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Creating LINKS by Pamela White
For more than a year, Boulder resident Akila Oliver has lived with the grief and anger of knowing that her son died a painful, preventable death. Brought to a Los Angeles hospital vomiting and in terrible pain, Oluchi McDonald, 20, died on March 13, 2003. Medically speaking, he died because his small intestine had twisted and become gangrenous. But the deeper truth is that Oluchi died because doctors and nurses at two separate hospitals failed to treat him. Oluchi had no health insurance and was black. A federal report released this spring details how staff at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Hospital failed to give Oluchi pain medication for six hours, neglected to give him stronger medication prescribed by a doctor and left Oluchi alone with a dire, worsening condition. At some point during the night, his heart rate rose and his blood pressure plummeted. Still he was not treated. The next morning, Oluchi was found dead, lying on the hospital floor in a pool of his own vomit. Oluchi's death is one of five attributed to negligence at King/Drew. In the report, he is known simply as Patient #2, one of 20 patients to have suffered as a result of allegedly substandard treatment at King/Drew Hospital. By the time the report came out, Akila already knew her son had been in pain alone for hours. Still, reading the report was tough. "Confirming what happened didn't make it any easier," Akila says. "It was very difficult to read the report because Patient #2 is not just some anonymous person-it's my son." Most painful for her is the realization that her son was truly alone after his cell phone batteries ran out. "He did not seem to be visible to those people who took care of him," she says. Determined that Oluchi not remain invisible to the staff at King/Drew, she has filed a lawsuit against the hospital hoping its administrators will be forced to admit that her son deserved better. Her decision to sue has resulted in the creation of a nonprofit organization, called LINKS, with objectives that extend far beyond King/Drew Hospital. LINKS originally came together to help Akila with the lawsuit. Under California law, such lawsuits face a legal cap of $250,000, which means that few attorneys would be motivated to take the case. Members of LINKS helped Akila connect with friends who were doctors and attorneys and who were willing to read through Oluchi's medical records, examine his CT scans and help Akila piece together an organized case that a prospective attorney could evaluate and understand immediately. A short time later, Akila had an attorney. But in the process of working with LINKS members and meeting people who knew and cared for her son, Akila also began to envision a higher purpose for the fledgling organization. The name LINKS is not an acronym, but was Oluchi's writer name, the signature that accompanied his graffiti art. For him the name had a symbolic meaning, that of creating connection between people. That's what Akila hopes her nonprofit will do as well. "I get pissed off when I read this report, and it reminds me that anger is a necessary, righteous part of compassionate action," she says. "I think that's particularly true for people of color." Under the slogan, "Witness. Connect. Act," LINKS is focusing on two projects for 2004-2005. The Visibility Project would provide an online forum for people grappling with health-care issues and grief-patients, parents, families, friends, survivors. Sharing these stories is vitally important, Akila says. It's a belief she bases on personal experience. "I'm being a witness to Oluchi's experience," she says. "I'm seeing what for him must have been a very long amount of time between two hospitals and a very deep pain he must have been feeling." Being able to speak out about his suffering, to publicly proclaim her grief, has been empowering for Akila, who teaches at Naropa and the University of Colorado. She has done so not only through the lawsuit and the media, but through her poetry and performance art. She hopes the Visibility Project will give others the same sense of empowerment. The second project, called Information Network, would help people learn how to advocate for themselves and their loved ones in medical situations. It would provide resources for people of color. It would also educate the public about universal heath care and how people can become active in the national health-care-reform effort. This year LINKS has sponsored a handful of events, including a talk about universal health care with former Green Party gubenatorial candidate Ron Forthofer and an evening of spiritual renewal and dance with Rabbi Zalman Schacter-Shalomi. Currently LINKS is a small organization, but it is hoping to grow. "The main members are all mothers of Oluchi's good friends," says Ellen Maslow, whose son had been close friends with Oluchi since their days in Casey Middle School. "It's a heart thing, a gut thing." Members are hosting a backyard barbecue and silent auction on Sunday, June 13, from 3-7 p.m. The group is requesting donations of $25 for individuals, $50 for families, $10 for students. Savoy Express will perform jazz at the event, and donations are tax-deductible. Akila would like LINKS to grow into an organization that addresses the health-care crisis in the United States as an issue of violence. "For a country such as ours not to provide universal health care is an act of violence," she says. For information on LINKS or the barbecue and silent auction, call 303-442-2857 or 303-440-3839 or e-mail urbanthemeaki@yahoo.com. Mail donations to 3980 Broadway, Suite 103, Boulder, CO 80304. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Across America in 40 days by Ian Neligh
Fort Collins resident Michael Sandler woke up at 3 a.m. six weeks ago and decided he was going on a bike ride-across the country. He hadn't been sleeping well because of the effort he was putting into the proposal for his book, Positive Additude in College, which is about succeeding with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) in school. He knows exactly what he's talking about. He has AD/HD, a disorder associated with long-term distractibility, impulsivity and hyperactivity in children and adults. The idea of a bike ride across the country struck him as just the sort of thing that he needed to promote positive awareness for AD/HD, which affects an estimated 4 to 6 percent of the U.S. population. "My dream has always been to talk to people about [AD/HD]," says Sandler. "It's so important to be able to tell people with [AD/HD], `Hey you're not alone, you're not a screw up, we can get your life together, we can make you a huge success, we just need you to understand what's going on.'" Sandler is trying to get the message out to parents of AD/HD children, adults with AD/HD and people who work with those who have AD/HD that people who have the condition can be a success in today's world. He wants to inspire others with AD/HD to challenge themselves by setting worthwhile goals and to pursue their dreams. "I hate being by myself, I hate quiet time, and now I'm going to force myself to ride eight to 12 hours a day, by myself, through the country?" says Sandler. "Well, Noah was on an ocean for 40 days and didn't see anybody or anything, that would be kind of like riding through Kansas." Sandler's armed with more than just a sense of humor and a good cause. He knows his bicycle racing. He's been ranked in the top 10 nationally in 200-meter races. After Sandler graduated from college he raced in Europe for a few years, trying to get into the Tour De France. He didn't make it, and instead "met up with a full-sized sedan in France." That spelled the end of Sandler's bicycle racing career. He said the damage done to his leg in the accident was like the "hobbling" out of the movie Misery. Sandler came back to the states, recuperated and tried to get back into the sport, but couldn't make it and got involved in business. "[I] was quite successful-although I didn't feel like I quite fit, couldn't quite socialize with other people right," says Sandler. "Always had a stack of papers on my desk to the ceiling." So Sandler went to graduate school at CSU and is now coaching both students and adults with AD/HD. Sandler says that it is very weird for him coming from the kill-or-be-killed world of cycling and business to the world of self-help. "In Europe you'd be literally putting somebody into a ditch or being put into a ditch," says Sandler. "[In] the world of business, it's either you do a good job or I'll take your job, and now I'm in the warm and fuzzy world of how to make your life better. I love it." To start his trans-continental excursion, Sandler flew out of Colorado on June 8. He was scheduled to start the journey from Portland on June 9. His plan looks something like this: Frisco to Provo, then sleep one night in his bed in Fort Collins, head to Des Moines, then hit the Great Lakes, upstate New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Boston and finally head down the coast to Washington, D.C. For Sandler, reaching that final goal will be more than a personal accomplishment-he sees it as a triumph for all those who suffer from AD/HD. "In life, you need to throw away all the rules. You need to say that all the limits you've been taught are wrong, particularly with the [AD/HD] brains," says Sandler. "You've been told you're lazy, you're stupid, whatever. You need to throw all that out and believe that if anything is possible, you can achieve things. That means finding your limit and going somewhere well beyond it. I can't think of a better way to get my message out than by doing something so on the edge of ridiculous or crazy." You can follow Sandler's ride across The United States or offer a financial donation at www.positiveAD/HDitude.com. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Boulder Weekly flashback by Editorial Staff
One year ago-June 12-19, 2003 When pondering the potential threat of an act of terror unfolding in the United States, the Irish Republican Army is not usually the first thing that comes to mind. Pamela White's "The ballad of Ciar·n Ferry" exposed the story of an Irish immigrant placed in solitary confinement by federal authorities. Ferry, who severed his minimal ties to the IRA long ago, says the feds offered him freedom-if he agreed to spy on an east coast IRA splinter group. Five years ago-June 10-16, 1999 Chances are, you're not from around here. For many, its the smokin' music scene that first drew them to the scalloped base of the Rocky Mountains. "Planting a scene," by Dave Flomberg, was an insider's glance at the history of making music in these crazy foothills. Nine years ago-June 8-14, 1995 When Syntex, then Boulder County and Colorado's largest polluter, proposed building an incinerator at the edge of town, people choked on their chicken. In "Let's make a deal," by Brian Andreja, Boulder Weekly asked whether a compromise with the company, brokered by a prominent environmental activist, was a shot at middle ground or simply a gross sell-out. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
Send an "Abe" to Arizona by Jim Hightower Suppose an amendment was proposed to give corporations a constitutional right to buy our government with their big-money donations to politicians. Wouldn't you fight such an arrogant power grab? Well, gird yourself, for an amendment that does exactly that has been proposed-not in Washington, but in Arizona. This is one of six states where voters have approved Clean Election laws that provide public funds for candidates who agree to accept no special-interest money. Not only is this public alternative popular with candidates of all political parties-since they no longer have to spend endless hours kissing corporate butts to be able to run for office-but it also works. In Arizona, for example, nine of the 11 statewide officials (including the governor) and a third of the legislature have been elected without taking a dime from the corporate powers, thus owing nothing to them. This has, of course, infuriated the old power clique, which is used to buying these officials and running things. So assorted corporate interests have put up hundreds of thousands of dollars to put a constitutional amendment on the Arizona ballot this fall that bans the use of public funds for Clean Elections, forcing the state back to the bad ol' days of corporate-funded and corporate-controlled politicians. The people of Arizona, however, are fighting back with a "Keep It Clean" campaign to defeat this Big-Money power grab-and they need our help. To battle the $10,000 and $20,000 checks that all of the corporate fat cats are putting up, they need us alley cats from all over America to chip in $5 each to keep Arizona clean. We need to spread clean elections, not kill them, and Arizona is the place for all democracy fighters to take a stand. Abe Lincoln-who said we should have a government "of, by, and for the people"-is pictured on a $5 bill. To support that ideal, send your own Abe to Arizona. To donate $5, call 202-293-0222. Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com |
