EAST VALLEY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER

My husband had an appointment yesterday at 10:45 A.M. at the East Valley Community Health Center in West Covina, CA. While I understand that it IS a clinic, the idea that there was an appointment made over 2 weeks prior is one thing, because it is not something new that doctor appointments, namely at a clinic, are ever on time. So, that it was that we'd made it there a half hour before his appointment time is one thing, but when he was taken into the area where the on-staff "nurses" conduct all of their pre-treatment duties is quite another. This is where the fun REALLY begins.

So, there he is in the back where the nurses do all these things, and the staff member (one can hardly begin to call her an actual NURSE) is already on his nerves. Not only did this person take his blood pressure on both arms (Yes, BOTH ARMS), but after she'd weighed him, she needed to have him get back on the scale a second time, because she had FORGOTTEN within but a FEW SECONDS TIME what his weight was.

He was as friendly as he could possibly be, given the reason that he had to see the doctor, and when he relented and did as she had asked (yeah...asked...the little girl did not ask - she demanded), and when he told her that the weight he had given her was correct, and after she found him to be CORRECT, this child of an adult turns to him and says "Haha...I got you to get on the scale anyway, didn't I?"

So, after that happens, my husband begins to tell this person, in a less than friendly manner, that pretty much, she was not and is not competent and neither compassionate enough to work with the legally here and in this country sick and ailing public. Apparently she had a problem with this and suddenly something happened that never did before - they asked us to go out of the back area and into the main lobby to be called again, as there were 4 other patients who'd been checked in and were waiting to see the doctor.

If I told people what the reason was that this man was at the doctor for OTHER than that the thing he was there for was a medicinal side effect from the new medications that the youngster doctor changed for my husband's heart ailments, there would be a whole lot of men reading this who would do only as men can and would do what they could to "protect themselves." That is all I can say right now, given that it is a VERY sensitive issue.

Anyhow, so, there we are, waiting at the end of the hallway where we always wait, and my husband is in pain and is being VERY loud about it. Now, usually, when you are talking about a clinic, you are talking about a high propensity of people in the building who are there and are requesting to be seen are there for one reason - to get pain meds. Yet, that is not and neither has it ever been that my old man would bother with asking for pain meds as he feels he does not need them, preferring to ask his doctor what else can be done in order that his pain might be alleviated. The reason that we were there was to find out what might have been causing the swelling, and it was and is still a lot of swelling that is very painful.

ANYhow...so, the longer we wait, the louder he gets, and the more pain he has, and we are "detained" in an examination room that did not look like the ones that normally we would be waiting in. My husband decides to see what's up, and tells me that he is going to go outside and that he will be right back. Another nurse comes to the room to see where he is going and he tells her and she tells him in reply that if he leaves out of the building, that I have to go too, but that if he stays, then I can stay there as well. What was really happening was that they were waiting for us both to go out of the building so that they could get away with telling him to leave and not be liable for what happens to him after he left, because he was being loud and apparently the big scary white guy was scaring the *** out of the teeny tiny "non-whites" (You figure it out).

So, he and the nurse, (We shall refer to her as Nurse Ratchet) begin exchanging words. This, after he has already "spoken with" a few staff nurses, including a male nurse, who, in my opinion, should have taken my husband up on the offer right then of him showing said male nurse the problem.

Understand, the issue at hand was not something that any woman would be able to even relate to, but our hope was that this male person would have at LEAST been somewhat a little more compassionate than to tell this large person with a big giant pain to please be patient and to be quiet. Now, while it is that there have been, in these last 24 years, more than one occasion where I have told this man to be patient and shut up, this time was not the right time to do it and more, given that my old man was willing to show these people what his issue was, and given that he actually DID show more than one person, and that more than only one man saw the problem, one might think that these 'nurses' would have done a little bit more than just worry about the rest of the people in the building being bothered by or scared of this man.

I stepped out into the hallway, as I was not really interested in hearing what the *** else many more than just those people were saying. Out of the corner of my eye I could see them all...the nurses and techs and one woman who was no way any kind of medical professional...in sort of a huddle, and the non-medical looking lady has her phone in her hand, sees me looking at her, and deftly turns her back to me, like I would not know what she was doing (I have a 15 yr old daughter and a 19 yr old son who are avid texters and cell phone users, and this non-medicinal lady with her back turned to me looked like they did when they use a cell phone...) - she was calling the cops!

And then...taaadaaaaaaaaaaaa.....there they were ....all of them looking like the 'cops' on "Reno 911," and the one talking the most - he could be likened to being the love-child of the one in the little girly short shorts and Barney Fife. These guys show up, listen to what we have to say, and then tell us that we have to leave. The nurses ALL decided that my husband was going to turn violent, but he couldn't have, because his hands were NOT visible, as he was..."holding on for dear life," if you can figure that much out.

SO, here we were, and we are going back and forth with these cops, and the little cop with the great big fat arrogant mouth says he is going to escort us out of the building. This was fine, until he gets us to the waiting room lobby area and announces, loudly, "He's leaving! You can all cheer a round of applause!" to a packed lobby, my old man with his hands in his pants, this smart *** cop talking to me as though I have anything to add to this mess other than the fact that the reason my husband is at this "medical center" is something that this cop would know nothing about seeing as how "you have to have a pair" in order to relate.

Basically, it was that my husband had a complaint about the medications that he was prescribed NOT working very well, and one of them giving him a SEVERE reaction, enough for him to have swelling and LOTS of pain in that one area where most men would wince from the pain that they can only imagine, and really, these doctors can do no wrong because they are gods and good gravy don't let a sick person *** and make their party come to a screeching clueless halt.

Basically, the nurses at this place all think they are as big a god as all the young "doctors" in this place and that no patient should have the right to want to be treated like we are all humans and these nurses are somehow human goddesses on earth (NOT!!).

Basically, my old man is white and everyone in the building and most of them on staff BUT my old man were NOT WHITE. Basically, these people put him and his health in very serious jeopardy, and even now, he is still in pain.

They did not bother to believe him when he told him where the pain was, so he showed them - yup...right there in the middle of all of the fracas even, a few of them, and still, even with that much, they told him that we had to leave or be arrested.

They did not bother to get ANOTHER doctor (It's a clinic for godsake - there HAS TO BE MORE THAN ONLY OB/GYNs on staff...at least one who is NOT my husband's actual and attending physician) to see what all of the fuss was about.

They bothered to only see to it that they did not want this loud, large white man in their quiet little walmart of a medical facility complaining loudly about his pain.

They assumed the very worst of both of us, because apparently anyone white who goes to that clinic is there because they are addicted to pain medication, even though the man has NEVER asked for pain meds from his doctor and even as he, my husband, would probably benefit from them in regards to his level of constant pain. That is the bottom line, and that is what one of those nurses on staff told my husband - that they have a high rate of mentally ill patients and addicts who go to their facility and get loud like that. And this much was confirmed today from the attending police department, WEST COVINA.

These people DID NOT bother to think that this was a man in critical health and is still in critical health. Taking him to the local ER right now is not an option because of the fact that the city in which we live is known for its "activity" on Saturday nights and this means that his pain will continue until the rest of the non-whites get seen to. I am not exaggerating. This really is how this all works out in certain localities that have made many starring appearances on Fox's "COPS."

Oh...yeah...I happen to be NON-WHITE myself, so that should tell you all what it was that we were dealing with. If you are in the San Gabriel Valley in the West Covina area and you need help for a problem that will not result in you giving birth, stay your *** away from EAST VALLEY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER.

My husband DID NOT make threats, he merely got loud, and why would he not? He was there on time, in pain and was treated like ***.

They were supposed to help him, and instead the entire debacle embarrassed me to the highest level.

They sent away a sick man with a few serious and chronic health conditions connected to him following the doctor's orders. They probably helped his conditions get worse. I wonder that if he dies as a result of their arrogance if they will be willing to tell our kids that they are going to be without their dad because their dad's doctor and the "nurses" at this place don't want to deal with you if you *** about your pain LOUDLY?

These *** they call the care staff, the imbeciles who patrol the "mean streets" of West Covina, CA, and the patients in the lobby at EAST VALLEY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER IN WEST COVINA CA, ALL saw this happen, all of them. I was completely embarrassed, and tired because I was up all night listening to my husband being in SEVERE pain. They likely thought I was a *** fiend or a pill head addict. I am not.

I won't say that this place needs to be shut down, but I will say that if there was an immigration sting to be conducted, that it should start at East Valley Community Health Center...which one could liken easily as a place where you could count at LEAST a dozen people from a dozen places that are not anywhere in the United States.

Yeah. I said it. Deal with it.

Roxanne Cottell

Pomona, CA