WE HAVE INTERVIEWED 5 EXPERTS IN ADDICTION REHAB
A mental health counselor with 43 years of experience, a former addict now drug counselor with 23 years experience, an ER doctor in a rural area who manages addicts every day, a former director of a drug rehab on an Indian reservation and a current director at a large reputable treatment facility.
Every single expert said that Thunderbird needs to be near a fully equipped hospital or patients could die.
Here is one quote, “You are putting the most vulnerable of people – except children – in an unsafe environment.”
Many addicts are physically sick due to serious damage drugs have done to their bodies, i.e. liver disease, cirrhosis, cardio myelopathy, heart attacks, diabetes, hypertension, kidney disease, MRSA infections, fluid on the abdomen, ascites, abscesses…
In a video call with Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda explaining why Vashon is an inappropriate location for an drug rehab, the ER doctor gave an example of a very young woman with back pain, who was brought to the ER from a drug rehab. He discovered she had abscesses on her spine pulmonary embolisms due to drug damage and If she didn’t have immediate emergency surgery, she would have died.
FACT: Not one Betty Ford center is more than 8 minutes from a major hospital by design.
Through public disclosure we learned the former Thunderbird over the years had hundreds of emergency calls including transports.Every expert said a pregnant addict going into labor without hospital support could die. And every one said that housing women and children with general population addicts was dangerous.