Doctors

Justin was first diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in the spring of 1994 at the age of 16 years. It took several years to get Justin on medication that controlled his psychosis and depression. In 1996 he started seeing Dr. Marianne Vosika at the Central Minnesota Mental Health Center in St. Cloud. For years Justin was doing very well under her care. He was stable and working in the community. In September 2001 Dr. Vosika left the St. Cloud area and Justin began seeing Dr. Kent Davis in October 2001.

In his first 15 minute interview Dr. Davis reduced Justin's anti-psychotic medication by 25%. His anti-psychotic medication was reduced from 20mg/day to 15mg/day. His second visit to Dr. Davis on 1/15/02 saw a decrease in his anti-anxiety medication as well; from 1mg/day to .5mg/day. The tragic events of 9/11 also affected the way Justin thought. Seeing Justin deteriorate, we dropped Dr. Davis as his doctor and set up an appointment at the Behavioral Health Center at the St. Cloud Hospital.

I set up an appointment for us to see Dr. Ann Kooiker. With a call to the insurance company I set up and got permission to have an hour long appointment on 2/6/02. I made a list of symptoms we were seeing that had returned because of the reduction in medication by Dr. Davis. When Ann Kooiker came out to the waiting room to get Justin I told her I wanted to come along to go over the list of changes we were seeing in Justin's behavior. Dr. Kooiker refused to see me. Her response was "I'll see Justin." Let it be noted that we are court appointed conservator's of Justin and are given the authority to oversee his doctor's appointments. Justin was led away by Dr. Kooiker after I asked her twice to go along. I sat there for 50 minutes. Dr. Steve Vincent who had been Justin's psychologist for the past 8 years and had originally diagnosed Justin came through the area I was sitting in. I asked to speak to him regarding the situation. I told him I was concerned and angry that I could not speak to her about Justin's deterioration. He said she probably did not know I was a conservator. She did not even give me that chance. There is a copy of the conservatorship in his file and Justin has repeatedly signed permission papers as well to exchange information with us and other mental health workers.

That afternoon Justin was taken to the emergency room at the St. Cloud Hospital. The hospital refused to admit him because they said he was not an imminent danger to himself or others. The hospital staff recommended Justin start in their Adult Partial Hospitalization Program. On 2/25/02 Justin attended only to be told after 2 days that he didn't fit into their program. They wanted him to attend the day treatment program at the Mental Health Center instead. He started in the day treatment program on 3/11/02. On 3/13/02 he saw Dr. Terri Gerdes at the St. Cloud Hospital where she did increase his meds to where they were at when Justin was seeing Dr. Vosika after I sent a letter stating what I saw happening to Justin.

On April 3-7 Justin was admitted to the St. Cloud Hospital. There he saw Dr. Kent Davis, Dr. Ann Kooiker, and Dr. Makkar who reduced his medications again, bringing his anti-psychotic medication back down to 15mg/day and his anti-anxiety down to .5mg/day. After 4 days I was told Justin was being discharged by the St. Cloud Hospital. When I went to pick him up I could see he was not well. Even after talking with the staff I was unable to convince them Justin was not well enough to be taken home, but they said he was discharged.

On April 10-12 I took Justin to the Crisis Unit at the Mental Health Center because he and I did not feel he was stabilized and he was psychotic. Mike Simpson, his counselor, at the Mental Health Center and Karen Andrews, his social worker, could not get him admitted into the hospital. He did not fit the criteria, which was being an imminent danger to himself or others. Jim and I ended up taking him home.

On 4/25/02 Justin was seen by Dr. Terry Lehman at the Mental Health Center. There his medication remained as prescribed by Dr. Kooiker, Dr. Davis, and Dr. Makkar. I had set up a 4 hour appointment with Dr. Kearney for May 28th for Justin to be re-evaluated but it never happened because he became very psychotic and ended up in the Benton County Jail.

We had repeatedly tried everything we could do to get him stabilized and on the right medications but we could not. The communication between doctors and hospital staff and us did not exist. What better information could have been given other than what we saw happening on a day to day basis with Justin. Yet even with our conservatorship we were mostly ignored.