I have been dealing with serious breathing and heart problems since December 2024 and had to go to the emergency room and hospital for nine days on May 5 and again on July 13.
The first emergency room trip came when I asked for help with my pain and severe breathing problems, which I began complaining about on Dec. 2, 2024, to FCI Victorville II Assistant Health Services Administrator J. Steenbergen. I again informed staff of my distress, including acting Associate Warden K. Branch and Warden Araiza-Ramirez about my breathing problems in February 2025. But my concerns fell on deaf ears.
The doctors at Victor Valley Hospital found that my lungs had filled up with fluid and told me that I was lucky; I would have been DEAD if I did not come in when I did.
I had to go back to the emergency room and hospital on July 13 and stayed until July 22, because my right lung had filled with fluid again (pulmonary edema). The good news was that they were able to shock my heart back into a normal rhythm (I had atrial fibrillation since at least February 2022 and a heart attack on April 17, 2020). The bad news: I have an enlarged heart and I will be on blood thinners for life.