Re: Please help me help Karla
From: Wally (wallamara@hotmail.com)
Tue Jan 15 00:08:07 2002
At Sun, 13 Jan 2002, Jo Eslick wrote:
>
>
>Dear IAS Friends,
> One of our very special friends is in a frightening and desperate position. Her story is a terrifying example of the dangers we face as sufferers of Adhesions Related Disorders, the number of surgeries she has endured numbers in excess of fifty and her life now literally hangs in the balance.
> Karla Nygren please read her quilt story :
>http://www.adhesions.org/patientguide/supportgroupframe.htm
>is in a desperate situation, we all know that the last few attempts at surgery to improve her condition have failed due to a multitude of complications due to her physical health and her body’s rejection of foreign objects and substances designed to improve her life expectancy and comfort and the reluctance of surgeons to work on Karla due to these difficulties and the very real chance that she might not even survive any of the surgeries that might be undertaken.
> Karla has explained to us how her health is in a very precarious position now and she is continually suffering from very serious kidney infections that threaten to shut down her kidneys and cause her death. Karla is not able to be a candidate for a kidney transplant and her medical condition precludes her from being able to use dialysis should her kidney’s fail. The other difficulties arise from her not being able to tolerate a large number of the antibiotics used to heal these serious kidney infections, leaving just a very small number which the doctors are reluctant to use, as this would then leave nothing in reserve should Karla have a major kidney infection.
> Her health and spirits are in rapid decline and she is loosing the will to fight for her right to a quality of care and compassion, which ALL human society should be entitled to. Currently Karla’s doctor is reluctant to prescribe the antibiotics that would rid her of this latest infection, this he says is because there are few options left and there will be nothing left for him to use should she have a major infection. (Karla points out though, if they don't give her the antibiotics this time, then oerhaps it will be too late and then she will die).
> Karla knows her body well, and as fellow adhesions sufferers, we understand this statement. How often have we been able to predict a complication or infection because we could “feel” and “sense” that something wasn’t quite right? Right now, Karla is sensing that something is not right and she fears that she is heading toward that major kidney infection; the one that will cause her kidney’s to shut down and ultimately cause her death.
> As Karla’s friend right now I am experiencing such a tumble of strong emotions including anger, desperation, confusion, fear and most of all a feeling of complete helplessness. I live in Australia! So many thousand of miles away from this lady who has become so important to me, and I feel driven to do something to help draw attention to the frightening and life threatening position she now finds herself in!
> The only thing that I am able to do from so far away is draw all of your attention to this situation and ask for your help. I want to write to everyone, from your medical health investigating commission or whatever government body which oversees the ethics etc of your country's medical and health sectors. I want to write to all the major news organisations, talk and current affairs shows (like 60 Minutes?) and frankly anyone else who could potentially help us find the care and help that Karla needs and deserves as a fellow adhesions sufferer, friend and human being!
> We could do it as a petition, but I don’t think that would work as well as if all of us write as many letters as we can, via email and through the American postal service. I need you to make these letters unusual, in shape, colour and design. I need small letters and big letters, those of you who can, download the photo of Karla from the adhesions quilt, use her quilt story as part of your letter to plea for some publicity for Karla’s plight. What is it that I want from all this? I want to save Karla’s life, I want to shock the community into action and stop this unnecessary disintegration of so many lives through the pain and complications caused by adhesions and the surgeons who refuse to see them as a dangerous and very serious side effect of surgery. I want the public to understand that more thought & care should go into any decision to have surgery, surgery of any kind. We know that many times surgery is a lifesaving tool, but many times, surgery is used for superficial reasons, and those are the people I want to frighten and shock. All I can hear running through my mind is the words and music of a song, and the phrase that I hear over & over again is – stop the rot, go on stop the rot, stop the rot – yes, that’s what I want to do stop the rot – stop the destruction of quality of life for so many unsuspecting victims of the nightmare side effects of surgery which is:
> ADHESIONS RELATED DISORDERS
>WHICH CAUSE PAIN AND THE LOSS OF QUALITY OF LIFE
> Please, friends I urge you to take the time to write today, tonight, right now – as soon as you have finished reading this message. I will continue to formulate letters now, and as I complete each sample, I will post them on the board for you to use as a template for your own letter, if you don’t feel that you can write a letter using your own words, then please use this letter, or the ones I will post over the next few hours and I hope to also have a list of TV shows, news publications etc for you to forward these letters too. If you have any ideas on someone else we can contact, or another way of getting help, please email me immediately at wallamara@hotmail.com or seslick@ozemail.com.au
> Thank you for helping me, help Karla I am looking forward to meeting as many of you in person as possible sometime later this year.
> Love & gentle hugs
>Jo (Australia)
--
P.S. I'm not a doctor or medical person, just a fellow
adhesions sufferer who really wants better treatment
for us all.