From Bea Kiddo - Sea Org medical........
SEA ORG MEDICAL
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There is a lot to say on the subject of staff welfare. I have a number of stories about staff medical care that are just off the top of my head. I have many, many more, so I decided to start a thread on it, so I can have a place to note them all.
Some of them are in my story. But it deserves its own thread.
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As a child, being raised in the Sea Org, I was fortunately in good health and did not need much in the way of health care. At the age of 7 I needed stitches and was brought to Shaw Health Center (Scn doctor clinic in LA) and given care. I dont know if the org or my mother had to pay for it.
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When I was 14 I fractured a bone in my foot. I was taken to the Childrens Hospital, which was just up the street from PAC Base. I know that this visit was not paid for. My mother got me a Social Security Card at the time and somehow, through government insurance of some sort, this was paid for. (I was young and did not follow up exactly).
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As I was in the SO, and dealt a lot with staff welfare and care, I ran into a lot of things about this. Now, some critic (a critic of me, such as a member of the cult) could say that this was my resonsibility to handle the staff welfare, so really this is about myself and my neglect of the staff. But really. Lets confront this here. Its the system. The way it is set up.
Does the staff have medical insurance? And dental insurance? 401K? Vision?
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As the SSO, I was given, on average, $200.00 per week to care for the staff. That is 200 staff. So one dollar per week, per staff member.
I tried to get little thises and thats paid for, but it was rather difficult. Mind you, the CO did try to help where possible. If there was a real medical problem with a staff member, he would do all he could to help financially to make sure that they were cared for. But that was only when things really got bad. Preventative was totally missing, except for the vitamins that I would purchase every week.
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There are a couple of medical stories to be told here:
There was a security guard who was ill for 3 days with a headache. He could not work. I went to see him (nobody bothered to even tell me he was out ill until the third day) and saw a VERY PALE and weak person. He said his head was killing him. I decided to send him to the doctors. I brought him to Shaw and dropped him off. By the time I got back to CCI, I already had an urgent call from Dr Shields. She told me I had to RUSH him to a hospital and get him a blood transfusion immediately or he would die. He had already lost 3 pints of blood. (He did not tell me this when I saw him). Even though there are hospitals ALL AROUND the PAC Base, did I go to any of them? No. We went all the way out to County Hospital, in Sylmar, which is about 20 - 25 minute drive. He did make it, thank goodness. The reason we did that was to save on cost. County hospital can be free if you know how to work the system. At least back then it was. They changed it for a small fee since then.
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Another person I knew, who was on the RPF, but still, he is a SOLO NOTs C/S, and so for that, should be considered valuable to the church. He was having heart problems and long story short, he needed a pacemaker. It was all done by interns at the downtown LA hospital. For cost reasons.
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Maybe some lives could have been saved, if medical insurance existed, and people were not made wrong and made to feel they had case on post if they have a medical condition. I know there are friends and family of Natalie Ellis (may she rest in peace) read here, but I feel obligated to mention this:
In these cases of cancer showing up when they are too far advanced to do anything about them..... could they have been prevented had insurance been available and they could get checked out early enough that it could save their lives? Off hand, I could list a lot of people who lost their lives to cancer. Could they have been prevented by proper medical checkups, which do not exist in the SO?
To you, those who did not survive cancer (I love you all):
Jill Graham
Allen Hubbert
John Mustard
Natalie Ellis
Erik Knauerhase
Beth Yamaguchi
Carol Monroe
David Russouw
And Felicia Balentine, who passed away from complications from the flu.
May you all rest in peace.
(More stories to come. And please, add your own)
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?p=42310
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