00:00Alright, as always, you can go to YouTube channel My Medical Nightmare and see 40 plus
00:07hours video on everything that happened to me.
00:10I still say this is Debra, how may I help you?
00:12Hello, I'm trying to reach Debra Pickens.
00:15This is she.
00:16Hello ma'am, I was returning your call from a few weeks ago.
00:19Yes, um, you had indicated that you wanted to talk to me and so I was returning your
00:27call.
00:28I spoke to your CEO, Dr. Robert Records, okay, and this was in May.
00:34He told me that you were going to look at some issues that I had done.
00:39I spoke to him for 30 minutes and went through my issues in rather intricate detail.
00:47He told me you were going to contact me after examining my situation.
00:51What we, what we do, what our process is, is we filed your, um, your statements as a grievance.
00:59We have a grievance, um, a patient grievance policy and we filed your, um, and it went through
01:06our process, which means it was investigated by our quality team and, um, went through
01:13our quality improvement committee and then, um, um, I believe it's going to go to the board.
01:22I don't think it's done that yet.
01:24I think it's going to go through the, to the board.
01:26Hold on one second.
01:29Okay.
01:29Okay.
01:29It's going to go through, I apologize for the delay.
01:31It's going to go through the board, to the board, um, at its August meeting.
01:36Um, but the investigation has, has, um, indicated thus far that we are not able to do anything
01:45more than we have already done, but it will go to the board, um, and we'll see what they
01:51have to say.
01:52And then the letter will be sent to you.
01:55And basically the letter, I believe, will say that we have investigated, um, you know,
02:00your allegations and, um, you know, made a determination.
02:05I don't know that it will go into detail about what the determination is, but, um, obviously
02:11if the board feels we should do something else, then we will be back in touch.
02:15But the current recommendation is that the care that we gave was appropriate.
02:21This was a May 17th telephone conversation with Deborah Pickens.
02:27Her official title is listed variously.
02:31One source on the internet mentioned she is the director of administrative services, CEO
02:37Robert Record, who I spoke to in May, 2023 in a 30 minute phone call, he referred to this
02:47person as a compliance officer, was told she was going to call me after taking a look at
02:54my situation and we did not get connected on the telephone until August 14th.
03:01I was a patient for Christ Health Center, Dr. Terry Daniel Smith, MD, as well as nurse
03:08practitioner, Anna Musgraves in 2019.
03:13I had a broken skull injury and head trauma that I almost died from.
03:19The wound became infected with parasites as well as three inch long insects and worms that
03:26you can see in various x-rays, MRI, and CT that I had done.
03:32At the time I visited Christ Health Center, I was trying to get an MRI scan and I had a
03:39lot
03:39of trouble doing this.
03:41I believe that some person involved in my health care and treatment may have gone to some length
03:48to deny me health care, specifically more detailed scans on this area, because days before the
03:56Christ Health visit, I went to the Ascension St. Vincent's East Emergency Department where I
04:03had a computed tomography scan of my head and cervical area of my neck.
04:08I was misdiagnosed in that scan.
04:11The radiologist and the doctors in the emergency room, they would not note an injury that I later
04:19found in the images.
04:21And I'll put them up here so everybody can see.
04:24My rundown of issues with Christ Health Center, Birmingham, Alabama.
04:28I believe I received no measurable level of service in my visit.
04:32I was charged the same amount of money, $110, to see the doctor and MD as the nurse, a nurse
04:43practitioner.
04:44Other medical practices around Birmingham, I paid roughly half of that price.
04:51Christ Health is partners with Ascension St. Vincent's Hospital.
04:56And it looks like either Christ Health decided to ignore my injury or were ordered to ignore
05:03my injury.
05:04And I believe this is to protect the reputations and million dollar salaries of the quote professionals
05:10unquote involved.
05:12I also believe it may have been patient dumped.
05:14And that's a violation of EMTALA, EMTALA, in the course of my seeking treatment.
05:21I was a self-paid patient.
05:22I had no insurance and I could provide no stated source of income.
05:28Dr. Terry Daniel Smith, MD, outright refused to grant me a referral for an MRI.
05:35Just a few days later, I got that MRI.
05:38I had to pay cash out of pocket.
05:39And broken bone surrounded by infection shows up in that scan.
05:45Broken bone also shows up in the CT scan.
05:49He claims in his notes in my medical chart to have reviewed in detail.
05:54I was billed $50 for a hemoglobin blood test and electrocardiogram I never received.
06:01And yeah, I think taking money from people who don't have anything such as myself is obscene.
06:08Nurse Musgraves wrote in her report that she suspected psych etiology to explain my symptomology.
06:16And this is absolutely wrong.
06:18Broken skull bone is visible in the MRI, CT, and X-ray that I've had done.
06:23Nurse practitioner Anna Musgraves agreed to give a referral when I secured my MRI.
06:31So I had to go out and find another medical practice with the equipment who could do the scan.
06:38I was given three avenues of financial assistance to pursue, and all three of these led to dead ends.
06:46I did not qualify.
06:48This is for Ascension Access to Care, Cooper Green Hospital, and UAB Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.
06:55After I paid $500 cash out of pocket for an MRI at American Health Imaging in downtown Birmingham on the
07:04south side,
07:05the diagnostic center staff told me that they needed a medical referral.
07:12I informed them to call Christ Health Center in Woodlawn.
07:17They were put on hold 15 minutes, and then someone, we don't know who, at Christ Health Center hung up
07:24the telephone.
07:25They backed out on giving that referral.
07:28And this backs up the fact that I believe somebody didn't want me to get this MRI scan
07:34because it would show the truth of an injury that I was told I did not have.
07:38A medical doctor I had no interaction with, also strangely edited, and signed off on my records and chart days
07:49following that visit.
07:51This was shortly after I lodged my first official complaint for lack of service from Christ Health.
07:58This doctor was Beverly Vanderpool.
08:02All right, so in this August 2023 call, Deborah Pickens, who identified herself as a lawyer,
08:10explains to me that my complaints that I brought to Christ Health Center, which I just named,
08:17they went through a committee in August.
08:20There was an investigation conducted, and Christ Health determined that the care that I received was appropriate.
08:28I believe I did not receive appropriate care.
08:31I put all my records from this visit in several hours' worth of video on YouTube channel, My Medical Nightmare.
08:39You can go there and see my side of this story.
08:44Deborah Pickens also tells me that a letter with a statement was going to be put in the mail to
08:51me after that August 2023 meeting.
08:55I'm doing this recording October 3rd, 2023, and what I can say is I have not yet received this promised
09:04letter.
09:05They know my address, too, because they sent me those bills for those medical services that weren't performed on me.
09:11So people out there looking at health care options in the Birmingham, Alabama area, please take my experience to heart,
09:20and I would advise that you look elsewhere when seeking medical treatment from a doctor or a nurse.
09:28This is first-hand patient experience here.
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