Mumia Abu-Jamal in Medical Crisis –Several Ways to Take Action in Support!
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MUMIA UPDATE: April 7, 2015
Mumia is in very poor health and has been back in the prison infirmary since Wednesday, April 2, 2015. His transfer back to the prison is an attempt to sever Mumia from the widespread attention this recent crisis has garnered in the media. It was also an attempt to shut down the movement’s vigil at the hospital.
When Mumia arrived in the hospital on March 30th he was in diabetic shock. His blood sugar level was at 779. Diabetic coma, which is potentially fatal, registers at 800.
His sodium level was alarmingly high at 168 and potentially fatal. His sodium levels have now been normalized, but he has not yet been seen by an endocrinologist (diabetes specialist.) The doctors at the hospital reiterated that there was no diabetes specialist available. Our major demand is that he be examined immediately by an independent team of medical specialists, chosem by his family and supporters.
phone: 717 728-4109 email: ra-crpadocsecretary@pa.gov Governor Tom Wolf
phone: 717 787-2500 fax: 717 772-8284
email: governor@pa.gov SCI-Mahanoy Superintendent John Kerestes
570 773-2158 ext.8102
2. During those two weeks he became ill with a severe skin disorder that was diagnosed as eczema by the doctors in the prison infirmary. Mumia refused visitors because he was in pain, his skin was leathery, raw, and bloody, and he was falling asleep during visits.
3. The medication he was given produced a severe reaction. His skin ruptured. He was placed in the infirmary for two weeks. During this time he was given a battery of medical tests including, since February, three blood tests.
4. On the morning of Monday, March 30th Mumia walked to the infirmary where he fainted. He was taken to the ICU of a nearby hospital, the Schuylkill Medical Center. When he arrived at the hospital he was in diabetic shock. His blood sugar level was 779. Had it been 800, he would have been in a coma. He remained shackled to the bedpost during his entire stay.
5. On that same day, March 30th, Heidi Boghosian (former Director, National Lawyers Guild, Mumia’s Legal Team) and Johanna Fernandez (Professor of History, Baruch College, Mumia’s Legal Team) arrived at the prison for a visit. They were deeply concerned about his health after a phone conversation Fernandez had with Mumia on Friday, March 27th during which his voice sounded severely stressed. Upon arrival at the prison they were told that they couldn’t see him. They pressed the issue and were finally told that he was hospitalized. They immediately alerted his wife and supporters. His wife called the prison and found out that he had been transferred to a local hospital and was in diabetic shock.6. Boghosian and Fernandez found the hospital and went to the ICU where they immediately encountered a phalanx of prison guards watching over one of the rooms in the ICU. A nurse confirmed that Mumia was there.
7. On that same day the Third Circuit Court was hearing arguments on the constitutionality of the Revictimization Relief Act, otherwise known as the Mumia Silencing Law.
8. His brother, Keith Cook, was not allowed in, nor did he get any substantive information about Mumia’s medical condition.
9. Supporters stayed at the hospital and kept watch in the waiting room of the ICU. Later the next day, March 31, his wife Wadiya Jamal and brother Keith Cook were allowed a 30-minute visit each, separately.
10. After a campaign of calls, the
doctors/nurses finally started talking to his family. Medical staff informed us that had Mumia arrived 10 minutes later, he would have fallen into a diabetic coma. They also said that his sodium level was extremely high at 168.
12. The next day, on Wednesday, April 1, the prison changed the rules and did not allow his wife and oldest brother in. We pressed to have other members of his family see him. Mumia’s younger brother, Bill Cook, and his son, Jamal Hart, were allowed very short visits. His son stormed out of the room in shock at his father’s condition. He was distressed to see his father shackled, in pain and distress. Bill Cook reported that Mumia was shaking throughout the visit, that his breathing was labored, and that he was in generally terrible shape.
13. That same day, on Wed April 1, at 7PM Mumia was transferred back to the prison’s infirmary.
