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Vernon Traversie, Blind Lakota Elder, Possibly Mutilated By Hospital Staff

megaflytron

megaflytron

New Member
Rapid City, South Dakota; Cheyenne River Sioux member and resident, Vernon Traversie, came home from a 14 day inpatient hospital stay to find that those who assisted in his surgery wanted to make damn sure he would never forget them.

68 years old, and completely blind, Mr. Traversie realized he had been reduced to a living, breathing, redneck infested, truck stop restroom stall after suffering a heart attack in August 2011. Mr. Traversie was transported to Rapid City Regional Hospital (RCRH) in order to receive necessary surgery. Due to "scheduling problems" Mr. Traversie was repeatedly humiliated by staff, denied nourishment, shaved day and night, and was even told to, "shut his fucking mouth" when requesting post operative pain medications.

The degradation did not end here, as the mini Guantanamo bay employees of RCRH decided to surgically carve "KKK" into the blind man's abdomen, and apparently made him a side attraction in their little freakshow as employees gathered around his bed to gape at their handiwork over the course of his stay. Finally, a nurse, horrified at what she witnessed, (and suffering from one thing that employees at RCRH obviously lack, a conscience)told Mr. Traversie to document his "injuries" photographically as soon as he returned home, informing him of what had been done "in the name of science"

http://www.lastrealindians.com/2012/04/25/lakota-man-accuses-hospital-of-healthcare-hate-crime/

Revolting. Completely fucking revolting.
 
As a country we have been mesmerized, sickened and disgusted by the shooting of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. All eyes have been on this hate crime and emotions on both sides of the issue have run high.

But there are other stories out there, not so well publicized by the mainstream media. The most recent to come to light is the shocking mutilation of a 68-year-old blind man. His crime, it seems, is being a Native American living in South Dakota.

Vernon Traversie, a Lakota elder, suffered a heart attack last August and was taken to Rapid City Regional Hospital for emergency surgery. Upon his return home after a two-week stay, he found that three Ks had been carved or burned into his abdomen.


In a statement to Last Real Indians, Traversie said: “I was supposed to have emergency surgery on my heart, but they (the hospital) had scheduling problems. Every night they would prep me for surgery, which went on for four or five days. Every night they would shave my chest and stomach and wouldn’t feed me.â€￾

It wasn’t until a hospital employee came to his room and told him to take pictures of his abdomen and chest immediately upon getting home that Traversie realized that something had been done to him. The woman who gave him the advice told him she couldn’t testify on his behalf but her conscience dictated that she had to let him know.

Joyce Anderson, a retired surgical nurse who worked for nine years on the heart team at Baptist Hospital in Little Rock Arkansas, viewed the photographs of Traversie’s injuries and said, “It appears the area under the incision was done with a scalpel for drainage of the incision. The other wounds seem to be necrotic, meaning the tissue is dead. This could indicate the wounds were burned into his skin.â€￾

According to Traversie, local law enforcement has done nothing about the matter and a doctor at a nearby medical facility said she could not make any statements regarding his injuries. After seven months of non-action by his Rapid City attorney, Traversie posted this video Vern Traversie’s Video to gain attention for the crime committed against him.

This is just the latest in a long and ugly history of hate crimes against Native Americans in Rapid City. In May of 2010, 22-year-old Christopher Capps, was shot multiple times by Pennington County Sheriff’s Deputy David Olson. Capps was allegedly reaching into his pocket for his cell phone at the time. He was unarmed.

There is a huge divide between Indians and whites in Rapid City. This latest incident involving Mr. Traversie may have been the result of a backlash to the shooting of three police officers by a young Native American man, Daniel Tiger, last August 5. Tiger was stopped for a traffic violation and inexplicably opened fire on the officers, shooting them in the head. One of the officers died at the scene. Native Americans in the community all agree that there is no excuse for Tiger’s actions, which ultimately resulted in his death. But one must ask: if Mr. Traversie’s injuries were some kind of statement, then what does it say about the doctors and nurses who were charged to care for a man who had just suffered a heart attack? What does it say about a city where no one does anything about it? What does it say about a society that doesn’t bother to report it, except in the Indian press?
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http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/0...an-mutilated-by-staff-at-rapid-city-hospital/

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/26/lakota-man-accuses-hospital-of-burning-kkk-into-his-torso/


I know we're not supposed to use blog-like sites, but these are the only ones reporting this. The local news stations are ignoring it, even with my friends calling and emailing them about it. I think this is the perfect place to spread the news. So start sharing and let's get this man some justice.
 
Report your post and one of the mods will merge it.

Good god, VAS, you're speedy.
 
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this bullshit pisses me the hell off. A man's race SHOULD NOT factor into the medical care he receives. ALL involved in this need to be fucking punished to the very limits of the law. Or else a nationwide televised hanging for each of them, so we can all watch them die a slow painful death. Fuck them and the cayuses they rode in on.. doctors? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO THE HYPOCRATIC OATH????? More like HYPOCRITICAL OATH...


FUCK OFF AND DIE ALREADY


~shadow
 
First do no harm... unless you don't like their race, I guess.


This is absolutely appalling! I could understand this back in say, the 1800's, when Injun Joe was runnin around scalping people and what not. (that's totally the way it went, right?) But seriously! In this day and age! Well, hopefully it won't take to long to figure out who the big badasses were that tortured and carved KKK into a helpless, blind heart attack victim. Real tough guys there!
 
This never happened.
People want to believe so bad this stuff is rampant and you guys are the reactionaries who buy into it.

This source is traced to
http://www.yourblackworld.net/2012/...ves-kkk-into-blind-native-american-mans-chest

A black blog seeking to heighten racial hatred in the wake of the Travon Martin Case.
Someone trying to make something out of nothing for their own racial gain. It's perfectly ok for some reason for these people to make this shit up.

There are no credible news sources on this and this is the exact reason why we don't post blogs or anything other than credible news sources.
 
HeatherHabilatory said:
http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/0...an-mutilated-by-staff-at-rapid-city-hospital/

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/04/26/lakota-man-accuses-hospital-of-burning-kkk-into-his-torso/


I know we're not supposed to use blog-like sites, but these are the only ones reporting this. The local news stations are ignoring it, even with my friends calling and emailing them about it. I think this is the perfect place to spread the news. So start sharing and let's get this man some justice.
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http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/in...cle_50ed3d30-8f46-11e1-b1fe-001a4bcf887a.html

http://www.kotatv.com/story/1792777...-a-hate-crime-at-rapid-city-regional-hospital
Local tv & newspaper article-- this is my hometown, my kids were born in that hospital.. It's beeen reported on, but there is only so much they can report on while an investigation is on-going.. I think it's a friggin disgrace that shit like this happens in a medical setting anywhere. And if it does turn out to be a hoax shame on them!
 
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Image of his wounds:

20120430-06.jpg


Video that started it all:

[video=youtube;MxrYQ0mFFQs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxrYQ0mFFQs[/video]
 
Those marks look like a child was carving in wood. Surprising inept for a doctor, I'd say. Of course, a doctor would see the sense in hiding his/her handiwork behind poor workmanship. I can't understand how medical personnel could square this with their consciences. Another issue here is that the hospital personnel would likely lose their jobs and licenses to practice if he died from the untreated stab wound and the other necrotic wounds. The hospital could be in severe legal trouble over a thing like that. They must be very sure of the support of the establishment there, but if an independent investigation were run . . .

If this is a hoax, why isn't it exposed?
 
Tundratot said:
Those marks look like a child was carving in wood. Surprising inept for a doctor, I'd say. Of course, a doctor would see the sense in hiding his/her handiwork behind poor workmanship.
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I can't see the KKK. I see one maybe two clear K but have to stretch my imagination to see three... or maybe 4. If a doctor wanted to "leave a mark", why wouldn't it be clearer or even "inside" while they were in there and could do as they felt? Most folks associate KKK with blacks. Give the history of American Indians, surely there are initials/symbols that would be far more offensive to emblazon someone with.

If I look at it just right, I can also see my IRL nickname name spelled out by the cuts.

I wonder what made those marks. Why the hell would someone be marked up like that after surgery? Retractors or something to hold things in place? Those things shouldn't be leaving cuts but if they did, how hard would it be to explain that to someone?

I don't think this is a hoax. I also don't think that it's a racist scrawl. I think, for whatever reason, care was not taken. Someone has some explaining to do and accountability.
 
Dakota Valkyrie said:
I can't see the KKK. I see one maybe two clear K but have to stretch my imagination to see three... or maybe 4. If a doctor wanted to "leave a mark", why wouldn't it be clearer or even "inside" while they were in there and could do as they felt? Most folks associate KKK with blacks. Give the history of American Indians, surely there are initials/symbols that would be far more offensive to emblazon someone with.

If I look at it just right, I can also see my IRL nickname name spelled out by the cuts.

I wonder what made those marks. Why the hell would someone be marked up like that after surgery? Retractors or something to hold things in place? Those things shouldn't be leaving cuts but if they did, how hard would it be to explain that to someone?

I don't think this is a hoax. I also don't think that it's a racist scrawl. I think, for whatever reason, care was not taken. Someone has some explaining to do and accountability.
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It looks to me, at first glance, like a W and a K, but if you see the W at all, the right side of the W is just a fragment of a larger K that is barely etched between the W and the obvious K. For that matter, the W itself is mostly the first K, where the left leg of the W is the backbone of the K (you can see it actually extends beyond the bottom of what would be a W) and the inner stroke of the W is the upward diagonal fragment of the K, and then there is a downward diagonal under it that ends at the back of the second K.

If the hospital personnel could in any way excuse this stuff, they'd have to explain why they allowed the wounds that weren't directly incisions to infect and become necrotic. In fact, I don't know how they could excuse that happening even if they didn't cause the wounds. Disproving their own complicity would involve proving that the wounds were post-release. If they kept pictures of their work, maybe?
 
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I have some Native friends who swear this really happened, because that's their home reservation. .. Home reservation sounds so racist. None meant.

But I suppose it could be like anything else that happened to a friend of a friend.

If it IS true, someone needs to go to jail because this is fucking bullshit.
 
HeatherHabilatory said:
I have some Native friends who swear this really happened, because that's their home reservation. .. Home reservation sounds so racist. None meant.

But I suppose it could be like anything else that happened to a friend of a friend.

If it IS true, someone needs to go to jail because this is fucking bullshit.
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I think-- without calling my sister in law to confirm-- the proper way to say it is their "tribe"

I spent many summers running wild on Pine Ridge, and I just find it odd (note I said odd, not impossible!)that an elder would do something like this on his own..

The only other thing that comes to mind is that he was "rolled" and trying to say the hospital did it.. I mean why report this after you are home? Why not call up KOTA news and report it before you are discharged? So many questions come to mind--good and bad-- that I look forward to seeing the reports on this one.
 
Kitty said:
The only other thing that comes to mind is that he was "rolled" and trying to say the hospital did it.. I mean why report this after you are home? Why not call up KOTA news and report it before you are discharged? So many questions come to mind--good and bad-- that I look forward to seeing the reports on this one.
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This happened last August. He has a lawyer. I wonder why the case has not gone anywhere. The hospital can not comment unless he gives them permission and so far he hasn't.
 
Dakota Valkyrie said:
This happened last August. He has a lawyer. I wonder why the case has not gone anywhere. The hospital can not comment unless he gives them permission and so far he hasn't.
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thanks, i missed the "last august" part, but i've been occupied with other stuff.
 
Kitty said:
I mean why report this after you are home? Why not call up KOTA news and report it before you are discharged? So many questions come to mind--good and bad-- that I look forward to seeing the reports on this one.
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I wondered about that, too. But that was the advice given him by an employee of the hospital. She had the interests of her hospital in mind when she said that, I suppose. However, if he'd had any visitors while there, they could have taken the photos even sooner. If anyone knew enough about the operations of the hospital, a patient advocate or an ombudsman could have been contacted right away.
 
20120523-02.jpg
20120523-03.jpg

Highlighted area indicates the letters that supporters say were carved into Traversie

I now see FIVE "maybe" K's.
Hundreds of people marched Monday in support of a man who says the letters KKK were carved into his stomach by a surgeon at a South Dakota hospital.

A YouTube video featuring 69-year-old Vern Traversie, a Lakota man who lives on the Cheyenne River Reservation, has gone viral in Native American communities. In it, Traversie shows a photo of his abdomen. Though he himself is blind, Traversie says he was told by others that the scars left after his heart surgery make out the hateful letters, and he is outraged.

The problem is, not everyone sees it. Like those spotting the Madonna in a water stain, Traversie's advocates are staunch believers. Those who aren't include police who investigated his allegations and hospital officials.

Rapid City police say they conducted an investigation but found no evidence of a crime. Craig Saunders, a cardiologist at Barnabas Hospital in Newark, N.J., said incision marks can take many different shapes, depending on where the doctor needs to get into the body. Saunders, who did not operate on Traversie, said surgical tape also can leave scarring and lesions depend on the make-up of the person's body.

The lack of clear letters hasn't deterred Traversie, his supporters or those who see the scars as just more evidence of continued mistreatment of Native American people.

"Rapid City ... we understand you have been carving up our people. This is going to end today," American Indian Movement founder Dennis Banks said to a roaring crowd before leading the supporters on a more than two-mile long march from a Rapid City plaza to the hospital where the surgery happened .
[...]

The protest was relatively peaceful. Officers from the Rapid City Police Department blocked off traffic as the supporters, many dressed in red shirts and waving American Indian Movement flags, marched to the beat of a drummer riding in a truck leading the way. Passing cars occasionally honked.

A group of about 15 people - including Banks and Oglala Sioux Vice President Tom Poor Bear - met with officials at the hospital, while police prevented other supporters from entering the building.

The march was largely organized by Cody Hall, who lives on the Cheyenne River Reservation, and Chase Iron Eyes, who lives on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border, in an effort to bring attention to what they say is continued mistreatment of Native American people.
[...]
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http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/05/23/surgical-scars-some-see-as-racist-provoke-sd-march/
 
being of Mohawk Indian heritage, I am embarrassed that an Elder of any nation would pull something like this..

I took the time to read the FAQ of the KKK website and this is what I found regarding American Indians:

"Let us be absolutely clear on this, we respect the "native" tribes people, they more than any other have held to their own race, language, and culture. They have given way to the white mans government and custom only grudgingly, and for this we salute their courage and independence. We must point out however, they are a people who are not American, even today. They live under Indian law, which gives them by treaty with the U.S. Government special rights, and privileges. The American Government does not make or keep treaty with its citizens. This is why the U.S. Constitution specifically forbade their counting for the purpose representation in our government, (see U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 2, third clause).
The War for Southern Independence was fought because the south determined to be free of the then existing government, not unlike the "Indian" yet no treaty exist between the parties involved in that conflict, all parties resolved to re-join the union of states, and live under its laws. Our government made treaty with these "native" people, we respect and honor those treaties, and we agree these people have the right to exist, the right to their lands, laws, and religion as proscribed by existing treaty. We have recognized their government, and people, their history, and heritage, we ask no less in return. "

http://www.kukluxklan.bz/faq.html -scroll down to where it says The American Indian.


I can't help but wonder if this isn't a 'ploy' to get out of paying for the hospital services? Or is he under some sort of Government program that would cover his hospital services?

Now, I do *not* support the KKK under any circumstances, but by their own webpage they state they do not have issue with the American Indians, (except they don't consider them Americans)... WHY would one of them go after a Lakota Elder? It doesn't make any sense to me....

~shadow
 
It could be akin to those cases in which believers see the face of the Virgin Mary in a taco shell or a suburban tree trunk, but a Native American lawyer in South Dakota doesn’t think so: He filed a federal lawsuit this week on behalf of a man who says surgeons carved the initials KKK into his stomach during heart surgery.
[...]

On Monday, Chase Iron Eyes, a lawyer for Traversie, filed suit against the South Dakota hospital where the operation took place, the hospital's board of directors and others. The lawsuit alleges a civil rights violation based on race and cites the scarring from Traversie's double-bypass surgery done in August 2011 as evidence. It seeks a jury trial.

Thus far, not many people are commenting on the case. A hospital spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the lawsuit. South Dakota Atty. Gen. Marty Jackley said Tuesday his office was investigating the claim.

Iron Eyes declined to talk to the Associated Press about the lawsuit Tuesday. The day before, he said he couldn't talk about it until he first spoke with Traversie. When the AP contacted Traversie on Monday, he said he wasn't aware of the lawsuit filed on his behalf.

"I think the native people have been fighting racial hatred for many years in South Dakota, but you know, it's not all the people that are hateful toward Native Americans," Traversie told the AP. "We have a good segment of our society — white society — in South Dakota that are Christian people and they get along good with the Native Americans. In my instance, I believe I'm dealing with the Ku Klux Klan, and that's a small minority."
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http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/...als-patient-stomache-20120717,0,7713490.story
 
I think this is a load of crap. I mean, I can believe he got poor medical care. I've been with family in more than one hospital where a patient needs a knowledgeable family member standing over them 24/7 to demand appropriate and attentive care. Which is why I don't think poor medical care is anything newsworthy either. Certainly I don't believe this man was maliciously wounded, and I do believe that people who see KKK are highly imaginative but should find another outlet for their fantasies. I think his surgical wounds look terrible, but as someone who loses wide swathes of skin to simple surgical tape while being young and vital, I find it unlikely that these are intentional injuries, rather than the results of perhaps a careless surgical team. His race or status as a native man have fuck all to do with this. His status as a poor man with no bedside advocate might however. That's what ought to be focused on.
 
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