In
Copyright Since September 11,
2000
nationalnews@kaiserpapers.infoThis web site is in no manner affiliated with any Kaiser entity and the for profit Permanente Permission is granted to mirror this web site - Please acknowledge where the material was obtained. Brazilian volunteer help
Flórida’s patients
Jupirena Stein from Minas Gerais, Brasil, considers herself a “patient advocate.” 38 years ago, Jupirena Stein, 61 years old, left the green mountains of Diamantina Brasil, for the sunny beach of Santa Monica, California. In Santa Monica, she re-met an American gentleman who she had known 4 years before at her relatives home in Minas Gerais. Then they got married and the United States became her second country. However, in 1999, her life suffered a great overturn after she submitted to an elective surgery to remove a swollen parotid gland on her right neck. A trivial type of surgery nowadays. Jupirena anticipated having a small band-aid patch on her neck after surgery. However, she woke up hours later bound of the shoulder to the head and asked scared: What happened? Her surgeon told her that all went well but that at one point of the surgery, her blood was squirting out of her neck. Many weeks later her ENT told her she had been diagnosed with cancer but should not worry about it because all cancer cells had been removed. Sadly, she had 6 weeks of needless radiation treatment. She knew something was not right and contracted an attorney, who claimed the wrong injury. She was awarded a check for US$36,000 which she did not cash for 8 months. She finally cashed this check and used the money to pay for her medical care. Today, she is aware that her surgeon resected her healthy right neck muscle and that she had also radiation therapy, -needlessly. However, her health was never the same and in 2002 she lost vision of her right eye and was admitted at the Coral Gables Hospital for 4 days. She had suffered a cerebral stroke. She believes her surgeon’s not-consented vascular experimentation and his insertion of a small PTFE tube inside her internal carotid artery, was the major factor causing this cerebral stroke. “My life has changed completely. I have lost 8 muscles to ischemic atrophy (poor blood flow to nerves/muscles), my right lung is losing volume and my right diaphragmatic muscle became flat”, she said. Jupirena does not know if there is any treatment available to her alleging that doctors in general, at all costs, avoid having a doctor/patient relationship with her. “ I know I have done nothing wrong to have caused to become a victim of this medical crime.” “This surgery was not necessary and it was done on me with the purpose other than helping me with my health.” “Doctors had no right to do this vascular experimentation on alive patients”, she said. Fluent in English, she decided to transform her Saga into something beautiful and positive by becoming a patient advocate. She now helps patients that can not speak English or may not have enough knowledge about our health care system and are in need of proper medical care in South Florida, where she lives. “ I found out that I was not alone. Too many other patients out there were also victims and did not know how to help themselves or their loved ones.” “ Many of them were suffering physically and psychologically because of lack of knowledge about federal and state laws pertaining to patients rights.” “I decided then to share with them the knowledge that I had acquired during these past 6 years of continued struggle trying to discover, -what has happened to me?” “Sharing my knowledge with those in need adds to and accompanies my life’s inner happiness.” "I am not a medical doctor nor I am an attorney, I am a patient advocate.” “Evil prevails when the people are silence or take no action.” - she added. Jupirena has already helped many patients. "I helped three little babies get proper medical care who had their clavicle bone broken during birth.” “At times, they (doctors) do not perform a needed c-section (cesarean section) and will wait far too long. “At the end of mother's labor they have to relay in forcing this baby out.” The interested parties can contact jupirena Stein through the site: https://kaiserpapers.info or email: j_u_stein@yahoo.com
|