This letter was written by a person incarcerated at Stockton.
Dear PrisonPandemic,
I was incarcerated at a California Correctional Center, Susanville, facility when the pandemic hit. Not really understanding what COVID-19 was, I and many of my fellow convicts weren’t too concerned and some of us had been pretty sick in the past flu season. So we felt we probably already had COVID-19 and didn’t know it. That wasn’t COVID-19. COVID-19 proved to be far worse as I later found out.
The anxieties kicked in for those who got a visit when the president stopped all visitation. I saw how sad, frustrating, and angry those convicts got. I didn’t get visits, but I understood how they were feeling. My anxieties kicked in when they started moving all the beds to make sure all the dorms had 24 convicts instead of 32.
It was frustrating because just when you were able to build a rapport and respect with the convicts in the dorm you were moved to another dorm. I moved four times in six months. And what was frustrating was that we were told it was due to making sure we were six feet apart, but on one side of me in the bunk area, I was still able to hold my neighbors hand when I went to sleep if I chose to, because the banks were so close.
If our health and lives were really that important to the prison system, then every other bank should have been emptied. The gym could’ve been utilized. It’s not like they hadn’t had convicts housed there before.
Around June, I had breathing issues and was sent to the infirmary. I was given an EKG and the nurse told me that there was a bit of a concern per the doctor as to the results, but there would be a follow up. No follow up was done.
I submitted another medical request asking for an x-ray of my chest because I knew something wasn’t right and my breathing had to improve. The doctor told me that he doesn’t want to expose me to radiation unless it is necessary, so he concluded that I may have constipation and prescribe me two weeks of constipation medication.
Ten days later I was feeling worse. I submitted another medical request and begged the nurse at triage to give me an x-ray. The nurse got approval from the doctor to give me an x-ray and it reflected that I had an enlarged heart. I was immediately transferred to Banner Hospital in Susanville where I was omitted and stayed there for seven days.
When I got back to the prison I told the doctor there that I am requesting an immediate transfer to a medical facility because there were positive COVID-19 cases, and now that I knew and they knew I had a serious heart condition, I was afraid that I might be positive if I remain there. The doctor told me that all transfers were on hold due to COVID-19, but as soon as it lifts I would be transferred.
What made no sense to me was that CDC (California Department of Corrections) was approving transfers for inmates coming from San Quentin to Susanville that were eligible to be firefighters. Inmates who were later determined positive for COVID-19, not all of them, but some of them.
In the beginning of December, I had a heart attack and was transferred to Banner Hospital. After a couple of hours there, they upgraded my level of care and I was transferred to Saint Mary’s Hospital in Reno, Nevada.
As soon as I got to Saint Mary’s, I was told by the heart doctor that I would be having an angiogram procedure, but that I would be getting a COVID-19 test first. Within the hour I came back positive. My breathing had gotten worse and the doctor said I had pneumonia. I also had a fever.
I was given a bunch of antibiotics and vitamins. My heart wasn’t pumping the way it should, so liquid had backed up into my lungs. So I was given medication through an IV to help me urinate every 30 minutes to drain the fluid out of my system.
Within a few days my fever broke and I was feeling so much better. Within five days I was off the oxygen and I was breathing better as well. I still had no sense of taste or smell.
Saint Mary’s needed my bed for more serious COVID-19 patients, so I was discharged and sent back to the prison. I was surprised that I was not placed in a single cell due to being treated positive for COVID-19, but instead housed back in a dorm.
The following day I caught another fever so the day after that, I was ambulanced to the California healthcare facility. I was given the same medication that I was on when I was at Saint Mary’s hospital, and placed on single cell status. Within days, I was able to be taken off oxygen.
It was a blessing to finally get transferred to a prison hospital where I was able to receive the medical care that Susanville was unable to give me. It was also unfortunate that I had to file a grievance form in order to get moved, but I am here now, and I have to be grateful for that. My senses of smell and taste are slowly coming back.
In closing, over 500,000 human beings have died from this COVID-19, so I feel extremely fortunate, blessed, grateful, and humbled to be able to write this letter. God bless you all!
Respectfully submitted.
