Message, with good news, from Elizabeth's mom, Teresa.....
Mr. Durango,
This is Teresa, Elizabeth's mom. Her surgery had been scheduled tentatively since January. We have had a firm date since early April.
I want to make sure that everyone remembers that this hubub about her heart condition started because she responded to something someone said on the blog.
She wrote (with our permission) about Mr. D., one of the members who has known her since her birth, who let me know that he plays the lottery when the prizes are really large so he can win and help pay for Elizabeth's surgery. I discouraged him from this many times. It was his way of saying that he wanted to do something to help us, as we have helped him.
When he was homeless for 2 years, carrying his possessions in a black garbage bag, with no money or food, we were there for him. And I think that coming to Paradise Center, being "normal" and interacting with my baby daugher, helped give him hope for his own future. (I can't wait for the comments about how awful I am to let a HOMELESS MAN around my infant.)
Regarding her surgery, she insists we call it "a procedure". Less scary for her, but actually more accurate. The evening of the "procedure", she was up, playing charades with visiting friends, and even tap dancing. Everything went smoothly, the doctor and all of the staff at Children's Medical were amazing, and we are all so happy to have that hurdle behind us. She doesn't even have one stitch on her body. Amazing!
Thank you for your concern and well wishes,
Teresa Davis
Paradise Center, Inc.
friends helping friends in mental health recovery
www.ParadiseCenterInc.org
11 comments:
I am so delighted to read that Elizabeth's procedure went well so that she can "proceed" with just being the cool young person she is. I could see what a big heart she had when I met her recently ... now it's just "tuned up" so she can continue to do great things.
Anyone who tried to make hay out of this issue previously was just mean-spirited. Having also now met Teresa and Steve, only someone with a personal axe to grind would have said such awful things.
Elizabeth has a far greater understanding and compassion for people than do most kids her age precisely because her parents DO involve her in the real life experience they work in every day. She appeared to be one happy kid to me and if you question her parents' love and care for her ... well, go jump in the lake.
I was so impressed by everyone I met at PC. Despite the difficulties of recent months, they are moving forward and I can understand their not wanting to focus on the "scandal" ... but on a happier future. Send them a donation, won't you?
I stopped by a couple weeks ago to drop off some items that the taxpayer-funded mhmrtc gang would surely call junk, trashy, dumpster quality, And a small cash donation since they need to pay bills ...and they had generously volunteered to help me with yard clean up project in this triple digit scorcher WITHOUT EXPECTING ANYTHING IN RETURN BUT SOME COLD BEVERAGES AND THE SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT FROM DOING SOMETHING GOOD AND BEING PRODUCTIVE AND HELPFUL.
Thanks for your efforts, reports, example, and suggestions, Durango and CatsPaw. BTW, I noticed a package of toilet paper displayed proudly inside their office, almost like a trophy or prized gift. Plus, the table top tv's and other household items you all had reported were not there when i visited...they had provided them to a few of their members who finally moved into their own place in recent days (vs. homelessness, the shelters, or even cramped group homes). And the computers included one that MHMRTC had tampered with and now not working right (saving as evidence for later?), one that Norma had loaned from her home, along with some other donated ones that a couple of the members have slowly been working on to make it usable for their members...in their own home like the rest of us, and not like indigents who must trek to the local library (or the supposed "new computer with Internet and the web" being installed in the drop-in place that the MHMRTC gang had bragged shamelessly about previously).
Good reminder, CatsPaw. I'm putting a check in the mail first thing Friday. Refreshing to see good people doing good things and neighborliness in action. THAT's what makes FW a good city, not some fancy designation by some out of town organization that mainly serves as a PR tool and a opportunity for the tiny local daily newspaper to once again claim that the world is "green with envy". Should focus on the Trinity River being green with algea instead, though. Or this scandal and the morally corrupt factors that allow such misconduct and abuse to take place all over the city and county.
Beth A., thanks for the update. I can't tell you how delighted I am (and how hilarious it is) that the package of toilet paper is occupying a place of honor. Take that, MHMR!
CatsPaw, the current leadership ,and other incompetent underlings, of MHMR of Tarrant County will need more than one family size package of toilet paper to clean up their mess. And this is before the s**** hits the the fan.
The size of your gift to Paradise is probably not even enough to clean up the mess on these MHMR-TC attack dogs' faces after finding out that Elizabeth is well and that her parents had been more than stellar in doing what's required to care for their child. Not only does that kind of cardiological intervention require scheduling months in advance, it likely requires years of close monitoring and consultations.
The slanderous and defamatory attacks against Teresa and Steve were reminders once again what incompetent and desperate these people are to try and force this family out of the county. Because as Chesapeake and the city of Fort Worth have learned the hard (and very expen$ive)way, this family will stand and fight for what they believe is right. Not just for themselves but for "the least among you".
Guelma, please tell us that the s*** WILL hit the fan!
Because then ... I will buy popcorn for everybody.
The s**** has hit the fan EVER SINCE Teresa and Paradise Center Inc. decided not to allow bullying against disabled and disadvantaged people go unchallenged. People cannot imagine the frustration turmoil and even humiliation experienced by the McDermott gang and their allies over these months as every one of their schemes neutralized and the slanderous representations are proven to be not truthful.
I beg to differ with Guelma in my view that the McDermott gang is full of you know what and ALREADY has it all over their faces as the direct result of this scandal and its ongoing exposure. As others have pointed out previously, legal settlements are the easy way out for these incompetent bullycrats. Of course, it's our tax dollars they're wasting and our community and fellow citizens they're hurting with their deplorable behavior.
McDermott will find some excuse to retire soon. That's the word from people with some insider access, anyway. They also report that the much anticipated BRAVO Health business scheme was sunk mostly due to the exposure of misconduct of the McDermott gang. And the fan is still going. And thus the stench attached to MHMR of Tarrant County and their allies.
It seems Bravo did suffer some unexpected and very costly losses as the result of the unethical behavior of their business partner MHMRTC, relative to this scandal. Looks like they're cutting their losses here and moving on to south Texas area, while expecting MHMRTC to repay them for their losses. One way is for MHMRTC to help sell Bravo to the new Medicaid STAR+ service areas by representing to those unknowing people how great the result of their private-public relationship, involving the state's second largest MHMR "Center" no less. Let's hope they will be honest and ethical with those poor and disabled South Texans.
I tend to agree with Mary M. that the s*** has already and has been hitting the proverbial fan for several months now. MHMRTC, their sponsor, and allies like NAMI and MHA of Tarrant County certainly have lost a lot of credibility and has had one long hot summer. Beyond the record-setting triple digit heat.
The only things worse would be a full-blown lawsuit which would then reveal many secrets and other skeletons that the CEO and his friends don't want made public. The most serious of which appears to be the repeated assertions on this blog by various people regarding the various exploitations of MHMRTC Mental health clients, in particular the taking of the bond-funded community-center at 300 pennsylvania Ave. that was intended for clients' use and enjoyment and turning it into a cramped place for three formerly neighborhood-based clinics and other program offices.
The tens of thousands of dollars "saved" from not paying for those more accessible and less-cramped operational facilities could conceivably pay for the poshe multi-million dollar Hulen Tower that rivals headquarters of profit-driven private corporations.
Ther just seems to be something to all the "smoke" coming from that Hulen Tower for the CEO and executives while clients now come from all over to sit and wait for long periods for weekly appointments at the Penn Square clinic at 300 Pennsylvania Ave. --and the tiny old storefront next door that was the former headquarter for the consumer-run nonprofit organization known as Paradise Center Inc.-- in the middle of the bustling GLBT bar/nightclub sector of the city.
Besides the cramped areas, long waits, and being forced to wait out in the elements, many clients have started to get their psychiatric services from other sources like JPS Health Network where their psychiatrists are also professors of psychiatric medicine. In fact, the previous Clinical Director for all MHMRTC psychiatrists left MHMRTC to join JPS Health network, which has cleaned up its act greatly following the house cleaning five years ago after the local newspapers exposed similar schemes that took tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer funds away from providing the needed services for the poor residents IN ORDER TO BUY EXPENSIVE BUILDINGS AND PAD THE DISTRICT'S SAVINGS ACCOUNT, WHICH IN TURN RESULTED IN THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS LAVISHING PRAISE AND FINANCIAL REWARDS FOR THE THE CEO FOR 'DOING A HECK OF A JOB!" (TO BORROW FROM A FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT).
This method is the new way that public agencies' higher ups cheat the poor and the taxpayers who trusted that their hard earned money were forcefully taken from them to help their needy family and neighbors. That's wicked clever. And often deadly for the "little people"...like those members of Paradise Center and their exceptional leader of almost a full decade Teresa Davis.
How ironic and very interesting : here`s a picture of Ms. Elizabeth happily standing behind the campaign sign of her state representative Lon Burnam, a man with a MN established record of fighting for what's right and for the common person. Ironic that there were reports that the members and Board of Directors of Paradise Center appealed repeatedly to him for assistance after it became obvious that the county commissioners were under Jim McDermott's control and chose to turn a blind eye to the bullying and abuse of power and exploitation of the "least among you". Interestingly, recent media reports has shocking news that for the first time in over a decade, the very popular state representative has a PRIMARY CHALLENGER. A very serious one, too.
Could this be what some commenters had referenced earlier about not being too concerned about media coverage of the scandal because "the right people are reading the blog and know the facts", plus that "there's a strategy to bring about needed reform" that go beyond the local corrupted agency and units of government. Either these are some major coincidences or these Paradise Center folks and their supporters are some clever and capable operators as reformers and activists.
It's a mix of horrors and sad comedy to observe how MHMR-TC and its con-spirators have behaved throughout this despicable scandal. Even sadder is the deficient moral and intellectual and professional abilities they've shown. Paradise and their director lady have so obviously outsmarted and out-classed these people time after time. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ms. Davis and Paradise Inc go on to do even greater things.
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