Help Waymon M. Berry III
Hello Everyone:
I am sending this to all of you because, through my interaction with each of you, I know that you care enough not to see egregious behavior on the part of corrections personnel continue unchecked:
The below message will explain everything, please read it in its entirety &
act upon it how you feel best or see fit - I have attempted to contact Calvin
Smith & it has fell on deaf ears - I will be forwarding a copy to R
Heimrich as soon as I receive
his exact mailing address - at this point I am at my wits' end & very tired
of the b/s that my husband has had to put up with - this
is the final straw - you can contact me if you have further questions:
Teri Berry
(916) 657-0670 work
(916) 428-7342 home
This is from Waymon to his doctor:
WITH THE NAME OF ALLAH; MOST GRACIOUS, MOST MERCIFUL.
- - - - o O o - - -
Mr. Waymon Miciangelo Berry, III, C-22935
MULE CREEK STATE PRISON
PO Box 409099, FC12-145
Ione, California 95640-9000
August 26, 2002
Dr. David B. Bybee, M.D., Neuro-Surgeon
911 E. Tuolumne Road
Turlock, California 95382-1543
Dear Dr. Bybee:
Greetings.
It is VITALLY IMPORTANT that you know that I am in GRAVE DISTRESS with respect
to my current housing, care
and treatment.
PLEASE BE ADVISED that I am currently being housed in an extremely primitive,
make-shift, infirmary,
located in the disciplinary maximum-security unit, Building #12, Facility
C. I am being held in one of six small
security cells designated as Crisis Beds for mentally despondent
and/or suicidal inmates. These inmates are banging
and screaming throughout the day and night, making it absolutely impossible for
me to rest. These mentally-ill inmates are
having to be pepper-sprayed and forcibly restrained in order to be
psychotropically medicated . . .
In addition, the cell I am housed in is extremely hot with very poor ventilation.
I am not being permitted to walk every 2
(two) hours, per your expressed orders, as a result of being housed in a
disciplinary maximum-security unit, to
include only being permitted to shower every three (3) days and that is only if
I wish to stand barefoot in a shower with
urine and feces of highly possibly Hepatitis C inmates on said shower
floor.
ALL nursing attention is being received through a tray-slot, to include, but
certainly not limited to, meals, medications,
T.P.R. testing, and visual inspection of anterior-posterior wounds. This
measure is due to my being erroneously
placed in a disciplinary maximum-security unit, and NOT as a result of my warranting
such extreme measures of security.
I am being required to bend at the tray slot, repeatedly move from the bed,
without rails or supports, to the cell door to
receive medical services. Only when the doctor on duty pays a visit does
the medical support staff enter the room. This type
of medical treatment is extremely primitive and extremely unacceptable or
conducive to healing.
Here, the role of custody staff and medical staff are in such an unclear flux,
so-far-in, that on
approximately 0700 hours, a C/O T. Shirley, infirmary officer, was left to
dispense my pain medications without the
supervision of medical staff. With respect to this particular incident, I
filed a written complaint with Mr.
Calvin Smith, Administrator of the Day.
On or about August 22-23, 2002, a C/O L. Thurman, prevented the staff who
transported me via ambulance to Mule
Creek State Prison, from allowing me to defecate using state toilet facilities,
claiming I had pending lawsuits against her. This resulted in me
defecating on myself, being left to clean myself, and, being denied
medications, for some twenty (20) hours
while housed in the general population. With respect to this particular
incident, I filed a CDC-602, Inmate
Appeal, as Registered Nurse
C/O Schofen, in my medical chart. I am requesting legal remedy from this
illegal action by C/O L. Thurman, who
was well aware of my return to Mule Creek State Prison via ambulance secondary
to having undergone major surgery of
the lumbar spine. I was humiliated without provocation.
Page 2.
Dr. David B. Bybee, M.D., Neuro-Surgeon
Turlock, Califorrnia 95382-1543
Dr. Bybee:
It was my having a full understanding of my now-suffered condition(s)
subsequent to having such a major, very invasive,
surgical procedure, in the ambit of anterior-posterior diseconomy @L4-L5 with
fusion, bone grafts and screws, to
include abdominal herniation repairs, that it was ABSOLUTELY PARAMOUNT for you
to recommend my
transfer to a MEDICAL FACILITY as opposed to a prison facility. In a
prison facility, the mandates of custody, security
and discipline/punishment, over-rides many medical
considerations. However, at a MEDICAL FACILITY, the
treating physician, you, has the last word with respect to my medical care and
treatment.
Dr. Williams, CMO, has made reasonable attempts to adhere to your specified
treatment recommendations. However, there
is no true infirmary or medical housing here at Mule Creek State Prison; and,
your recommendations and orders for my treatment runs afoul with custody,
security and discipline-punishment, since I am now being housed in
a mental/suicide/
crises bed section of a disciplinary maximum-security housing unit at Facility C, Building
#12.
With the above information in mind, I am herewith requesting that I be returned
to the
Facility @
which to gain strength and independence eventually.
Your always kind and timely attention to this very
urgent patient request would be greatly appreciated.
Genuinely Yours,
Waymon M. Berry, III
Patient
Enclosure:Doctors Medical Center Discharge
Summary dated 08/22/02
Cc: Mr. William F. Wright, Attorney
for Patient,
Waymon M. Berry, III
Mr. Scott Kernan, Chief Deputy
Warden, Mule
Creek State Prison
Dr. Brad Williams, Chief Medical
Officer, Mule
Creek State Prison
Mr. Calvin T. Smith, Correctional
Health
Services Coordinator-II, Mule Creek State Prison
File Copy
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UPDATE
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