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Sicangu Scribe Scribblings
This follow up review is the result of the incident last April when the White River Nursing Home contacted the hospital regarding a quality of care issue. The Rosebud Hospital administrators immediately contacted the appropriate officials to selfreport the quality of care issue. CMS did conduct an initial review in April. There was a slight improvement in services after that first review. Everyone has their very own hospital horror story. Also appearing in this issue is a story by Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick focusing on experiences Indian people have had with the Indian Health Services on their reservations. When I read about the death of Ta'Shon Rain Little Light from the Crow Tribe in Montana I felt great sympathy for her family. Her story is similar to what happened to my family. My first granddaughter was born on December 13, 1997. Her mother named her Aaliyah Grace. All grandparents will agree with me when I state that the first grandchild is very special. Aaliyah was a smart little girl and was also very psychic. She had an uncanny ability to read people and would immediately report to us what she saw or felt. She also had the ability to talk to spirits and could distinguish good entities from bad ones. Since children must be 5 years old to attend Kindergarten many of our Lakota children enter Head Start when they are 3 years old and spend two years there. Aaliyah attended the Kate Omaha Boy Head Start Center in St. Francis for two years. She enjoyed her studies and classmates very much. She especially liked riding the little bus that transported her every day. In April 0f 2003, Aaliyah got sick. She complained of pain in her leg. Her mother took her to the Rosebud Hospital. An x-ray revealed no fracture. She was sent home with Tylenol for pain. The next day the pain grew worse. Her mother took her back in to the clinic. There was a lack of obvious concern that anything serious was wrong with Aaliyah. She was sent home with instructions to continue taking the Tylenol. The pain in her leg grew worse. She couldn't walk. She wouldn't eat. She didn't drink anything. She couldn't sleep. She cried because she couldn't play outside. After a night of crying all night in pain her mother took her back to the clinic. The provider who examined her on April 28, 2003 wanted a second opinion. He called in another provider who looked in her ears and said they were infected. He didn't order any laboratory tests. He sent her home with antibiotics and Tylenol/codeine syrup. She took the syrup and stopped complaining of the pain. She died on the couch in our living room the next afternoon. The ambulance came and tried to revive her but it was too late. When we arrived at the Rosebud Hospital emergency room we were treated as though we did something wrong. A criminal investigator informed me that her death was being treated as a homicide. An autopsy revealed streptococcus (strep) which had escalated into a staphylococcus (staph) infection. A completely treatable illness had taken my 5 year old granddaughter's life. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation notified us of the cause of death (with profuse apologies about treating us a murder suspects) a family member stated that the REAL crime scene was the Rosebud Hospital and that it should have been cordoned off with that yellow police tape. Please take the time to talk to CMS if you have issues with the Rosebud Hospital. If you don't want to talk in person and don't have long distance service, please contact me and I will pay for the long distance call to the regional officein Colorado. Vi Waln is Sicangu Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation and is the editor of the Lakota Country Times. She has been writing since elementary school and has worked as a free lance journalist since 2001. Her work has been published in the Sicangu Sun Times, the Lakota Journal, the Native Voice and Todd County Tribune. She can be reached at editor@ lakotacountrytimes.com |
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