myself as well as to members of my family. That
my case involves three UCSD Healthcare/Moores Cancer Center physicians begs the
question as to whether it should be considered a series of isolated and
unfortunate incidents or alternatively an intrinsic pattern of inadequacies
entrenched within the system as a whole.
I can unequivocally state that as of the present date, January 7, 2016,
I am in WORSE health than I was on
December 11, 2015, when I initiated the first step towards my current treatment
procedure which consisted of the surgical implantation of a portable catheter.
At that point in time I had full confidence that my attending physician was
both competent and honest. Today, due to the negligent care and abusive conduct
of certain UCSD medical personnel I have: a) suffered injury to the extent of
requiring hospitalization (“acute thrombosis of the right jugular vein”); and
b) have experienced an indefinite interruption to my treatment plan (precisely
as a result of the condition I incurred due to said physician’s gross medical
negligence). Furthermore, c) I have evidence to conclude that my attending
physician shamelessly lied to me about the progress of my present therapeutic
program – a most severe ethical violation. I cannot help but conclude that the
conduct of the three physicians I have denounced herein must reflect a high
degree of administrative laxity, if not collusion. These undeniable facts,
which I have detailed herein and which are corroborated by my medical records
as well as by independent eye-witness testimony should constitute an
embarrassment not only to the physicians involved, not only to the UCSD medical
and administrative staff as a whole which these physicians represent by association,
but also to those philanthropists without whose generous support UCSD
Healthcare and the Moores Cancer Center would not be able to operate at their
present level.
The chance that the pattern of mistreatment I have received is the
result of the coalescing of random events is practically nil. In all likelihood
there are many such cases – or even worse – that have gone unreported for any
number of reasons – in the same manner that I failed to report the gross
negligence to which I was subjected in 2007/2008. Nevertheless, recent events
in my own case taking place between December 14, 2015 and December 22, 2015,
slightly more than a one week period, have made me realize that to remain
silent would make me an acquiescent accomplice to the victimization of other
patients – past, present, and future. My present detailed disclosures,
therefore, although quite contrary to my extreme sense of personal privacy, may
serve to not only protect the health of others and prevent repetitions of the
negligence and abuse to which I have been subjected, but may also assist in
inspiring others to step out, step up, and share their own similar – or perhaps
even more injurious – experiences.
In my opinion, and given the national recognition attained by the UC San
Diego Medical Health System at large, and the UCSD Moores Cancer Center in
particular, for the quality of their patient care, my case brings one to formulate the following question: To
what extent are these healthcare institutions worthy of receiving hundreds of
millions of dollars in philanthropic donations intended for the public good?
Or alternatively, to what extent is their
first class quality care limited primarily to those who hold expensive
insurance plans?
The recent series of events which represent the proverbial “straw”
triggering, or rather compelling the
present course of action began on December
21, 2015 at 11:00 AM while I attended two successively scheduled
appointments at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center, the first with Dr. Lisa Parry
and the second with Dr. Paul Fanta; these triggering events continued with my
appointment of December 22, 2015
with Dr. Fanta – originally scheduled for 4:00 PM, but which did not take place
until an hour and a half later at 5:30 PM. Furthermore, the events
pertaining to these encounters transpire within the context of the gross
negligence I experienced at the hands of Dr. Sonia Ramamoorthy between October 2007 and March 2008. The corresponding Case Summaries are available only
online at the following blog: malpracticeatmoorescancerclinic.blogspot.com.
Due to the extensive nature of the material, blogging not only makes it far
easier to share, but also does so in an environmentally friendly fashion.
My immediate goal is to ensure that I obtain a new clinical treatment group at the UCSD Moores Cancer Center to
not only continue my treatment but to reassess the direction Drs. Fanta and
Parry had outlined for me. Despite my denouncement of the above physicians, as
a UCSD graduate and the father of a UCSD graduate, one who has developed many
strong ties to the UCSD community over the years, I continue to have faith in
the quality of the UCSD system. Furthermore, as a past and present patient, I
can most certainly testify to the excellent quality of care, service and
treatment many, if not most of the UCSD Medical Center physicians, nurses,
technicians, staff, and administrative personnel have provided me. For this
very reason, rather than simply seeking to continue my treatment plan
elsewhere, I am insisting that the UCSD healthcare administration guarantees
that my treatment plan proceeds, from hereon in, in accordance with the top
quality standards for which it is internationally recognized and for which I have no doubt it is
capable of providing. This is of the utmost concern to me and to my family and
friends.
Having stated my confidence in the capabilities of the UCSD Healthcare
system at large, including the Moores Cancer Center, one cannot ignore the
ignominy of those doctors who have brought shame upon these institutions. Any
system is only as strong as its weakest link. As institutions which receive
tens upon tens of millions of dollars annually in public donations, in my mind
it would certainly be in the best public interest of the administrations of the
Moores Cancer Center and the UCSD Medical Health System to take the present
disclosures as an opportunity to form a corrective
action plan; one which would not only involve taking the corresponding
disciplinary actions against those physicians cited, but which would seek to
prevent or at least minimize a recurrence of the events I describe in my
current report.
Finally, I would fully expect that as institutions that profess to
contribute to the greater social good, both the UCSD Healthcare System and the
Moores Cancer Center – not to mention UC Regents – would want to be perceived
as being endowed with a social conscience, and that as a
result they would feel ethically bound to provide just
and fair compensation to patients such as myself who have been unduly harmed by
the grossly negligent and inhumane care of their clinical staff – and that they
would do so in an exemplary manner – one worthy of the magnanimity of the
public support they so regularly receive.
January 11, 2016 UPDATE: On Saturday, January 9, 2016,
further compounding the growing list of medical complications stemming from Dr.
Fanta’s negligence, I was forced to attend the UCSD Thorton ER: The portable
catheter (mentioned above) “could not be
accessed”, meaning no blood could be drawn from it due to blockage.
Furthermore, it was additionally diagnosed as being “infected” – a serious condition due to the connection it has with a
major blood vessel (the jugular vein). To avoid septicemia, this new health condition required the prescription of antibiotics, further aggravating my
previous intestinal problems with their own corresponding (intestinal)
side-effects. Finally, as of noon today, January 11, 2016 – almost a month
after my one and only chemotherapy session – I am still lacking a new
treatment plan, and to the best of my knowledge no new doctor has been assigned
to my case.
Sincerely,
James A. G. Overton
BAH, BS, MA, MS, CCH
It has never been of interest to me
to make my health issues central to my existence, and therefore not to my
narrations either. Quite to the contrary, I have tried to leave them aside and
focus on persevering beyond their grasp. However, now I am confronted with a three
faceted assault, the remnants of my previous cancer in the form of a stricture
in my colon, coping with the debilitating treatments associated with a new one,
and the life-menacing clot in my right jugular vein, courtesy of medical
incompetence. I believe that the material presented above will be more than
sufficient to bring the interested reader to speed as to certain aspects of my
life to which very few have been privy. It will also help to explain the reason
I am now speaking of a brief period of convalescence following an
excruciatingly painful spat with my intestines resulting from a not-too-successful
bowel cleansing: I can no longer deny that my health is a major impediment to
everything I do. I am like a man running a marathon with a ball and chain shackled
to each leg, as well as one around my neck.
From
my bedroom upstairs I can hear the seminar I designed called “The Nature of Manliness” – although it currently
goes by its former Spanish name “Hombría,
Heroicidad, y Paternidad”. Due to my health issues I created a methodology
of carefully formulated questionnaires which serve to guide the student’s group
study – thus not requiring my presence. I can prepare the flow of the seminar
on my own time: if Mohammed can’t go to the mountain, he can always send a
drone.
Our general program,
an essential aspect of the Ryu, is part of a greater paradigm which I have
termed “Biopsychocultural Theory”. It
consists of many courses, each of which studies different topics in an
integrated fashion. Today, in “The Nature of Manliness” students are studying
Homer’s Odyssey, Sex and War, and The Making
of Manhood, all in an integrated fashion. (I will elaborate more on the
characteristics of our program as we proceed.) As I sit here, upstairs from the
main floor where the study session is taking place, I can hear the laughter
accompanying disciplined learning. It is the laughter of people coming
together, of harmonious social interaction, of enjoyment. This has become an
integral part of the Ryu’s culture: to gather together not to party, not to
“drink and be merry”, not to engage
in song and dance, not for
commemorative feasting, and not in
religious celebration of non-existent supernatural beings or forces, but rather
in communal learning.
The process of
shared learning has become our form of communion over what is truly sacred:
knowledge of life, knowledge of reality, knowledge of our selves. It is a great
pleasure and personal triumph to witness how, from the depths of pain itself, I
have started to pave a tradition of learning, knowledge, and self-knowledge
that accompanies wisdom and excellence and that leads to happiness and peace of
mind. It is my personal victory against those forces that have deprived me of
so much quality of life, and delivered so much pain in its stead.
While
I rest and recover I have been watching an interesting series, “Outlander”. It takes on the familiar
tone of a historical narrative, one which requires a tremendous amount of
detailed knowledge about a past historical period and a culture long gone. I was
quite puzzled at first at the great degree of sympathy I felt for the Scottish
people, for the clan system. I admire their solidarity, their sense of honor,
of dedication, of loyalty, of obedience, and discipline: qualities I see right
here in my own Ryu. But my feelings went beyond mere sympathy and admiration:
they included a measure of sadness and even melancholy. I paused to explore the
why. The reason, I realized, is simple: The fate of the Scots is replicated in
one way or another in the fates of all the tribal nations around the world, as
one by one they fell before the irrevocable advance of the progression of the modern
nation-state.
In addition I am
inspired to take the Omayok series of novels into historic depths, perhaps
beginning a period in the Roman Era just as the Empire began to make their
sweeping advance across the Hispanic peninsula. It is a literary challenge I
find appealing, once which will recall a great deal of research: history,
culture, language, fauna, flora, etc. I have always envisioned that future
volumes of Omayok would take place in different historic periods and under
disparate culture: Genghis Khan’s Mongols, Alexander the Great’s Macedonians, Tokugawa’s
Samurai, Hannibal’s legions, and so on.
Each
Sunday, at the Ryu, students at the MAMBA Ryu Institute of Biopsychocultural
Studies rotate various courses throughout the month. Today it is The Nature of Manliness. Other Sundays
they study Scientific Literacy, an amalgamation
of three sources; The Roots of the Modern
World – an introductory course on world history from various perspectives (Sapiens, Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Mankind);
and Reason, Belief, and Society – an
integrated course which studies philosophical archetypes, as well as religion
from a sociological, comparative, anthropological, and psychological perspective.
During the week, we have classes on Mondays (The Culture Mind-Brain), Thursdays (Statistical Geo-Economics with Excel), and Fridays (Statistics and Mathematical Literacy). Wednesdays
and Saturdays are dedicated to martial arts (Black MAMBA).
There are several
courses in the making which have yet to be integrated, threatening to take over
Tuesday and Saturday afternoons. Each gathering is a reunion of individuals who
have made of the Ryu their adopted family. It has taken me many years to reach
this point, and I envision the future Ryu as a self-evolving fortress that
shifts its shape to adapt to the changing terrain and geography of the times. It
is an edifice I continue to construct through the fog of pain and loss, and in the
midst of disciplined perseverance: that is the meaning of “nin” (literally “heart under blade”) in terms such as “ninja”, “ninjutsu”, and Sennin.
ROKUKEN HARAMITSU DAIKOMYO
[1] The use of the terms “malpractice”,
“negligence”, and “gross negligence” employed throughout this document are done
strictly from the perspective of a layman’s
opinion and do not necessarily have
any legal bearing upon the conduct to which they are attributed.
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