First I want to post a very sad story of my very special friend Bee Sting here:
My Pain and Jett Travolta
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I was on staff in small Mission when I met “Maria.” It’s not her real name but to conceal her true identity, I will call her Maria.
The mission was small and I could hear much any session that took place through the beveled doors that separate the only auditing room from the rest of the org. Maria was audited by her Mother, a Class VII or so (I forget) Auditor.
Maria was diabetic from early childhood. She received many hours of auditing from her mom trying to handle her psychosomatic aberration or however they put it.
One day, I hear Maria babbling to herself and she seemed to think there was something above her head. I couldn’t see it but apparently she needed to communicate to this invisible “entity.” I would hear her give commands or acknowledgements like “sit down”, “stop it“, “ok”, “that’s it” or”very good” etc.
Being a brand new Scientologist I didn’t understand what was going on and I thought it was pretty bizarre. Then, I would observe her “flicking” things off her legs or other parts of her body and communicate in the same way to these “flicks.”
One day Maria explained to me her behavior. She said she had a “theta spider” living on top of her head and this is was to who she was communicating with when she was looking up. The “flicking” was getting rid of her “Body Thetans.” Of course, I had no idea what this was all about until much later on in Scientology.
But anyhow, I moved on and many weeks and months past and then I received news that Maria was doing well. She was doing great in auditing and was going off her insulin. Yet, a year or so past and I heard nothing until when I day I learned she”dropped her body.” I was very sad to hear the news because she believed so intently she would eventually be able to stop taking her medication.
Another year or so later, I learned more about Maria’s death. She had full blown diabetes Type-B, the most severe form there is and she stopped taking her insulin. Her mother happily reported how successful she had been before her death finally attaining some kind of whatever level. I didn’t hear much about Maria’s wins or levels through the conversation. All I could think about is how she died and I wondered why. Why Maria?
Soon after, Maria’s mother and her sister packed up their belongings and moved to Clearwater Florida. I believe they are still there today.
Years after leaving the Sea Org and Scientology for good, I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl but a few weeks into her new born life something went wrong. She had encephalitis (brain swelling) which caused a series of unstoppable grand maul seizures. The doctors had no choice but to induce her into a medical coma. This incident left her with severe and irreversible brain damage but I never learned what caused her condition.
In a conversation with husband, very much a Scientologist even being out for so many years, I learned what he and how Scientology views any one with disabilities. His words in reference to my beautiful little girl were “they put dogs to sleep.” I divorced him!
Scientology believe people with disabilities are “degraded beings” and somehow my husband blamed me for causing, yes, causing her condition. It was my fault, I caused it and I was no longer the “perfect” mother whom gave birth to his first born son. I fell from his “pedestal”, as he put it.
In years that followed, I fought tremendously with my little girl’s doctors and care takers but thanks to their passion and understanding, they gently coached me in understanding that all drugs are not bad. With their incredible patience I learned to become an advocate for my little girl. I learned about her medications, the risk and side effects but most importantly, the benefits. One of the drugs she has to take is Valium an absolute no, no in Scientology.
In the mean time my now ex-husband, sought sole custody of my son. He “Faired Gamed” me. My neighbors were talked to, my real estate agent was talked to, my employer was talked to and my very own lawyer was talked to. I changed lawyer!
In a phone conversation with my son, he TOLD me I should agree to pay child support to based on potential future earnings of $60,000 per year when at the time I was unemployed and had never made more that $30,000 per year in my entire life, my son told me this, my son!
I didn’t fight custody. I had visitation rights but whenever I called to speak with my son he was too busy or out doing something else and he would “get back to me later.” Well, later never came and later always went.
Every now and then I think of Maria. I wonder what if?
I think of her mother and I wonder why? I don’t understand!
I think of my little girl’s daddy that never thought for a second of whom or what she might become and above all I miss son. How cruel the world can be and how different perhaps things might have been if it was not for Scientology and its policies of disconnect and fair game.
When I visit my little pumpkin she always greets me with a smile. I am not sure she knows the concept of “mother” but I know I am one of the ones she loves. Sometimes, I have to share her affection with whom she greets the same (like a care taker) but that’s ok because I know she is happy in the life she lives.
She is blind but she always turns her head and coos when I am there. When I see her smile I know she loves me - unconditionally and I know that the smiles she gives belong to me.
When I heard about Jett Travolta I feel their pain and I grieve with them. I am the last person in the world who have the right to criticize and judge any another parent in their decision in the care of their child.
I am the last to have anything to say because I have fought so hard for so long and I have been all alone with the all decisions to make about my little girl. And yet, a piece of me - does!
Maria was 32 years old when she died. Maria was my sister-in-law. I miss her very much. Even though I know why, I still ask, why?
Then I found this story a few days ago:
From:
[email protected] (energytraveler)
Subject: Dr. Megan Shields - Who Comes First the Patient or the Church?
Date: 3 Dec 2002 15:21:51 -0800
Message-ID: <
[email protected]>
Dr. Megan Shields and her colleague, Dr. Gene Denk, know more about the inner criminal activity of senior Scientology management than just about anyone.
Quite a while ago, Dr. Denk supervised the Purification program on Carrie Alkins. During the Purif, Carrie, a juvenile diabetic, developed a detached retina and, although she had several eye surgeries, wound up legally blind. She has remained so ever since.
Carrie wrote up a bunch of knowledge reports at the time in an effort to not only get some sort of apology and restitution from Shaw Health Center, but also to ensure that other diabetics were not given massive dosages of niacin, which could bring on retinal bleeding and possibly a detached retina which could result in blindness.
Regular doctors routinely warn diabetics against taking massive dosages of niacin for this reason.
Dr. Denk and Dr. Shields circled the wagons, of course, and let Carrie and her husband know that if she pushed the point she might get kicked out of the Church. Scientology doctors tend to cover for each other and also for the Church. They fail to report child abuse, sexual harassment, spousal abuse, and any sort of medical negligence that has happened ROUTINELY over the years within the Sea Org.
When I was on staff at ASHO and at AO I used to do all the staff FESing (review of counseling folders). This is what I observed. A lot of the staff members would get sick, go to the Shaw Health Center and get sub-optimum care there. Serious illnesses would often be overlooked resulting in extremely serious medical and sometimes fatal consequences. Many times I saw staff members who went to Shaw Health Center and the doctors prescribed routine antibiotics rather than ordering the medical exams that would be normally ordered by any competent physician. As a result of that, many times the staff members ended up going to the hospital in late stages of cancer when the cancer was too advanced to be operable. Because the Sea Org doesn't pay for health insurance for its staff members it becomes a very serious problem when they get a disease.
Also, seriously depressed or mentally ill people NEVER get referred by the doctors at Shaw Health Center for any type of treatment. For instance, there was a NOTS auditor in the early 1980s who was a staff member at AOLA who was 5'6" tall and weighed less than 90 lbs. She was completely anorexic. She was very seriously ill. Shaw Health Center attempted to handle her with intravenous vitamins. They didn't inform her family or take the measures that were really needed to save her life. Her fellow staff members, myself included, never did find out what happened to her. She just disappeared. Another Sea Org auditor, Claire something, had had an auto accident and had severe back pain. Shaw Health Center tried to help her with peripheral types of treatments. AOLA and Shaw Health Center ignored the agony this woman was in. Claire committed suicide by walking into the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica.
Dr. Denk and Dr. Shields and the Sea Org are ripping off the tax payers by sending all their staff to Olive View County Hospital so that they can get free treatment on Medi-Cal. The Church brags about its wealth but does not care enough about its staff to feed or house it properly and also refuses to pay for medical care for its staff on many occasions. Dental care is also out of the question for many staff members. Many of them lose their teeth because the Church refuses to pay for dental care. Yet, other Sea Org members are willing to stigmatize these staff members as being 'down stat' because they look like monsters with missing teeth. These staff are humiliated and kept literally in the basement doing menial work unless they somehow have the resources to pay for their own dental care.
Dr. Shields & Dr. Denk are accomplices to many of the Church human rights abuses and medical negligence. They know that if they follow the law, the way they should be doing, they will get into trouble with the Church and probably be excommunicated. This puts them in a daily dilemma. For example, in the early 1980s a staff member at a Scientology Sea Org nursery was found to be a child molester. At least 20 Sea Org staff members knew about this and also the doctors at Shaw Health Center were aware of it. These doctors DID NOT report this to the authorities because they were more concerned about avoiding a public relations flap for the Church than about the fact that there was a good chance that more innocent children would be molested.
Even though many Scientologists who sell Health Insurance have approached Scientology management with reasonable rates on group health insurance, management has never agreed to this.
Sexual harassment is an everyday occurrence in the Sea Org. Although this is almost never voiced, it is a hidden scandal. Of course, as in any human group, there are kind people and mean people. But the Sea Org has developed a kind of prison mentality. A lot of Sea Org members are young teenagers or young adults. Often by the age of 23 or 24 they have been married 3 or 4 times. Because of the Sea Org prohibition on pregnancy, many marriages are unhappy and the partners feel unfulfilled. Older Sea Org members often marry young recruits.
Some very vicious Sea Org members will purposely separate married couples. They station one in one country and the other in another country where they are not able to see each other for literally YEARS.
Also, they don't have money to call long distance. Since they are not allowed to go onto the Internet (for obvious reasons) they can't communicate by e-mail either.
There is no retirement program for older Sea Org members. When they get old and incapacitated they don't have a place to go. Also, they often don't have family to take care of them. They are made to feel like 'downstats' and often leave the Sea Org and go on the public dole very quietly, often moving back to where they grew up.
A friend of mine went to Shaw Health Center last year and reported to me that it looked pretty empty. That may be why Dr. Shields is now working at Glendale Memorial. Any thoughts on this?
But all of the above should be carefully qualified. Dr. Denk and Dr.
Shields are well aware of how far Scientology senior management will go. They know that it would be easy for management to get Sea Org members to testify against them for legitimate malpractice, notwithstanding the fact that the malpractice was incited by management itself. They are, themselves, entrapped. If they do not continue to follow the instructions of senior management they risk losing their medical licenses and possibly being criminally prosecuted, at the instigation of management. In exchange for their loyalty, Shaw Health Center is protected by management from patients who might, were it not for Scientology rules and regulations, sue them or cause criminal negligence charges to be made.
Any patient who dares to report Shaw Health Center to internal Scientology ethics is routinely reprimanded for trying to attack 'upstats'. The one who is the victim, in this type of situation, is the one who is blamed. The usual Scientology 'blame the victim' routine so that the Church can avoid taking any responsibility.
Guess who was the Medical Doctor of my brother Uwe in the RPF....
Yes it was Dr. G. Megan Shields.
You can find his tragic story here:
http://anonforgreatjustice.blogspot.com/2008/12/markus-stuckenbrock-just-exactly-how.html
or just read my posts and threads about him on this board
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=8897
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=12443
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=11557
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=12513
Please help me to collect all cases of medical malpractice in this thread.
Thank you.
Love
Markus
