CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE AT THE JEWISH GENERAL HOSPITAL IN MONTREAL - WE GO THERE TO BE HEALED

It is just before 5:00 A.M., on Thursday, August 20. I slept fitfully for hours, but could sleep no longer. Exhausted as am, I must write this report to release the emotions that are tearing at my gut.

I called an ambulance sometime after 2:00 A.M. on Tuesday night. Without air conditioning, the terrible heat and humidy in my little apartment drained me. The illness struck suddenly shortly after 6:00 P.M. and I was suffering with stomach cramps and repeated vomiting. I didn't think it would be safe to wait any longer to get help. The paramedics came quickly. They were very helpful. 

When we arrived at the Jewish General Hospital, I was pleasantly surprised to see the new emergency department. A great improvement - clean, bright rooms replacing the old curtained booths.The nurses and technicians and the lady doctors were all young and pleasant. I was really pleased at how quickly they came to examine me and conduct various tests. A line was put in for intravenous. I was sick, but hopeful.

With the morning shift, a gentle nurse named Chana Natik took over. There were more tests. After a few hours, Chana came to tell me that the doctor wanted another blood test for additional testing. She said she was going to send in "an expert" to take more blood.

A young blonde woman marched in gung-ho and announced to me that I had nothing to fear because she is "an expert" Then she attacked. Yes, attacked!

She plunged a needle into the palm of my hand just above my wrist below my thumb. I shrieked in agony. She forced the needle in deeper as I screamed in fiery pain. It was as if I had been slashed open with a razor blade. I slipped into some kind of unreal state. A burning nightmare. Then she was gone.  

I was in shock crying hard and shaking. A long time passed and I was still crying and shaking until I couldn't breathe. My hand was on fire  I don't know if I fell asleep, There was a bell unit on the bed but I was not even able to turn over to reach it. I collapsed.

A long time later, someone came in to see how I was doing.

Sometime after that, I asked Chana the name of the nurse who had done that to me.

She refused to tell me. She said that, if she herself had done it, it would have been "much worse" Much worse? How on earth could it have been worse? If I had died?

But Chana insisted again and again that if she had taken the blood, it would have been "much worse". She said she had sent in "the expert" because she is "an expert", and Chana said the blame falls on herself and not on "the expert" because she had sent her. So she refused to give me the name of "the expert". But she was willing to take the fall herself by giving me her full name. So humble. So gentle. Putting her own head under the guillotine to protect the woman who hurt me so badly.

Later I asked the lady doctor for the name of "the expert" nurse. She said she didn't know. I think I believe her.

And so the conspiracy of silence at the Jewish General Hospital continues. I have published many reports about the cover-ups at the Jewish General Hospital through the years on my blog and they are open to the world at http://phylliscartersjournal.blogspot.com/Jewish General Hospital. 

More than 214,000 people from Canada to China have read my reports to date. Many of my readers are from Russia and the United States and Brazil and Saudi Arabia, and the Jewish General Hospital.

There are excellent doctors and nurses at the Jewish General Hospital  As a cancer patient, I owe them my life and I am deeply grateful. But the good doctors, the skillful ones who really care about the patients, live in the shadow of the conspiracy to cover for those who do terrible things to patients, out of negligence, carelessness and a lot of arrogance. 

I am still in shock. The pain in my hand has subsided. I have not vomited since Tuesday night. But I am sicker now than I have been in many years. If this terror does not subside soon, I will ask for help. 

I have never sued anyone. I have no intention of suing anyone. Money could never erase the nightmare I have just lived through, and I say, "lived through" because I am determined to come out of this darkness.

I would not take money from the hospital. If I were rich, I would be among those who donate money to the Jewish General Hospital for all the vital work they do - in spite of the heartless practitioners and administrators among them and the rule of cover-up that is pervasive there. As it is with the union Blue Line of police, unpleasant truth is suppressed and bad eggs are protected.

Patients who dare to complain are accused of being trouble makers, or "overly sensitive." I received that in writing from Chief of Staff at the JGH, Dr. Portnoy, when I complained of an excruciating, botched colonoscopy with failed anaesthetic. During that test, the doctor and nurses in the room warned me to stop screaming because I would frighten patients waiting for their tests.

"You are known to be overly-sensitive", Portnoy wrote. Always blame the patient. The truth must be quashed no matter who gets hurt.

Setting down this experience in words will help, I know. It will also serve as a warning to others. If you are abused in hospital, speak out. You do not have to give in to any abuse, no matter who injures you. Speak out and you will find many others who have had similar experiences.