Kaiser Bosses STOP Killing Peri Ho! Family & Supporters Speak Out At SF Kaiser

The sooner Kin Ho gets a lawyer, the sooner he can save his wife's life and stop the illegal charging for services and all other illegal practices. The State of California is not as aggressive as it should be. There is at least one large plaintiffs' personal injury law firm in San Francisco that does Kaiser arbitrations, commonly known as the Walkup office. See
https://www.walkuplawoffice.com/case-results/

Statement of Kin Ho And Kaiser Treatment Of His Wife Keri Ho


My wife has been the victim of several blotched brain surgeries, medical negligence, malpractice, substandard care, since March 2012, at Kaiser Redwood City and San Francisco.

Most recently, she has been the victim of retaliation after we have filed several complaints, against both hospitals, with the Dept of Public Health (DPH), and Dept of Manage Healthcare (DMHC).

March 2012
A surgery to replace a shunt in her brain, and a new drain catheter in her stomach. My wife had a shunt inserted in her brain at age 8, as a result of a brain injury. The reason she had the shunt replaced was because she was experiencing headaches. Her Neurosurgeon since 1980, Dr Ceiling, had retired. A new neurosurgeon, Dr Sedrak, told us the childhood shunt, which had lasted 45 years, was no longer functioning.

The neurosurgeon performed the surgery without the assistance of a general surgeon to insert the catheter. She remained at Kaiser for 3 weeks because of rigidity and ataxia; instead of the usual 3 days. She was later transferred to a skill nursing facility with the drain catheter coiled in her stomach.

The problem was not discovered until June when my wife's condition got worse, and she was transported back to Kaiser from rehab. The on-call Kaiser RWC neurosurgeon Dr Reddy, uncoiled the catheter. He said, “It’s too later because the damage has been done. she has developed subdural hematoma and her brain had already collapsed due to overs-shunting. That was why all that funny stuff was happening to her in March."

In August 2012
Emergency surgery was needed to relief excess inter-cranial pressure. The Neurosurgeon later assured me he would use a general surgeon for all future brain surgeries, if a new catheter is needed.
Walking unassisted
Before the March 2012 surgery, she was walking unassisted without any problems. We were very active and went on daily walks, movies, and vacations. She even walked to the pre-op appointment a week before the March 2012 surgery while I went to park the car.

After the March 2012 surgery, she was confined to using a wheelchair, cane, or walker to get around. She also began to develop other medical issues. Despite these issues, my wife remained active. We went on daily walks, short trips to restaurants, and even an Alaskan cruise in 2015.

January 2018
Another surgery to add a shunt in her brain resulted in a 45-minute seizure the next day. The reason for the prolonged seizure was the difficulty in finding a doctor to authorize medication to stop her seizure.

I was there when the seizure started. Four nurses stayed with us while another was trying to locate a doctor on a Wednesday afternoon, at 135pm. When Dr Pombra finally arrived, she called my wife's neurosurgeon for assistance. Later, I was told by one of the nurses the delay in getting your wife the proper care was because Dr Pombra called Neurosurgeon Dr Mark Sedrak to come help[, but he laughed and hung up on her, thinking it was a joke. I repeatedly asked for my wife to be transferred to ICU. Dr Pombra said,"Activan will stop the seizure." After 4 mgs of Activan, and 300mg load of Dilantin, my wife was finally transferred to ICU at 2:30PM. She was in a coma for over a day.

My wife had been admitted by Dr Sedrak directly from the clinic 2 weeks earlier, because he said, "this is the worse I have seen her." She was having balance and gait issues, and I called to get him to see her that day.

We did not want to have another surgery. Medical records reflect our repeated request for acute rehab at Kaiser Vallejo to help her regain strength, balance and improve her gait. It shows we preferred a trial of acute rehab over another
surgery. After two weeks of back and forth, they denied our requests for rehab or skill nursing. We were told she was did not qualify for acute rehab, and was too good for rehab at a skill nursing facility. The other alternatives were to take her home or have a new shunt added in hopes of reducing the excess subdural fluids in her brain.

After the prolonged seizure, I demanded to meet with the hospital's physician in charge (PIC). He said they didn't offer you to have a team come down from Kaiser
Vallejo acute rehab to do an on-site evaluation of your wife for possible admission? He said he did that when he was a PMR doctor to resolve disagreements with patient family members.

Since January 2018, my wife has only been home for only two months, due to repeated hospitalization and rehab.

On October 3, 2018
My wife was admitted to Kaiser RWC and diagnosed with pneumonia. I was there every day from 6am to evening. After two weeks at the hospital, she verbally complained daily about pain in her throat to HBS Dr Christopher Chin. I asked for a throat culture to check for throat infection. He said, "The chest x-ray from last week looked good. Nothing needs to be done, it’s just a virus."

On the 4th day of throat pain, she began to cough, and Dr Chin prescribed robitussin cough syrup. The next morning, a portable chest x-ray showed both lungs were filled with fluids. She had been scheduled for a bone-marrow biopsy because of repeated blood transfusion as her body had difficulty producing red blood cells. Dr Chin said after the bone marrow, she will be transferred to Jewish Home. The nurse even questioned the Dr Chin in front of me, and said, “Dr Chin, do you think she is okay to go." He said yes, they can continue Vancomycin there."

The Interventional Radiologist Dr Shalin Amin later declined to do the bone marrow biopsy because my wife had difficulty breathing. Dr. Amin showed me the chest x-ray and said both of her lungs were full of fluids. When we returned to her room upstairs, I told Dr Chin, I am not going to let my wife be discharged.

The next day, my wife was so ill, Dr Chin had to transfer her to ICU, where we were met by Dr Meede. I told him what had transpired the past week. Dr Meede shoot his head back and forth and said, "your wife is critically ill with double pneumonia." He did a throat culture which confirmed my suspicion all along. Subsequently, Dr Meede remove food particles from her lungs. A few days later, a lung puncture procedure withdrew 1.1 liters of dark green fluids from her lungs. Dr Meede ordered a Gastronomy tube procedure for liquid feeding and medication.

My wife also needed a tracheostomy tube to protect her airway. The day before this procedure, I was told she would not survive the procedure
Subsequently, my wife spent almost 3 months at Kaiser RWC ICU. The day before she was scheduled to receive a tracheostomy tube, the head of ICU, Dr Todd
Laskman, suggested my wife would not survive the procedure, and wanted permission to pull her life support. I refused and told him she has been through and survive all this, and she will surprise everyone. I told him she is not only very important to our family, but also important to her very extended family.

In mid-January 2018
My wife was transferred to Kentfield Hospital in San Francisco for treatment and rehab. Six weeks later, she developed unexplained abdominal pain, nausea, and projectile vomiting; sometimes multiple times a day and several hundred "MLs" in volume. This problem continues almost daily. She vomited 500MLs on 9/2 and 3 times on 9/12. She has also lost 60lbs of her body weight since the vomiting began.

Despite the continued vomiting, my wife was progressing well with therapy at Kentfield. In late April, she was able to sit independently at the edge of the bed, stand for 30 seconds at a time with assistance, and began to work on standing at the parallel bars.

Kentfield doctors were unable to figure out the cause of my wife's unexplained vomiting with their limited resources. On 5/8/19, I received an email from my wife's GP, Dr Kelly Fung, that she will be transferred to Kaiser RWC because the Neuro-team feels her vomiting issue is Neurosurgery related. The next day, I received an email that she would be transferred to Kaiser SF to better manage her care.

On the evening of 5/9, couple of hours before my wife was transferred to Kaiser SF, the Medical Director of Kentfield Hospital, Dr Crenshaw, told us he would welcome my wife back to resume her rehab and treatment, after Kaiser solves her vomiting issue. He told us to have Kaiser get a qualified GI Motility Expert do a complete "GI Motility" workup.

On the afternoon of 5/10/19, when I returned from lunch, attending Dr Jackson informed me the head of GI, Dr Craig Monroe, came by and said, "nothing needs to be done with my wife. I later discovered he wrote in the medical charts, my wife symptoms of "untraceable vomiting were likely multi-factorial. Only focus on treating the symptoms." I tried to call Dr Monroe to request a full GI Motility Workup be done. He never returned my call and I have never met this man to date.
I have learned that Kaiser has a well-perfected "wait and see" attitude of treating very sick patients. Their objective is to wait and see if the patient gets worse and
dies. Their objective is not to provide necessary treatment in order to save money, and increase their profits.

I repeatedly express my concern Kaiser was not doing anything to diagnosis the root cause of my wife's daily vomiting and related issues. On 6/2, a GI Dr Vallehas(?) stopped by to briefly talk to my wife and I. He said he is on-call and had to leave. He never examined her. I continued to express my concern they have not done anything with my wife for almost a month, to try and find the cause of her vomiting.

On June 7
GI Dr Mukhtar came by. He examined her and we had a discussion about the need to find a root cause of her unexplained daily projectile vomiting. He said, "you are doing the right thing. If she were my family member, I would not let her be discharged until its resolved." He suggested a multi-disciplinary meeting which took place on the Monday 5/10/19.

I had a telephone discussion with Neurosurgeon Dr Sedrak, and he was prepared to call in from RWC on Monday to participate in the meeting. The meeting took place and I later found out Dr Mukhtar had not bother to involve neurosurgery. I
reiterated my concern to find the root cause of her vomiting, and reiterated Kentfield's request for a "full GI motility workup." He said Kaiser does not have a
qualified GI Motility expert, and such an expert is not needed at this time. Dr Mukhtar was certain the cause of my wife's vomiting was Gastro paresis. He suggested a jejunostomy J-tube will solve the vomiting issue. The J-tube procedure. He said it the problem continues, he will look into an outside referral for my wife to be examined by a GI Motility either at CPMC or Stanford. He was unsure if such an expert exist at UCSF. At this meeting, Dr Leigh Allen and I both expressed concern that my wife had developed increased oral secretions for the past week. My wife has a damaged vocal cord from intubation at RWC Kaiser and no oral awareness of her secretions. (This problem has worsen since then, and she continues to be a high risk of aspiration and aspiration pneumonia).

On 6/12
A J-tube procedure was done, but my wife's abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting continued. At this meeting, Dr Leigh Allen and I both expressed concern that my wife had developed increased oral secretions for the past week. (This problem has
worsened since then, and she continues to be a high risk of aspiration and aspiration pneumonia). Since the J-tube was first placed on 6/12/19, it has been replaced three times in the past two months. The last two times it was replaced, the IR doctors felt the J-tube was dislodged by the upward pressure of vomiting; once into her esophagus, and other time into her stomach.

Kaiser doctors have been unable to determine the cause of my wife's vomiting issues. Since 2011, my wife has had approximately 140 Head CTs and various x-rays. So, I was not surprised when I was told in July 2018, she had a brain glioma. A Kaiser RWC Neur-oncologist, Dr Scott Peak, reviewed her medical records and film in October 2018, while my wife was at RWC ICU because of my concern of her exposure to enormous amounts of radiation. He emailed me on 10/22/18 the only way to be certain the bright blow in her brain is a glioma is to do a biopsy, but my wife is too ill to have such a procedure. Recently, I've been told Dr Peak said the growing spot in her brain is malignant (without even a biopsy?)

7/12/2019
Dr. Cordero and PCC Maryann came to Peri’s bedside. Dr Cordero introduced himself and apologized for Kaiser not doing their job in finding the cause of Peri’s unexplained vomiting. He informed me the medical team met today to talk about what has been tried and what has not. He said there will be no discharge until we find out why she is vomiting. He says we have not done a good job even controlling her symptoms since she continues to vomit multiple times daily. He said nothing we have tried has solved the vomiting problem, and “all of your concerns and requests are valid.” He also said “we hear you but “unfortunately our system moves very slowly, it is not a done deal yet.”

There has been many discharge orders since 5/9/18. My wife continues to vomit almost daily, and sometimes multiple times each day. On 7/19/18, I was encouraged to go into a meeting after I tried to reach out to the media for help. I met with the Chief Operating Officer (COO) Dione Cruz Miller, and other hospital managers. I was told my wife has been declared medically stabled for discharge. I
looked her in the eye and ask how she can discharge someone who has daily abdominal pain, nausea, and vomiting, and your doctors cannot find the root cause. She said we trust our doctors and they have said no further tests are needed. I requested out-of-network second opinion to have specialist look at all her medical issues. I was told if you want a second opinion, you will have to pay for it. I was told I would be financially responsible for her hospital bills of $6500 each day,
which I was later given. I filed a useless Kaiser expedited review which upheld the discharge. I then filed a complaint with the CA-DMHC, which later overturned
their discharge. I also filed a complaint with CA-DPH at the same time regarding inaccurate medical charting which they sustained.

Kaiser doctors had agreed to facilitate outside GI motility workups, and second opinions several times. Each time, they changed their mind and said no further tests are needed. The latest offer for one out-of-network medical opinion in the specialty of my choice, after my wife had a long awaited update MRI and shunt tap to look for brain infection. It had only been scheduled after I complained about not having an updated one since 11/28/2018, which the neurosurgeon also supported.

After the MRI on 8/21, I heard nothing about the second opinion offer. On 8/3, I emailed Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson that I was ready to discuss the second opinion
with someone at Kaiser. I never received a reply. on 8/6/19, I had emailed him to express my concern about my wife's medical condition, and discharge. Emails to him has done no good.

On 8/23, my wife had fainted twice, was unresponsive for 90 seconds, and had irregular heartbeat. RN Michael Rochlin documented his concern my wife was a risk for aspiration and he needed to suction her oral secretions three times while giving medication. She was transferred to the telemetry unit. was never notified of this meeting and relocation. I have since filed a complaint with DPH about this.

On 8/28/19, I was told to meet with SF Kaiser CEO, Mr. Ron Groepper. Instead of discussing an out of network second opinion, I was told all therapies had been discontinued for the past week for my wife, and doctors have declared her medical stable to be discharged to "custodial care," which I have to pay for, where she would get nothing but tube feeds and medication, or I can take her home. I told him I do not agree with Kaiser's opinion. He said I had created "upheaval in
our organization," and wanted this wrapped up and her out of the hospital before Labor Day weekend, Friday 5pm.

I was handed a letter, signed by him, stating I would be responsible for daily medical bills. He said I would be responsible for "significant financial burden" if my wife remained in the hospital starting the next day.

I tried to tell him about all the difficulties my wife has gone through, and the lack of treatment she has received to determine the root cause of her vomiting.
Mr. Groepper said I don't want to hear about what has happened. I know your wife's case well.
Kaiser is so cold to my wife and I, This meeting with Ron Groepper told place the next morning after my wife had her J-Tube replaced the night before, after it had been dislodged due to vomiting. I filed a Kaiser expedited review which was denied. I have since filed a another request to CA DHMC for a review and to compel Kaiser to pay for outside second opinion.

Retaliation
On 9/9/19, I expressed concern to Nurse Manager Ruth Monsalud my wife did not have a sitter. She said your wife has not had a sitter for a long time. I said she's had a sitter at Kaiser RWC in October 2018, Kentfield Hospital, and Kaiser SF since 5/19/19. I told her there has always been a sitter watching my wife, helping to suction my wife's oral secretions and cleaning her. She said the decision was made a week ago, on 9/3/19. I asked why I was never notified. She said my wife's primary nurse should have informed you. I told her she is throwing the nurses under the bus. She said it is their responsibility to inform you. I reminded Ruth of my wife's risk for aspiration, choking, and difficulty breathing. She said we will check on your wife once an hour. I told her that is not enough, she can choke in between. She said I trust our nurses. THAT MUST BE PART OF MANAGEMENT TRAINING, TO SAY WE TRUST OUR DOCTORS AND NURSES.

I then had a discussion with attending Dr Elson, who denied any input to pull the sitter. He said, “That’s news to me. Every time I come in to check on your wife, there was always someone sitting her watching her.” The previous day, I had a discussion with attending Dr Pope about my wife’s ongoing medical issues and vomiting. He agreed with me her high risk of aspiration and aspiration pneumonia was also a major concern. There was a sitter with my wife that day, as usual, when I was talking with Dr Pope.

I have since stayed in my wife's room until 2am the last few nights to document her efforts in getting assistance with the nurse call button. Since she has a
damaged vocal cord, she cannot be easily understood, especially with the noises at the nurse station. I have since documented my survey of these difficulties and filed another complaint with CA DPH.

The discharge orders written by Dr Cooke on 8/26/19, stated my wife is very weak and is discharged to custodial care. She also wrote if we chose, my wife’s tube feed could be discontinued, and it will not be long before my wife will pass. If we chose this route, they will focus on medication to keep her comfortable.