Good bye my friend... I am sure that we shall cross paths one of these days in the long deserved rest.
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
To my good friend, you are very much missed. Courtland also recounts stories about "Uncle George" and I tell him stories about you to him. I am writing on the blog that I put together for you many years ago so that if people should happen upon this blog, they will see that in the end, Olympia won, but at what cost?
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
THE FLYER FOR THE PROTEST
1975 Law Allows Olympia Medical Center
To Get Away With Negligence
On February 6, 2006, Olympia Medical Center committed negligence; medical malpractice and they are fighting with a well-armed arsenal to get away with not paying a dime to compensate the victim. The most potent weapon in that arsenal is California tort reform law passed in 1975.
These laws limit the damages for pain and suffering to $250,000.00, slash attorneys’ fess so severely that all the good lawyers are out of the business and impose prohibitive litigation costs to pay for mandatory expert witnesses.
Neither the administration nor the nursing staff of Olympia Medial Center care about whether they hurt, make lame, cripple or kill patients. This is clearly demonstrated in what happened to George Johnson on February 6, 2006.
Let me tell you what happened to George Johnson:
o Nursing Staff failed to apply pressure to prevent bleeding
after a procedure on a vein in his groin.
o Ignored George's complaints regarding discomfort for hours as he lingered bleeding…while still on blood thinning medication.
o Medical staff failed to advise his doctors about the bleeding, swelling and pain.
o He nearly died as a result of medical neglect
o He was sent home with an infected wound.
o George is now crippled due to improper care.
As a result of this, George Johnson cannot:
o Walk without a walker
o Work
o Earn a living
o Shop for groceries or anything else
o Cook
o Participate in any form of entertainment
o Participate in many activities we all take for granted.
Now Olympia Medical Center seeks to use the 1975 laws described above to avoid paying George Johnson any compensation for what they did to him. It’s not right and it could happen to you. If you want your life and your health don’t go to Olympia Medical Center.
You can visit my blog at……
http://gbjohnson.blogspot.com
To Get Away With Negligence
On February 6, 2006, Olympia Medical Center committed negligence; medical malpractice and they are fighting with a well-armed arsenal to get away with not paying a dime to compensate the victim. The most potent weapon in that arsenal is California tort reform law passed in 1975.
These laws limit the damages for pain and suffering to $250,000.00, slash attorneys’ fess so severely that all the good lawyers are out of the business and impose prohibitive litigation costs to pay for mandatory expert witnesses.
Neither the administration nor the nursing staff of Olympia Medial Center care about whether they hurt, make lame, cripple or kill patients. This is clearly demonstrated in what happened to George Johnson on February 6, 2006.
Let me tell you what happened to George Johnson:
o Nursing Staff failed to apply pressure to prevent bleeding
after a procedure on a vein in his groin.
o Ignored George's complaints regarding discomfort for hours as he lingered bleeding…while still on blood thinning medication.
o Medical staff failed to advise his doctors about the bleeding, swelling and pain.
o He nearly died as a result of medical neglect
o He was sent home with an infected wound.
o George is now crippled due to improper care.
As a result of this, George Johnson cannot:
o Walk without a walker
o Work
o Earn a living
o Shop for groceries or anything else
o Cook
o Participate in any form of entertainment
o Participate in many activities we all take for granted.
Now Olympia Medical Center seeks to use the 1975 laws described above to avoid paying George Johnson any compensation for what they did to him. It’s not right and it could happen to you. If you want your life and your health don’t go to Olympia Medical Center.
You can visit my blog at……
http://gbjohnson.blogspot.com
PRESS RELEASE
* * * PRESS RELEASE * * *
Date: Saturday, October 18, 2008
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Olympia Medical Center 5900 W. Olympic Blvd. • Los Angeles, CA 90036
Contact: Melvin R. Snell (323) 610-3324
Hospital Protest over the effects of California Medical Injury Compensation Act (MICRA) on innocent victims of hospital negligence.
A group of community activists, Reverend K.W. Tullus of Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network along with activists Melvin R. Snell founder of L.A. Humanities Group Foundation and Denyse Walls, former Executive Director of the ACLU of South Carolina will stage a live protest in front of the Olympia Medical Center to draw attention to the hospital’s negligence and the California’s laws which allow them to escape making restitution to victims.
A series of tort reform laws enacted in 1975, permit hospitals to commit negligence, malpractice and be financially insulated from liability. George Johnson, a veteran residential real estate appraiser, nearly lost his life at the hand of the uncaring Olympia Medical Center nursing staff. He is crippled and unable to work because of the hospital’s actions. The hospital is expected to use the California 1975 tort reform laws to escape responsibility for its negligence.
Like the atrocity of May 9, 2007 at King Drew where Edith Rodriquez died on the emergency room floor, and where intervention by emergency room patrons who called police and other emergency personnel to help a victim ignored by hospital staff, George Johnson managed to escape death because he reached out to his sister by cell phone. But for his sister calling George’s doctor he would have died.
For further information contact:
Melvin R. Snell
L.A. Humanities Group Foundation
(323) 610-3324
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Date: Saturday, October 18, 2008
Time: 10:00 am
Location: Olympia Medical Center 5900 W. Olympic Blvd. • Los Angeles, CA 90036
Contact: Melvin R. Snell (323) 610-3324
Hospital Protest over the effects of California Medical Injury Compensation Act (MICRA) on innocent victims of hospital negligence.
A group of community activists, Reverend K.W. Tullus of Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network along with activists Melvin R. Snell founder of L.A. Humanities Group Foundation and Denyse Walls, former Executive Director of the ACLU of South Carolina will stage a live protest in front of the Olympia Medical Center to draw attention to the hospital’s negligence and the California’s laws which allow them to escape making restitution to victims.
A series of tort reform laws enacted in 1975, permit hospitals to commit negligence, malpractice and be financially insulated from liability. George Johnson, a veteran residential real estate appraiser, nearly lost his life at the hand of the uncaring Olympia Medical Center nursing staff. He is crippled and unable to work because of the hospital’s actions. The hospital is expected to use the California 1975 tort reform laws to escape responsibility for its negligence.
Like the atrocity of May 9, 2007 at King Drew where Edith Rodriquez died on the emergency room floor, and where intervention by emergency room patrons who called police and other emergency personnel to help a victim ignored by hospital staff, George Johnson managed to escape death because he reached out to his sister by cell phone. But for his sister calling George’s doctor he would have died.
For further information contact:
Melvin R. Snell
L.A. Humanities Group Foundation
(323) 610-3324
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Hello once again to my Blog network of friends. I have not been able to get with you in a few weeks. As some of you know I am about to go to Trial on my lawsuits ageist Olympic Medical Center. As you may recall that is the hospital that nearly killed me and succeeded in crippling me for life. However, there is a matter that is more pressing and as equally important to future of my company and me.
STATE OF REAL ESTATE IN LOS ANGELES IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
As most of you know I have been, Real Estate Appraiser, Consultant and Real Estate Agent for almost thirty (30) years. I spend most of my time in my home office now that I cannot work as before. So I get to see a lot of television, C-SPAN, MSNBC, CNN and FNC. (Fox). Time and time again I see and hear Politicians, Economy experts Talking Heads and Treasury Secretary Paulson say the bottom line reason for problems in our Economy including the problems on Wall Street is because of "those people that took loans on homes that they could not afford".
Well as Tavis Smiley would say let’s unpack this theory. In the 1980's the economic philosophy of our country changed from The New Deal, The New Frontier and The Great Society. With that change came the Reagan philosophy of THE TRICKLE DOWN THEORY. The major components of that theory were kill unions, redefine the lines of wealth and DEREGULATION of financial institutions. In particular, the Savings and Loans witch were created to loan money for financing residential property. As a young appraiser I saw the sales price of single family homes in my area double. Then came the Savings and Loan scandal and the bail out that followed. From these developments I came to understand the importance of real estate to the future growth of the American economy.
By the late 1990's a group of people, who were both very smart and greedy noticed that interest rates were low money was cheap. They decided to take advantage of an opportunity and make a killing in the market and the New Global Economy. They made it easy to investment in real property with the introduction new loan products "The Stated Loan’, "The Pick-a-Pay Loan" and other such schemes. Armed with these products, new lenders sprung up over night and the old ones joined hands to give anyone who wanted to buy a house the opportunity to do so. All one needed was a recent paycheck stub and a credit score above 500. Just about anyone could get a house. It appeared that FINALLY TRICKLE DOWN was here for the forgotten masses. For twenty years the top ten percent made so much money that they decided to share the wealth and make more money in the process.
I live in the Carthey Circle section of Los Angeles where homes and duplexes were selling for three to four hundred thousand dollars in 1990 when I moved to the area. Beginning in late 1990's the prices began to rise quickly. Now the same duplexes are selling for a million and a half. However, the first sign of trouble became apparent in 2004 when I appraised a 900 square foot, two bedroom, one bath single family home with no garage for three hundred twenty-five thousand ($325,000.00) dollars. This property was located on 103rd Street and Grape Avenue. (For those of you who do not know the area, it is south east of where I grew up in the heart of Watts). This made it clear to me at that point the real estate market was going to be in big trouble very soon. Think about it, a small house in one of Los Angeles’ and the country’s poorest neighborhoods valued at almost one half million dollars.
My father bought the house where I grew up in South Central after World War II for six thousand ($6,000.00) dollars. It was now selling for four hundred fifty thousand ($450,000.00) dollars and it is about 1,100 square feet with three bedrooms and one bath.
First time buyers were inundated with inducements to purchase homes. The offers were "no money down" 100% loans and potential buyers were told, "You have to buy now". "You can get a house, free money, including the money for the down payment and closing cost." Yes indeed there were 103 – 106 percent loans out there. If you could fog a mirror you could get an loan. The prevailing thought was that only a fool would turn that down a free house and free money when they had been left out of the system and the main stream of society all of their lives.
The author Kevin Phillips (Politics of the Rich and Poor, Boiling Point, Wealth and Democracy) writes in his recent book Bad Money, that bad capitalism drives out good capitalism because of sleaze, lies, deception and fraud. The financial sector over took manufactory section and is now 21 percent of GDP. The rise in the debt industry, credit cards, mortgage and other Wall Street products that drove up the debt of the American pubic this another fraud put on the backs of Americans.
Wall Street brokers took all of the sub-prime loans that they could find, packaged them and put them on the world market as mortgage backed securities at a time when values of property were going through the roof with no end in sight. The smart money was just waiting for the bubble to explode and the bail out. After all, we have seen this movie before in the 1980s staring most of the same cast of characters.
The housing market in Los Angeles from all reports and published statistics is in a huge decline and an ever-deepening recession. However, this is only true in the sub-prime area. It is not so true on the Westside. As a real estate appraiser I am at ground zero of the market and I see and help to provide the real statistics, not the ones you hear on the evening news. As values continue to fall in the sub-prime areas, there are millions to be made. We have not seen the bottom of this market yet. With increasing REO’S on the market, the new bailout planned is driving prices down to create a new market. Throughout South central re-gentrification has taken hold and created a brand new market that is worth millions of dollars for the smart inventor. Keep an eye on the government to see how they are going to dispose of its inventory of foreclosed properties; it should be a boom for local investors.
Lately there has been an idea floated that I believe, if our government were to implement, would be a positive stimulus to this stagnate economy and at the same time show some fairness to the people on "Main Street". Reduce the mortgage payment based on the current value of the property that they own to today’s market value. This would keep people in their homes and free up some disposable income.
George B. Johnson, CREA
STATE OF REAL ESTATE IN LOS ANGELES IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
As most of you know I have been, Real Estate Appraiser, Consultant and Real Estate Agent for almost thirty (30) years. I spend most of my time in my home office now that I cannot work as before. So I get to see a lot of television, C-SPAN, MSNBC, CNN and FNC. (Fox). Time and time again I see and hear Politicians, Economy experts Talking Heads and Treasury Secretary Paulson say the bottom line reason for problems in our Economy including the problems on Wall Street is because of "those people that took loans on homes that they could not afford".
Well as Tavis Smiley would say let’s unpack this theory. In the 1980's the economic philosophy of our country changed from The New Deal, The New Frontier and The Great Society. With that change came the Reagan philosophy of THE TRICKLE DOWN THEORY. The major components of that theory were kill unions, redefine the lines of wealth and DEREGULATION of financial institutions. In particular, the Savings and Loans witch were created to loan money for financing residential property. As a young appraiser I saw the sales price of single family homes in my area double. Then came the Savings and Loan scandal and the bail out that followed. From these developments I came to understand the importance of real estate to the future growth of the American economy.
By the late 1990's a group of people, who were both very smart and greedy noticed that interest rates were low money was cheap. They decided to take advantage of an opportunity and make a killing in the market and the New Global Economy. They made it easy to investment in real property with the introduction new loan products "The Stated Loan’, "The Pick-a-Pay Loan" and other such schemes. Armed with these products, new lenders sprung up over night and the old ones joined hands to give anyone who wanted to buy a house the opportunity to do so. All one needed was a recent paycheck stub and a credit score above 500. Just about anyone could get a house. It appeared that FINALLY TRICKLE DOWN was here for the forgotten masses. For twenty years the top ten percent made so much money that they decided to share the wealth and make more money in the process.
I live in the Carthey Circle section of Los Angeles where homes and duplexes were selling for three to four hundred thousand dollars in 1990 when I moved to the area. Beginning in late 1990's the prices began to rise quickly. Now the same duplexes are selling for a million and a half. However, the first sign of trouble became apparent in 2004 when I appraised a 900 square foot, two bedroom, one bath single family home with no garage for three hundred twenty-five thousand ($325,000.00) dollars. This property was located on 103rd Street and Grape Avenue. (For those of you who do not know the area, it is south east of where I grew up in the heart of Watts). This made it clear to me at that point the real estate market was going to be in big trouble very soon. Think about it, a small house in one of Los Angeles’ and the country’s poorest neighborhoods valued at almost one half million dollars.
My father bought the house where I grew up in South Central after World War II for six thousand ($6,000.00) dollars. It was now selling for four hundred fifty thousand ($450,000.00) dollars and it is about 1,100 square feet with three bedrooms and one bath.
First time buyers were inundated with inducements to purchase homes. The offers were "no money down" 100% loans and potential buyers were told, "You have to buy now". "You can get a house, free money, including the money for the down payment and closing cost." Yes indeed there were 103 – 106 percent loans out there. If you could fog a mirror you could get an loan. The prevailing thought was that only a fool would turn that down a free house and free money when they had been left out of the system and the main stream of society all of their lives.
The author Kevin Phillips (Politics of the Rich and Poor, Boiling Point, Wealth and Democracy) writes in his recent book Bad Money, that bad capitalism drives out good capitalism because of sleaze, lies, deception and fraud. The financial sector over took manufactory section and is now 21 percent of GDP. The rise in the debt industry, credit cards, mortgage and other Wall Street products that drove up the debt of the American pubic this another fraud put on the backs of Americans.
Wall Street brokers took all of the sub-prime loans that they could find, packaged them and put them on the world market as mortgage backed securities at a time when values of property were going through the roof with no end in sight. The smart money was just waiting for the bubble to explode and the bail out. After all, we have seen this movie before in the 1980s staring most of the same cast of characters.
The housing market in Los Angeles from all reports and published statistics is in a huge decline and an ever-deepening recession. However, this is only true in the sub-prime area. It is not so true on the Westside. As a real estate appraiser I am at ground zero of the market and I see and help to provide the real statistics, not the ones you hear on the evening news. As values continue to fall in the sub-prime areas, there are millions to be made. We have not seen the bottom of this market yet. With increasing REO’S on the market, the new bailout planned is driving prices down to create a new market. Throughout South central re-gentrification has taken hold and created a brand new market that is worth millions of dollars for the smart inventor. Keep an eye on the government to see how they are going to dispose of its inventory of foreclosed properties; it should be a boom for local investors.
Lately there has been an idea floated that I believe, if our government were to implement, would be a positive stimulus to this stagnate economy and at the same time show some fairness to the people on "Main Street". Reduce the mortgage payment based on the current value of the property that they own to today’s market value. This would keep people in their homes and free up some disposable income.
George B. Johnson, CREA
Saturday, August 16, 2008
OLYMPIA MEDICAL CENTER ... it's a HELL of a Place, continued ...
Last week I had a scare here. A good friend who was visiting me had a severe allergic reaction to some baked goods. It seems that my friend is allergic to nuts and unbeknownst to us the pastry contained almond flour. As she was gasping for breath, she asked me to call 911 for an ambulance. I explained to her that the ambulance would take her to the closes hospital, meaning OLYMPIA.
Knowing what I know and what all of you know who have been reading my blog, OLYMPIA Medical Center is the last place she would want to go. We got her to Cedars where she was treated and released in the space of just one half hour. A word to the wise, “Olympia Medical Center is a KILLING place.” Please post your comment and BLOG ON!!!
Knowing what I know and what all of you know who have been reading my blog, OLYMPIA Medical Center is the last place she would want to go. We got her to Cedars where she was treated and released in the space of just one half hour. A word to the wise, “Olympia Medical Center is a KILLING place.” Please post your comment and BLOG ON!!!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
OLYMPIA MEDICAL CENTER DOES NOT CARE!!!!
I learned today that the Olympia Medical Center and those authorized to speak in its behalf, make light of nearly killing and actually crippling a person. I have therefore made it my mission to let everybody in Los Angeles and particularly those on the west side know that they go to Olympia Medical Center at their peril; that Olympia has no qualms about destroying a life and claiming they are blame free.
Monday, July 28, 2008
OLYMPIA Medical Center it's a HELL of a Place!
I was born and raised in South Central Los Angeles. After spending several years of working in high-end retail and later as Vice Chairman and head of A&R at a local record company, I left in 1980 to attend UCLA’s Business School to study Real Estate. Upon completion of this education, I became a real estate appraiser and sales agent.
In 1982, I started building my Real Estate empire, obtaining licenses in Real Estate Appraisal and sales in California. A couple of years I later obtained my Nevada Appraiser’s License. Following many years of dedication and hard work, the rewards that come with such effort were beginning to come my way. In an endeavor to give back to the community, I have trained apprentice appraisers, conducted Real Estate seminars, and participated in forums. Two and a half years ago in February 2006, I went to Olympia Medical Center suffering with a pain in my left calf. The diagnosis was a blood clot. The procedure to treat this condition was called an angiogram. An angiogram is an invasive test in which a radiopaque dye is injected through a catheter inserted into the right femoral artery located in the groin. Drugs are injected through the catheter to dissolve the blood clot.
This procedure was done twice on me. The first was diagnostic and for treatment. The second was for verification that the treatment worked.
For those of you who are not aware of the procedure, let me explain it in layman terms: They start by penetrating the right groin with a probe that contains a camera that travels through the artery to my left calf. The procedure is done under local anesthesia so that pain is minimal. However, in my case, when the probe passed my left knee, the probe hit something and caused me to rise up and levitate like Linda Blair (Regan in "The Exorcist") and I screamed "OH S--T!!!".... The good news announced by my doctor is that the blood clot was dissolved and my discharge would be in two days.
This was on the Friday before Superbowl Sunday. A few visitors came to visit me and watch the game. I made my plans to go home the next day.
Things changed abruptly when around 5 o’clock next morning, I woke up with excruciating pain in my right groin. My thigh was swollen to nearly twice the size of normal. I used the patient call button to call the nurse's station to tell her about the pain and swelling. Her response was stunning, “I’m busy.” Later, a nurse came into the room to bring a Tylenol-Codeine. Because this was not a condition the medication would successfully treat, I did not take it. A few minutes I used the patient call button again and the response was "I told you I was busy!" I then paged the hospital doctor who performed the procedure, and got no response. All during that time, my leg felt as if something was exploding inside. I remembered I had my cell phone, so I called my sister who was working as a surgical nurse at Kaiser Permenate. After advising her what was happening, I asked her to contact my personal doctor.
When my doctor arrived, he took one look at my leg and he said, "Oh my God!" He immediately rushed me to surgery.
When I woke up from the surgery the next day, I thought I was dead because I was in the same room where my mother died two years earlier.
Healing has been slow and my life has changed in many ways. Whereas I walked into the hospital on my own power, now I am on a walker.... Moreover, the hospital says they did everything right, that they followed the Standard of Care. Tell me what you think.
TO BE CONTINUED
In 1982, I started building my Real Estate empire, obtaining licenses in Real Estate Appraisal and sales in California. A couple of years I later obtained my Nevada Appraiser’s License. Following many years of dedication and hard work, the rewards that come with such effort were beginning to come my way. In an endeavor to give back to the community, I have trained apprentice appraisers, conducted Real Estate seminars, and participated in forums. Two and a half years ago in February 2006, I went to Olympia Medical Center suffering with a pain in my left calf. The diagnosis was a blood clot. The procedure to treat this condition was called an angiogram. An angiogram is an invasive test in which a radiopaque dye is injected through a catheter inserted into the right femoral artery located in the groin. Drugs are injected through the catheter to dissolve the blood clot.
This procedure was done twice on me. The first was diagnostic and for treatment. The second was for verification that the treatment worked.
For those of you who are not aware of the procedure, let me explain it in layman terms: They start by penetrating the right groin with a probe that contains a camera that travels through the artery to my left calf. The procedure is done under local anesthesia so that pain is minimal. However, in my case, when the probe passed my left knee, the probe hit something and caused me to rise up and levitate like Linda Blair (Regan in "The Exorcist") and I screamed "OH S--T!!!".... The good news announced by my doctor is that the blood clot was dissolved and my discharge would be in two days.
This was on the Friday before Superbowl Sunday. A few visitors came to visit me and watch the game. I made my plans to go home the next day.
Things changed abruptly when around 5 o’clock next morning, I woke up with excruciating pain in my right groin. My thigh was swollen to nearly twice the size of normal. I used the patient call button to call the nurse's station to tell her about the pain and swelling. Her response was stunning, “I’m busy.” Later, a nurse came into the room to bring a Tylenol-Codeine. Because this was not a condition the medication would successfully treat, I did not take it. A few minutes I used the patient call button again and the response was "I told you I was busy!" I then paged the hospital doctor who performed the procedure, and got no response. All during that time, my leg felt as if something was exploding inside. I remembered I had my cell phone, so I called my sister who was working as a surgical nurse at Kaiser Permenate. After advising her what was happening, I asked her to contact my personal doctor.
When my doctor arrived, he took one look at my leg and he said, "Oh my God!" He immediately rushed me to surgery.
When I woke up from the surgery the next day, I thought I was dead because I was in the same room where my mother died two years earlier.
Healing has been slow and my life has changed in many ways. Whereas I walked into the hospital on my own power, now I am on a walker.... Moreover, the hospital says they did everything right, that they followed the Standard of Care. Tell me what you think.
TO BE CONTINUED
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