Charleston Area Medical Center General Hospital Crime in Hospital

Charleston Area Medical Center does not respond to reports of witnessed crime at the hospital which is situated in a bad neighborhood. Security at the hospital is very poor and below industry standards. In addition to having a loaded gun pointed at my  face the hospital encourages a corporate culture which participates in retaliation. Please read lawsuits filed against CAMC by others who are victimized by a smear campaign.

West Virginia Dangerous Hospitals

My grandmother was almost killed at CAMC Charleston General in Oct 07 while I was visiting her. A woman who later held a loaded gun to my head forced me to pray for my life and beg for my life. The police never came. Without the US  Secret Service Agent I am  certain the hospital would have white washed the incident The administrator attempted to deny it happened. When the woman with the gun was ushered to another room I heard her on the phone "Walter," she said, "I'm in trouble you have to get me out of this, I messed up and got caught"

The local police didn't give me a case number for months, the hospital did not report the crime,

until I wrote to Federal Agencies. I lost my job, my apartment and my fiance waiting for the police to tell me whether the woman was arrested, entered a plea or what happened.The prosecutor would not reply to me. I saw my assailant again with the man who disarmed her at Thomas Hospital in Kanawha City very shortly thereafter. 

Charleston  and all of West Virginia operates similarly to an organized gang. This  stateis their 

own dirty little world 

Charleston General Hospital Woman Attempts Murder of Visitor to 97 yoa Woman

Charleston West Virginia has a long way to go in many areas to conform to National Standards

The most terrifying experience of my life happened as I visited my 97 year of age Grandmother at CAMC in Charleston at Charleston General Hospital in October of 07. I was visiting my grandmother from my home in Alexandria. I spent the night with her, the following morning  a woman in scrubs wandered into the corridor of the 3rd floor where I waited for my grandmother's physician. The woman pointed a loaded gun at my head, she was lucid enough to force me at gunpoint to answer strange questions and then she forced me to beg and pray for my life. She was disarmed, the gun was unloaded by a man who told me to leave the hospital because he was law enforcement and would take care of the problem. Instead I told him to telephone US Secret Service on L St in DC because I had that agency's phone number in my cell and thought they were more trustworthy than he, who represented himself as a MD by wearing a stethoscope around his neck . The serial number of the gun was read to the agent by this man. The man with the stethoscope later harassed my grandmother and I at Thomas Memorial. I contacted a local attorney, Margaret Workman, from the phone at the hospital because I could not reach 911. Crime is rampant in WV, although the police and hospital solicit information from web  pages neither respond to input. I contacted all levels of law enforcement and the hospital by e-mail, paper mail and telephone.  It took months to obtain a case number because the police did not tell me they did not accept e-mail or telephoned complaints.  Come on, if I am burglarized or my car is stolen or if I am elderly or a teenager  and I call the police are they certain they won't respond because I am not there in person. I wish to complain about discretionary law enforcement and the hospital's 8 week delay reporting the crime to police. The state of West Virginia has many incompetent people in positions which are given to them on the basis of nepotism. Charleston, the state capitol of West Virginia, is a small backwards town situated in a rural industrial slum. Only 7% of the state's population between the ages of 25 and 65  have college degrees. The state capitol complex and a college near the river are the only beautiful vistas in the city, a  rural slum exists within a short distance of the Capitol  which is more a symbol of statewide corruption than government service. Quite a few of WV Governors have been sent to prison. The state wide ignorance includes religious sects operating throughout the state  which are intolerant and crazed, books have been burned at the state capitol grounds, many on the subject of evolution. The hospital administrator is a primary example, does he have a degree in Hospital Administration and attended a college which was not accredited at the time of his admission. The hospital is well below national standards in modernity of equipment, security and intelligent nursing care. Many of the nurses come from the  same college as the administrator, their English grammar and vocabularies are poor  which might explain the many incidents of nursing negligence my grandmother experienced after  I reported the crime to National Institute of Health, Department of Justice, the US Attorney General and Association of American Retired People and other agencies of the Federal Government. This hospital is building a new wing and advertising for more patients, the equipment is obsolete in the operating rooms - even basic equipment such as X-Ray machines and drills- the security is not up to industry standards. My complaint  met with fierce  physical retaliation. The city is not a wise destination for medical care. I also believe WV is ill prepared for tourism, there are few cultural activities. Sportsmen may find themselves  victims of theft, assault and will find it difficult to receive help from local police. People in this state are so insular if  you ask for directions they say, "What's wrong with you, why don't you know where you are going?" or "Well, I don't know what street this is, I just suppose you'll have to figure that out>'

Charleston General Hospital (CAMC) WV Crime Ignored by Admnistration

Please View Kathryn Leaving WV 

 Victims of Serious Crime at Hospital while visiting 97 year old patient

Charleston WV General Hospital Charleston West Virginia is a Dangerous Place

Hello, I am Kathryn. The photo is of my grandmother and me at Charleston General Hospital CAMC in Charleston West Virginia.

This photo of my 97 year old grandmother

was taken in May 07. We were attacked by a woman in scrubs  who forced me at gunpoint to beg and pray for my life. The perpetrator seemed to be shielded from prosecution by a man in green hospital garb with a stethescope.  I identified him on the CAMC web page which showed his name tag as a match to a physician's assistant. My grandmother had a recurring illness which required frequent  hospitalizations . She was treated with a regimen of IV fluids

for dehydration  as well as  antibiotics.  Her condition was a consequence of an incurable but manageable infection common among elderly patients. My grandmother, after her treatments at the hospital was lucid and could walk and converse. She had opinions, ideas, and gave instructions to family. 

In October after this photo was taken,  my grandmother and I were back at this hospital, as we had been many times. We suffered a tragic, horrifying and traumatic ordeal. A woman wearing scrubs accompanied by a man in a green hospital uniform held a gun at my head then forced me to beg and pray for my life. There were many witnesses. In fact, I had the phone number of a United States Secret Service Agent in my cell phone. I had telephoned earlier in the week for information about Security Clearance to campaign for my candidate for President. I asked the man who disarmed our assailant to call the Secret Service Agent. He complied and read the serial number of the gun to the Agent on L  St. NW in Washington, D.C.

 Agent Smith confirmed he received the call and my text message asking for help. The woman  attacking me was lucid enough to later be overheard  during a telephone call she made within minutes of the incident from the hospital to someone whose number she dialed from a public phone on the third floor, "Walter, I am in trouble. Get me out of this." I was visiting West Virginia after an extended vacation. I was prepared to leave the city when this horrifying experience happened to me.  I informed the hospital and all levels of law enforcement. No one in West Virginia bothered to respond. For weeks I did not have a case number assigned to me .  I lost my job, my apartment and my fiance waiting for someone in authority to respond to me, to tell me (as the FBI main page states I have a right to know) of my assailants name, whether an arrest was made, whether a plea was entered, when the trial would be held.

 I searched for some interest from the Prosecutor and never received returns for my phone calls but a little voice on the  other end of the line at the Prosecutors office would say, "Can you be back in town on Tuesday, we should know something by Tuesday, we need you here in town on Tuesday." Tuesday never came, as over and over again my grandmother had to be transported to the hospital for her condition to be released in relatively good health until the subsequent flare up, and back we would go. My grandmother would cry at home, "Please I am afraid to be at that hospital  alone, please don't leave me." I did not leave her. 

We experienced retaliation from staff for making inquiries about our safety. Charleston General does not have the level of security we come to expect from a convenience store. Finally the local newspaper (partially owned by the same politicians who provide grants to the public hospital and are also part owners of a construction company building a wing on the hospital) published an article about assaults  of staff and weapons brought into the Emergency Room by patients. The hospital is constructing a wing without security cameras, without state of art equipment and without drug testing staff which will receive more victims of the ineptitude and retaliatory corporate culture we found at Charleston General. She was deprived of medication which the nurses refused to request refilled, she was deprived of food, she was left on a bed without sheets and without heat in a cold room with the guard rails pulled down, she was humiliated by staff who made fun of her appearance, my request that blood pressure devices be placed on her good arm, the one without broken bones  was ignored, my grandmother cried. The nurses did not call her MD to confirm her bones were broken or ask for her record. My grandmother had good health insurance.

My grandmother was refused treatment by an MD who had been told I accused him of wielding the gun, in other words the hospital did not let the MD read what I had written to them via their  web page or the paper letters I left - they simply said I accused him which I had not. The MD sent her home from the Emergency Room, he said, "Well, at least we cleared up what you said, but there isn't anything I will do for your grandmother." The next day her personal physician sent her back to ER in an ambulance from his office. She was admitted. Before my grandmother died in April she was in the hospital, I was amazed when her primary physician, a woman I had trusted, tried to tell me geriatric patients don't feel pain. I could see her cry, hear her cry and watch her writhe in pain. She was  completely ignored by staff, the doctor made her rounds later and later in the day spending  less and less time with her.

Someone at the hospital started a rumor  I had killed my late husband. I provided a   hospital staff member with a letter to me  from my Senator, thankfully I am not a constituent of WVa politicians. The letter states my husband died on Guam Navy Base, He was a Captain of a Merchant Vessel with a Department of Defense Contract. His death nearly killed me. Charleston General Hospital CAMC plays dirty pool, hits way below the belt. One employee accused me of abusing my grandmother, the dates of her falls and broken bones do not coincide with my presence in West Virginia. I worked and lived in The District of Columbia and Virginia. However the dates do seem to fall in the time period my grandmother was treated by a psychiatrist who saw her just once, very briefly and prescribed barbituates  of which my grandmother's medical team was not aware. When I informed MD's who treated her over many years they were horrified, they said she did not need barbituates, the meds were dangerous to her for many reasons. I complained about the psychiatrist just a couple of weeks before the gun was held at my head.

West Virginian's do not address the deficiencies in law enforcement, hospital care, or prosecutorial favoritism, the state operates as if it is an organized crime family. I am seeking legal remedies and wish to sue the hospital, but I can't do this until the defendants are brought to trial. By the time  a case goes to trial in WV witnesses die, as have three of my grandmother's witnesses. The poverty in this area is so abject people will do anything to keep their jobs. Unfortunately the greater poverty is the morality of the public officials who demonstrate at the very best apathy and at their worst  succumb to bribery.

My father had three aneurysims. His MD postponed surgery for quite some time until equipment used in the operation was repaired. After the repairs were completed my Dad was prepped and sent to surgery, he was to be the second patient of the day. The equipment failed, if the MD had not been as diligent as he was the equipment would have failed during surgery.

Fortunately the MD took on the responsibility of mechanic and tested the equipment again between surgeries. My Dad survived. We are grateful.

My aunt had three surgeries on the same hip at Charleston General. Her Surgeon said his X-Ray and other imaging equipment were not state of the art, he could not see her infection. Her temporary artificial socket was dislocated by  female nurses who treated her roughly and manhandled her. I don't think they tested her tolerance for certain antibiotics used to treat her.

I wonder about their intelligence and whether they were ever evaluated by a psychologist to determine if they are sadists.

I also am curious to learn  whether the Hospital  Administrator graduated from a college which was accredited at the time of his admission and where his priorities are placed. The hospital system was filming commercials on the day of the second attack upon my grandmother and after I had sent them a list of available grants for security from USA Grants.Gov.  

Other things bother me about West Virginia.  I am troubled by the racism experienced by my friends from the District, religious bigotry, absence of cultural activities, the overall ugliness of the state which is exposed during winter. I dislike the attitudes of the people,  the ignorance caused by poverty which  in turn is elevated to the level of some noble virtue. One example is from something I viewed on the Public Television Station. A woman with a Master's in Education from West Virginia spoke of her "feelings" about education in almost unintelligible English with terrible grammar. I found that graduates of Marshall University Law School are not required to study ethics in law school. I am angered by the celebration of ignorance in this state. I am sick of their cult of work gangs, courthouse gangs, and the 'Good Old Boy's Club' which dominate the state. I am amazed at the egoism of little local Demi Gods who  keep secrets in this rural industrial slum slave state with a nod of their head or, as in our case at gun 

pointed at mine. West Virginia is a world unto it's own.

 Don't criticize, don't complain, don't condem and don't car trip through these forests. This is Dueling Banjo Country. The veil of corruption over the state of West Virginia is as deep as the mine shafts where men  die in the darkness.