This morning, Kari told me on the telephone that she was able to speak by telephone yesterday with the registered nurse, Eddi, at the Florida Department of Health office in Key West, about the KOTS (city homeless shelter) client Kari heard has tuberculosis. Kari said Eddi said her office dealt with TB and she would look into it. Kari said she saw the KOTS client in the hospital cafeteria yesterday and she moved across the lunchroom when she saw Kari.
Kari said she got very little sleep last night in a city bus shelter. It was raining. She was wet. She's still really weak from having gastroenteritis, urinary tract infection and pneumonia, and she's still really sore from being run over from behind on her bicycle, by a speeding electric bike hit-and-run driver on the North Roosevelt Blvd sidewalk. She did not throw up yesterday after drinking liquid yogurt. The first day in a while she did not throw up. The yogurt was the first food she'd had in days. She was throwing up water for days. She tried to eat an orange this morning and nearly threw up. I said to leave off eating fresh fruit, for now.
I told Kari two citizen members of the hospital district board contacted me yesterday by email about her saga, and I hope their involvement will lead to her getting help and other changes being made.
I have reported that Kari told me she was kicked out of KOTS for 2 weeks by the shelter manager, Lottie, because she told a KOTS woman client that her coughing was keeping the women in the female dorm awake. Kari had been in the county jail with the woman and had heard her talk with women inmates and the jail infirmary nurse about her having TB. After being kicked out of KOTs by Lottie on a rainy night, Kari went to the hospital and was told by someone who worked there, that the coughing woman had TB. Kari called Lottie and told her the woman had /TB. Lottie said that was confidential information. How did Kari get it? Kari said she had friends in high places.
So far, I have heard nothing from any of the local city and county officials. Nor from KOTS and Southern Assistance Homeless League, which manages KOTS for the City of Key West. Nor from the hospital's management. Nor from the Key West Citizen and Florida Keys news. Yesterday, I published an email from the editor of Key West the Newspaper, declining to get involved.
Yesterday's email from a member of the hospital district's citizen board of directors, who helped lead the charge a few years back to rectify many problems at the hospital.
From: Bryan Green <greenusa@me.com>
To: sloan bashinsky <sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com>
Cc: drlesleythompson@gmail.com <drlesleythompson@gmail.com>; Jay Levin <levinjay@comcast.net>; kovide@comcast.net <kovide@comcast.net>; Cara Higgins <cara@hwhkeywest.com>; marychamberkw@aol.com <marychamberkw@aol.com>; stephenhammond1@aol.com <stephenhammond1@aol.com>; Doksplacetoo@gmail.com <Doksplacetoo@gmail.com>; Lwfpa@aol.com <Lwfpa@aol.com>; Jclfkhda@aol.com <Jclfkhda@aol.com>; kwcontroller@aol.com <kwcontroller@aol.com>; treeb13409@aol.com <treeb13409@aol.com>; Dennis Ward <dennisward@aol.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 4:06:52 PM CDT
Subject: Re: LKMC treatment and mistreatment of homeless patient Kari Dangler
Dear Sloan
I read your blog yesterday and was therefore already aware of events said to have occurred at LKMC and KOTS
You appear to have sent this to the Lower Keys Hospital District Board but I cannot see any indication that you have advised Lower Keys Medical Center
As you may know I am the District Board’s nominee on the Board of Trustees of LKMC and am by copy of this email advising them of the blog but think it would be very beneficial if you could summarise your complaint which I assume you are making on behalf of Kari Dangler. Are you authorised by her to do so? One immediate problem is HIPPA which clearly precludes the hospital discussing Ms Dangler’s health issues with anyone other than her.
The other is, I am not (I’m afraid to say) entirely clear what it is you are claiming the hospital failed to do. I think you are saying they sent her back to KOTS prematurely and in another case breached HIPPA by revealing the health status of another KOTS resident to staff at the shelter.
Nonetheless, I will pass this on to Mr Clay at LKMC so that he is aware of this.
Regards
Bryan Green
My reply:
From: sloan bashinsky <sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com>
To: Bryan Green <greenusa@me.com>
Cc: drlesleythompson@gmail.com <drlesleythompson@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 8:46:49 PM CDT
Subject: Re: LKMC treatment and mistreatment of homeless patient Kari Dangler
Hi, Bryan -
Thanks for your reply and interest.
In the recipients box of my emails to the various local officials and journalists was: Feedback@LKMC.com
I found that on the CEO's page at the hospital's website:
CEOs Message
We hope you find our website user friendly and a helpful tool in gathering important healthcare information and answers. If you seek care at Lower Keys Medical Center, you will find that our physicians, nurses and staff work together as a team of health care and mental health professionals that provide you with the best experience possible.
How may we help you? If you have any concerns, questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact us.
Sincerely,
David Clay
Chief Executive Officer
Feedback@LKMC.com
(305) 294-5531
David Clay
Chief Executive Officer
Feedback@LKMC.com
(305) 294-5531
I hoped, therefore, that my emails reached Mr. Clay.
As for your questions:
I was authorized by Kari Dangler, verbally, over the telephone, to address what is in my emails.
I know the hospital cannot discuss Kari's medical with me, without her written authorization. I think she was happy with the hospital's treatment of her, while she was in there for gastroenteritis, urinary tract infection and pneumonia. However, she was distressed to be discharged before she was able to take care of herself. She said she had not been allowed to get out of bed to use the toilet or bathe up to the day she was discharged.
Kari said she had a homeless man friend staying nights in her hospital room, looking out for her, who was a witness. She had done the same for him, when he was earlier in the hospital near death a couple of times.
Kari was distressed that when she went back to the ER, and they found blood in her urine and put her in a hospital room, the same doctor, who had dismissed her the time before, came by and told her she was sending her home the next day.
Kari was distressed when she later went back to the ER with vomiting and was given morphine, she said, and something to stop her vomiting, and she was dismissed. By then, she had been thrown out of KOTS for 2 weeks and was sleeping outside.
Same, when Kari went back to the ER after more days of vomiting, and was given a script for something to stop vomiting, she said, and told to drink gatorade, and was discharged with no place to sleep inside at night.
I personally am not concerned, nor do I think Kari is concerned, that someone in the hospital told her the KOTs female client had TB. (Kari already knew from being in jail with the infected woman, that she had TB.) The matter now had grown much larger than protecting the privacy of that poor woman and what appeared to be the KOTs manager letting her stay at KOTs, and maybe trying to keep a lid on it, and kicking Kari out of KOTs for doing what I would have done, if I had been sleeping there.
I hope KOTS and/or the Florida Department of Health find that poor woman with TB a place to live inside, which is safe for her and other people.
I will bring Kari up to date when we next talk on the telephone, and then I might have more to tell you.
Board member Dr. Leslie Thompson also wrote to me today, and I'm copying her with this email, which I hope you will share with whomever connected to the hospital you feel needs to see it.
Board member Dr. Leslie Thompson also wrote to me today, and I'm copying her with this email, which I hope you will share with whomever connected to the hospital you feel needs to see it.
Warm regards,
Sloan
Yesterday's email from Dr. Lesley Thompson, who works for the local school district and once dated a very good friend of mine.
From: Dr. Lesley Thompson <drlesleythompson@gmail.com>
To: sloan bashinsky <sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com>
Cc: levinjay@comcast.net <levinjay@comcast.net>; kovide@comcast.net <kovide@comcast.net>; cara@hwhkeywest.com <cara@hwhkeywest.com>; marychamberkw@aol.com <marychamberkw@aol.com>; stephenhammond1@aol.com <stephenhammond1@aol.com>; Doksplacetoo@gmail.com <Doksplacetoo@gmail.com>; Lwfpa@aol.com <Lwfpa@aol.com>; Jclfkhda@aol.com <Jclfkhda@aol.com>; kwcontroller@aol.com <kwcontroller@aol.com>; greenusa@me.com <greenusa@me.com>; treeb13409@aol.com <treeb13409@aol.com>; Dennis Ward <dennisward@aol.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 4:11:38 PM CDT
Subject: Re: LKMC treatment and mistreatment of homeless patient Kari Dangler
Dear Sloan,
Thank you for sharing this with me. I will definitely inquire into this situation. I hope you are well, I haven’t seen you in a very long time.
Sincerely,
Lesley
My reply:
From: sloan bashinsky <sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com>
To: Dr. Lesley Thompson <drlesleythompson@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, March 19, 2019, 8:51:55 PM CDT
Subject: Re: LKMC treatment and mistreatment of homeless patient Kari Dangler
Hi, Lesley -
Thanks, it has been along time since we saw each other. I've been living in Alabama since before last Thanksgiving.
I copied you with my reply to Bryan Green's email to me today.
Hope you are doing well, enjoying life.
Sloan
I will email a copy of this post today, to Bryan, Lesley, and all the recipients of their emails to me.
sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com
Photos of Kari and me at the soup kitchen and Fort Zachary State Park in 2015, as I recall.
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