1. United States
2. N.Y.
3. Letter

1/28/24: Hospitalized at NY Presbyterian Weill Cornell for escalating paralysis my 4th time since Jan 2023. I’ve endured 6 failed interventions involving Medtronic’s Synchromed II damaging my spine. Despite warnings in their manual medical staff wont consult them worsening my condition. Two years I’ve sought treatment for escalating pain, incontinence, numbness & paralysis. I’ve been ignored by doctors,govs & device makers. Rehabs reject me even though fragments of medical devices in my spine are known to doctors who should've addressed it. NYPs increased my pain, further disable me, & threaten security when I insist on device removal. Ask me for treatment suggestions, make excuses & discharge only for condition to worsen. Proposed treatments(surgical removal or PCA pumps) are approved & rescinded with vague excuses My mother died alone 2 months ago because nothing was done to help me. MRI was canceled Jan 26 for the 5th time in 2 weeks & since then nothings been done to address the root cause. Surgeries scheduled & canceled causing more pain. Now they are trying to discharge me with worsening symptoms: firey dysesthesia around a drug infusion implant, incontinence & autonomic dysregulation. Aug 25th: After being denied surgery in January & refusing discharge to a nursing home to avoid paralysis, NYP finally performed surgery in Feb. But paralysis had spread down my left leg into my right & spasms caused an umbilical hernia that requires surgery.Leg paralysis hasn’t healed & I cannot walk unassisted. My 16-year pain regimen was changed to buprenorphine in Jan, a drug for opioid addicts not chronic pain like CRPS. Causing severe side effects leading to rehospitalization in May. Both times I contracted hospital-acquired infections weakening my condition affecting blood, kidneys & increasing pain. Im forced to take methadone though fewer side effects than subutex carries risks including past heart issues. There’s no excuse for my condition not being surgically addressed years ago. There’s no excuse being denied prescriptions safely used over a decade.I’m now likely facing lifetime partial paralysis & increased pain on top of CRPS due to a spinal issue known years ago. Millions of chronic pain patients are tortured by denial of proper opioid prescriptions safely used for years. I lost years I can never regain I could have spent with my dying mom. I lost our baby parrot because I was in the hospital instead of home caring for him, the joy of my mother’s last year of life. My life was irrevocably altered by an irresponsible driver disabling me at 20 & now by a medical malpractice system that fails to care for its most vulnerable patients