Adult Medical Kidnapping: Euthanizing America’s Seniors – Orlando Medical Guardian Resigns After Getting Caught, but How Many More Are There?

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting that professional guardian Rebecca Fierle has resigned after an investigation revealed that she had filed unauthorized “do not resuscitate" orders on almost all of her senior patients, against the wishes of the patient and their families. The investigation was prompted by the Orlando Sentinel's report that one of her patients died due to her "do not resuscitate" (DNR) order, even after the patient and family requested that the DNR be rescinded. The Sentinel reports: "A man died at a Tampa hospital after staff could not perform life-saving procedures because of a “do not resuscitate” order his Orlando guardian filed against his wishes, state investigators determined. The investigation into the final days of 75-year-old Steven Stryker of Cocoa caused Circuit Judge Janet C. Thorpe to seek the removal of his court-appointed guardian, Rebecca Fierle, from 95 Orange County cases at once in a hearing sealed from the media last week. Thorpe found Fierle had “abused her powers” by requesting that incapacitated clients not receive medical treatment if their heart or breathing stopped — without permission from their families or the court, records show. The investigation concluded that Fierle refused to remove the DNR despite Stryker’s desire for life-saving actions, and that her claims about his final wishes contradicted his daughter, friend and a psychiatrist." We applaud the work of the Orlando Sentinel, fulfilling their role as the media was originally intended to be: a voice educating the public on matters that government and medical authorities would prefer remain in secrecy. Too often in our own investigative work here at Health Impact News, we find that the corporate-sponsored media is the mouth-piece of the medical system and government, rather than exposing its corruption. If not for the investigative work of the Orlando Sentinel, this professional guardian working for the State of Florida may have continued to euthanize seniors against their wishes and the wishes of their families. Rebecca Fierle has now resigned and faces criminal charges, but how many more like her are still out there?

Parents Lose Custody of Disabled Adult Son for Questioning Psych Drugs

Medical kidnapping can happen to adults as well as children. Health Impact News has reported a number of adult kidnapping stories over the years. Some involve senior citizens. Others, like this one reported by ABC News in Raleigh, North Carolina, regarding 24-year-old, Ian Bankert, involves the seizure of adult children with mental illness or disability from their parents who have loved, raised, and cared for their children their entire lives. Doctors (mostly psychiatrists) and courts have the power to step in and take over the entire lives of such individuals, isolating them from their families and ultimately deciding every aspect of their care. Ian's parents became concerned about the doctors "overprescribing him with medication," a concern which is shared by many parents and patients, and watchdog groups. Doctors recommended "more medication and long-term care," but his parents, according to ABC11, "instead insisted that a good diet, exercise and faith could restore Ian's sense of self." Ian's story is another in a long list of cases where the financial and academic interests of one group - psychiatrists and public guardians - are pitted against the civil rights and familial interests of individuals and their families. The long arm of the state again overrides the decisions of parents who know and love their son and want what is best for him. They do not believe that locking him away from his life and loved ones and drugging him are the answer.

Attorney: Elder “Protective Services” is a Racketeering Enterprise Medically Kidnapping Seniors

More than 30 years ago, throughout the United States, state governments created agencies known as “elder protective services.” As seen by such designated titles, these agencies are made to appear as though state governments are helpful resources for citizens. However, nothing could be further from the truth. These so-called protective agencies are, in fact, wolves in sheep’s clothing that I can attest to from not only my direct personal experiences, but also from years of research. Upon years of my reviewing and obtaining voluminous court documentation throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts—particularly, in my professional experience as an attorney, there is no doubt, whatsoever, that public officials have been operating a racketeering enterprise through the probate and family courts, feeding off our most vulnerable citizens, the elderly. These public officials do so through physical and financial exploitation of the elderly. In 2015, I filed a federal civil action in the District Court of Massachusetts providing overwhelming and irrefutable documentation that state elder protective agencies is one cog of many in a long-embedded governmental money laundering and embezzlement enterprise.

Trump Administration Continues Practice of Blocking Attempts to Investigate Elder Abuse – Adult Medical Kidnapping

Health Impact News reporter, Terri LaPoint, recently wrote a report explaining that in the United States today, over 1.3 million seniors are currently held under appointed guardians, representing over $50 billion in seized assets. That makes adult medical kidnapping a far more prevalent occurrence in the United States than child medical kidnapping, since the published figures of children currently in foster care number about 450,000. (See: Adults Medically Kidnapped: 3X More than Children in Foster Care – $50 BILLION in Assets Seized.) Today's guest commentary about elder abuse and adult medical kidnapping comes from Massachusetts Attorney Lisa Belanger, who has experienced first-hand, both through personal experience and through litigation, the injustices and crimes being committed against elders in the United States. Attorney Belanger is commenting on a recent article published in Law360 entitled: Trump Admin Stonewalling Atty’s Probes Into Elder Abuse.

U.S. Press Condemns U.K. Treatment of Baby Alfie While Ignoring Same Medical Kidnapping Seen in U.S. Every Day

The tragic medical kidnapping story of Alfie Evans and his resulting death in the U.K. has been widely published in both the corporate-sponsored "mainstream" media as well as in the alternative media. While this story is being spun as a tragic rare event that only happens outside the U.S. in places like the U.K., the fact is that this story is being repeated every single day right here in the U.S. So it begs the question: why are similar stories happening right here in the U.S. not getting the same kind of media coverage? I am very glad that the public and the media was outraged over the injustice of Baby Alfie in the U.K., so much so that there were demonstrations in the streets protesting medical tyranny and standing up for parental rights. But why is that not happening right here in the United States, where the problem is probably much worse? America's children are being kidnapped by the state every single day. They are being used for drug trials, they are being put into pedophilia sex trafficking rings, they are dying at the hands of medical authorities, and American taxpayers are paying BILLIONS of dollars to employ hundreds of thousands of government employees, from social workers, to psychologists and medical doctors, to attorneys and family court judges and workers who profit from this child trafficking system, and allowing it to continue. What is it going to take to get the American public out into the streets to protest this gross injustice against our children?

Adults Medically Kidnapped: 3X More than Children in Foster Care – $50 BILLION in Assets Seized

Most of the stories that we cover at Medical Kidnap involve children who were taken from their families by Child Protective Services. However, medical kidnapping can happen to adults too. We have covered a number of stories of adults being taken by Adult Protective Services and being placed under the legal guardianship of strangers. Philly.com now reports that a woman who has been court-appointed as a guardian in at least 93 cases from 2015 to 2017 has a considerably criminal history of fraud, bad check writing, and forgery. Yet, Gloria Byars was the guardian recommended by the non-profit Philadelphia Corporation for Aging to oversee the lives and estates of many senior citizens in the Philadelphia area. Guardians in many states are not required to undergo background checks, and it is stunningly easy in some places for anyone to become a guardian. It is also stunningly easy for an unscrupulous person to allege that a person is "incapacitated" and in need of a guardian, even if it is not true. As reported by Philly.com: "Nationwide, guardians oversee an estimated 1.3 million adults and $50 billion of their assets, said Brenda Uekert, principal court research consultant at the National Center for State Courts." That means that [the] number of adults under guardianship care is roughly 3 times the number of children in foster care across the United States. According to the AFCARS report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there were 437,465 children in foster care in 2016.

Public Warning: Boston is a Cesspool of Adult Medical Kidnappings

Boston is home to one of the first notorious cases of medical kidnapping that garnered widespread public attention, that of Justina Pelletier, seized by Boston Children's Hospital and Child Protective Services, and confined against her will and the will of her family in a psych ward. It appears that the Boston area is a hub for medical kidnappings of adults as well as children. In at least 4 cases that we know of in the Boston, Massachusetts, area, there is a web of common players who are interconnected. Jewish Family and Children's Services is the common denominator for each of these senior citizens who were seized by Adult Protective Services. Instead of foster parents, "guardians" are court-appointed to take control of their lives, assets, and medical decisions, leaving elder adults victims of strangers they have never met, isolated from their family and friends who are the ones that truly care about them. They are accused of having "mental illness" and confined to psych wards against their will. Lonnie Brennan is the editor of a newspaper that has reported their stories, The Boston Broadside. He was recently threatened with arrest for trying to visit one medically kidnapped lady, Mary Frank, who was trying to reach out to him to get her story published. She was confined to a nursing home and psych ward against her will, and denied basic human rights. Her perpetrators did not want her story going public. Lonnie told a local radio talk show host: "Once they have you, you are better off going to the nearest liquor store and saying, 'Hey, I'm robbing you.' Because you'll get better health care and you'll get better freedom if you are in prison. I hate to say it. And you'll have more dignity in prison than you will have - than we have witnessed - in nursing homes."

Medical Kidnapping of Seniors: A $273 BILLION Industry

How the Elderly Lose Their Rights: Guardians can sell the assets and control the lives of senior citizens without their consent—and reap a profit from it. In the United States, a million and a half adults are under the care of guardians, either family members or professionals, who control some two hundred and seventy-three billion dollars in assets, according to an auditor for the guardianship fraud program in Palm Beach County. Little is known about the outcome of these arrangements, because states do not keep complete figures on guardianship cases—statutes vary widely—and, in most jurisdictions, the court records are sealed. A Government Accountability report from 2010 said, “We could not locate a single Web site, federal agency, state or local entity, or any other organization that compiles comprehensive information on this issue.” A study published this year by the American Bar Association found that “an unknown number of adults languish under guardianship” when they no longer need it, or never did. The authors wrote that “guardianship is generally “permanent, leaving no way out—‘until death do us part.’ ”

Medically Kidnapped Disabled Man Held Against his Will in Orange County California

Nate Tseglin was born on November 5, 1989 to Ilya and Riva Tsleglin. The parents, now residents of California, are originally from the former Soviet Union. They have a younger son Robert as well. Nate was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome at age 14. He was first taken away from his parents by the State of California on January 12, 2007 at age 17 when a teacher reported his parents to the Child Protective Services (CPS) because Nate was scratching himself on the arms. His family has been fighting for him to be home, and to be cared for at home, ever since. He is currently being detained by the State of California against his own will, and also the will of his family. Nate is now an adult. He is allegedly being forced to take drugs his family does not approve, and is kept locked up like a prisoner. The Tseglin family would like the public to know their story of medical kidnapping happening in California. They do not believe that having a disability such as Asperger's Syndrome gives the State a right to kidnap their son.

World War II Veteran Medically Kidnapped in New York Dies in Pain on Thanksgiving Day

Laredo Regular relates the tragic ending of this World War II Veterans life: "My Grandpa, Julius Corley, officially passed away on Thanksgiving afternoon after being on life support in the prior weeks. He never got to come home." Julius' story began long before Health Impact News was contacted about his plight in the fall of 2015. Julius was a World War II Veteran being held at New York's Montefiore Hospital against his will and those of his legal and medical guardians. Julius had been medically kidnapped by Montefiore when he was transferred from their affiliate, The Laconia Nursing Home, after the family filed a complaint about the conditions there. Laredo laments, "My grandpa never got to come home. He died in pain in the Montefiore main branch. It was painful. We had hopes, but to know that he was in pain like that and passed away is awful. The entire situation played out so awfully."

California Holds Medically Kidnapped Adult Daughter for 14 Years

Jeffrey and Elsie Golin have been fighting against the State of California and California’s San Andreas Regional Center (SARC) for nearly fifteen years to have their daughter returned to them. SARC is a community-based, private nonprofit corporation that is funded by the State of California to serve people with developmental disabilities and works with Stanford University. The Golins are fighting for their autistic daughter Nancy’s right to be able to return home to live with them, and fighting for the right to advocate for their daughter’s best interests. According to their main attorney, Dave Beauvais, there are two main issues that lie at the heart of this ongoing case. The first is the issue of the Golin’s losing all rights to act in their own daughter Nancy’s best interests and the second is the issue of whether a person who is disabled has the same protection under the U.S. Constitution as a non-disabled person does. The two issues the state brought as grounds for removing Nancy from their care were the fact that she wanders away and the fact that the Golins disagreed with the doctors at Stanford University about which medication was best to prevent Nancy’s seizures.

20 Year Old Autistic Girl in Michigan Medically Kidnapped Over Treatment Disagreement

Savannah Garcia, or Hannah, as she is known to those who love her, is a fun-loving young lady who is an important part of her community in Traverse City, Michigan. The 20 year old is a regular fixture at her neighborhood ballpark, where she cheers on her favorite players, and she is well-loved by all who know her. She loves her dog, her family and friends, stuffed animals, frappes, and her fiance. Even though she is autistic, she has been living in an apartment attended by a care team, and has been involved in making many of her own choices. Until September 4, 2015. That was the day that 2 doctors at Munson Medical Center filed a petition to remove Hannah's mother as her guardian and to name a person completely unknown to the family, Stephanie Strehl, as her guardian. She is now a prisoner being held against her will, and the will of her family, at Munson Medical Center. The guardian Stephanie Strehl has forbidden every single one of Hannah's friends to see her. Her family, including her brother and grandparents, aren't allowed to visit her. Her mother has been the only loved one permitted by the new guardian to visit her, for 3 hours per day. At the end of last week, Hannah's sister was granted the privilege of visiting her for up to 1 hour a day. She lives and attends medical school 5 hours round-trip away. Her attorney can see her, IF he notifies them 48 hours in advance, and then he is only allowed 30 minutes. When she goes to the bathroom or takes a shower, she isn't even allowed to shut the door. She isn't permitted to attend meetings where people other than her family are making decisions for her life and future. Therapies that were previously scheduled before her confinement at Munson have allegedly been cancelled, and her caregivers all dismissed. Even the right to receive mail, another right retained by convicted felons, has been taken away from Hannah since around September 21.

Nonverbal Woman Taken Hostage in Colorado – Who Will Speak Up?

Disability advocates are infuriated about a case involving a nonverbal woman with disabilities who they say is being held hostage by Jefferson County in Colorado. "It is truly outrageous," said Julie Reiskin, director of the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. "I call this torture." County officials have assumed temporary guardianship over 36-year-old Sharisa Kochmeister, a college graduate, and removed her from her home and her father — the only person in Colorado who helps her communicate. They placed her in a nursing home and forbid her family, friends and even her doctor from visiting her, according to people close to the situation. "You take someone who is nonverbal, who is dependent on one person for communicating, and you remove that ... this makes me so mad," said Reiskin. "This is part of not understanding a population. You put them in an institution against their will with a bunch of people who have dementia. This is torture."