August 4, 2001: Karen's Medical Condition

At 9 AM on July 28, Karen phoned to report on her medical condition. Treatment with intravenous antibiotics for her Third Stage Lyme disease has been discontinued temporarily. Medical technicians can no longer find a subcutaneous vein for delivery of IV solution. Karen's wish is to proceed with installation of a "portal" (mode for permanent continuous delivery) after a one month's rest.

Confined to a wheelchair, Karen is on around-the-clock Percodan due to the "intense pain" she suffers in her joints and muscles. In this connection, she reports that her release date, set for December this year, will not be recognized by the Bureau. It appears that release of a POW who is prescribed a medication on Schedule I would conflict with a condition of supervised release (negative urine tests) and result in automatic violation.

A letter dated June 30 from Sue Charleton, a former POW in FMC Carswell who knows Karen well and did her best to offer help while there tells of further deterioration in Karen's condition. Sue Charleton occupied a room a few doors down the hall from Karen's. She tells how at nightfall she would lift the covers on Karen's bed over her body, Karen being too weak to do this herself. In the same spirit, Sue would help Karen sort incoming mail. She describes Karen's significant weight loss Karen over the past year, and worries that she "won't make it out of there alive."

In the July 28 phone call, Karen repeated her long-standing grievance that prior to the transfer to FMC Carswell (for recommended amputation of her feet) in September 1999, erroneous diagnosis by physicians at FCI Tallahassee led to her present state. The diagnosis then was rheumatoid arthritis - the correct diagnosis was only made on transfer to FMC Carswell. Treatment for rheumatoid arthritis while Karen was incarcerated in FCI Tallahassee consisted of corticosteroids and methotrexate. Both these agents impair an individual's immune system. Karen asserts that the treatment she was given "destroyed my immune system," provoking the invasion of her system by the spirochete responsible for Lyme disease from which she has suffered progressively over the past 18 months.

Insertion of a "portal" for the administration of IV fluids is admittedly hazardous, exposing a patient to the danger of septicemia. Karen is nevertheless determined to proceed with this approach. She declared she had nothing to lose. "I am in the third stage of Lyme disease, and the next stage after that is death."