KAREN UPDATE APRIL 14, 2001

 

In a letter accompanying this update, Karen writes: “The conditions I continue to suffer from include bone deterioration, muscle pain, loss of strength, swelling of joints, hair loss, memory loss, chills, hot flashes, headaches, diarrhea, chronic fatigue, dizziness, numbness, tingling, sweating episodes, jerking, twitching, shooting pains, occasional bouts of cellulitis, abdominal pain, vomiting and nausea, but [Warden] Mallisham says I am okay.  Lyme disease [the diagnosed illness] is is the fastest spreading infectious disease in the country after AIDS, and just as deadly.”

 

In a phone call the day after this letter was posted, Karen reported that the transfer to FCI Dublin, CA she had confidently looked forward to has been held up “because Tammie Riemer my snitch is in Dublin.” 

 

Viewers should note that Karen’s request for compassionate release makes sense.  Karen has one more year of incarceration before she is due for release anyway.  If compassionate release is granted, Karen’s intention is to reside in reaching distance of  the office of Dr. Raphael Stricker in San Francisco, a Lyme disease specialist she has trust in.

 

Friends and supporters may continue to press for compassionate release by writing to Kathleen Hawk-Sawyer, Director, Bureau of Prisons, 320 First Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20534.  Mention Karen Horning, Reg. # 00644-049, and FMC Carswell, Fort Worth, Texas.

 

In the phone call on April 15, Karen volunteered that friends and supporters who write on her behalf from outside the United States should not expect replies from the Director of the Bureau of Prisons.  Writers from outside the country are not accorded the respect of a reply.

 

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I was transferred to Federal Medical Center Carswell on June 12, 1999 for multiple surgery on my hands and feet.  This is the only medical center in the country for federal female prisoners who become ill.  Both my hands and feet are severely deformed due to what had been determined to be arthritis.  This diagnosis was made at the old FMC in Lexington, KY in 1989.

 

Upon my arrival, Dr. Robert Terrian, my attending physician, clinically diagnosed me with Lyme disease.  His decision was based upon my symptoms, as well my body’s response to antibiotics.  The year before, I read that antibiotics help a minute number of arthritis patients, and fought with the medical administrators at FCI Tallahassee until they gave them to me.  Blood tests were ordered.  They returned negative for Lyme.  I continued the maintenance antibiotics regardless.

 

After my transfer, a year elapsed before I was brought out to see a podiatrist.  (Although the administrators are aware in advance what each of us comes here for, we frequently wait a year or longer before having the surgery which has been approved and is the reason for transfer.)  Dr. Glen Beade, the Fort Worth podiatrist/surgeon I saw, said the operation was simple enough.  However, he was not familiar with Lyme, and had to do some research.  He was amazed that I had never had surgery before, because the joints connecting the toes to the foot are completely gone in both feet. 

 

On August 28, 2000 I returned to Dr. Beade’s office looking forward to getting my feet corrected so I could run again.  He informed me not only is surgery not feasible, but further deterioration would cause the skeletal frame in the foot to collapse, and then my feet would have to be amputated.  A corrective operation would give me a 75 percent chance of amputation because the procedure would rile the Lyme up.  Another radical attack would lead to the same thing.  Had the disease attacked the middle of my feet or the heel, they would have already had to be amputated.

 

Needless, to say, I was hysterical.  Not only did I receive this news, but I had been at Carswell for 15 months without seeing an actual Lyme specialist.  What the prison did was to have me meet with their two infectious disease specialists.  Both said I did not have Lyme, despite my symptoms.   Due to the needs of the general population, these doctors specialize in HIV and hepatitis.  Dr. Terrian said there were no Lyme specialists in this area.  I found two, and with the help of a lot of people out there writing in, I was able to see them. 

 

On October 18, 2000 I went to see Dr. Hamed Moayad.  Based on my history, he felt certain I had Lyme.  I reported the negative tests.  He said people like me who have already received antibiotics, for any reason, for a minimum of 14 days will always have negative blood test results.  I was to be placed on three antibiotics, and a urine test was to be done.  It came back positive, and additional blood work completed at one of the two labs in the country specializing in such illnesses revealed that I have babesiosis and ehrlichiosis, two other tick-borne diseases as well.  All three can be fatal if left untreated.  While Lyme and ehrlichiosis can both be maintained by doxycycline, antibiotics do not do anything for the babesiosis.

 

Dr Moayad is a very strange man.  Each time I saw him I had a series of questions which he refused to answer.  When questioning him about detrimental effects of the steroids I had been given, and whether there was a feasible way to gage the damage caused by them – I had no bone loss or deformity until a rheumatologist placed me on them – instead of giving me a straight answer he told me a story of a housewife, a carpenter, and a graduate student.  All three had Lyme.  All three received steroids.  All three are dead.  According to Dr. Moayad, I therefore had no reason to complain about being crippled for the rest of my life.

 

My next visit with Moayad in December, 2000 was my last.   He had previously refused to listen to a word I said.  His triple antibiotic plan for the Lyme was causing me such horrific side effects we had to stop the shots.  He refused to address the babesiosis which according to all my research is properly treated first because it affects the metabolism and slows treatment of the other two illnesses.  When addressing the horrific rash all over my body, he insisted it was a result of the medication.  When I attempted to explain that I also have psoriasis, he blew up at me, told me I was out of my mind, and threw me out of his office.  The man is crazy.

 

The second specialist I found, Dr. Stein-Goldings, proved worse than the last.  Another woman and myself were brought to Dallas to see her in January.  Of course, the prison didn’t send any lab work, so she just looked at me.  She ignored all my questions, and based on observation declared I just had “arthritis.”

 

Meanwhile, back at the prison I am still experiencing extreme pain, fatigue, nausea, dizziness, chills, and night sweats.  Dr. Terrian does not know what to do for the babesiosis, and I am receiving maintenance care for the other two illnesses.  I am getting just enough meds to manage, but nothing towards knocking it into remission. 

 

In January, I filed for a compassionate release.  My “compelling circumstances” are the fact that they misdiagnosed me, mistreated me, and now cannot care for me.  It is presently mid-April and no hearing has been held.

 

In January, Warden J.B. Bogan, retired, and Lucy Mallisham stepped in to replace her.  While Bogan would give brief but accurate replies to people who wrote in on my behalf, Mallisham is all-out lying.  Initially, she declared I was refusing treatment.  In her most recent response, not only am I refusing treatment but also I do not have Lyme or the other two illnesses.  This is a deliberate attack on me.  No one has ever been cured of Lyme disease.  The best to hope for is remission.  I truly fear for my life at this institution under her administration. 

 

In January and again in February, they made me see a rheumatologist.  He refused to acknowledge my diagnosis despite lab reports I showed him.  I refused anything he recommended.  It was a rheumatologist who nearly killed me before.  I have Lyme disease, not simple “arthritis.”  It appears that Mallisham is holding these refusals over my head.  Regardless, I will continue to refuse to be treated for something I do not have.  The lab reports do not lie.

 

As things stand right now, I am awaiting transfer to FCI Dublin.  I did request to go there to get out from under Mallisham’s terrifying reign.  I will be safer there.  While she declares me not sick, Assoc. Warden Gordon acknowledges I am not well enough to travel through regular transit.  I am scheduled to leave on a direct medical flight.  Although I am destined to leave here, I still request you to write to Kathleen Hawk-Sawyer on my behalf.  Copies of my lab reports are ready to be downloaded, and it would be appropriate to send them to Washington, D.C. with your letter.

 

What they did to me is wrong.  What they did to me is not an isolated event.  As long as they are permitted to carry on like they do, they will continue.  These people’s salaries are paid by your tax dollars, and unless you condone their behavior you must demand they be held accountable for their actions, especially Mallisham.

 

Thank you.

 

Karen