Dennis Bernstein: We have got a very difficult situation still facing, perhaps one of the most famous political prisoners in the world, Mumia Abu-Jamal. We know how many different ways, let us count the ways, that the U.S. government has tried to kill this extraordinary journalist, a writer, a resistor, a political leader, really, a former NPR reporter, and it goes on and on. Joining us to talk about the current medical situation is Dr. Corey Weinstein. Weinstein, he is a California-based doctor spent many, several decades following and caring and fighting for proper medical care inside prisons. He’s very familiar with the case of Abu-Jamal and Dr. Weinstein, thanks for joining us. People are very concerned now, aren’t they, in terms of the medical care. He’s barely finally, after a lot of battling, getting the sort of the basics that he would need in terms of someone in his condition, but he is still in grave jeopardy. Yes?
Dr. Cory Weinstein: Yes, he is, Dennis, I’m glad that I’m able to talk to you about it today. People may remember that almost exactly a year ago, Mumia was in a desperate medical circumstance in the critical care unit in a local hospital to his prison in Pennsylvania, as a result of the sudden onset of diabetes that was actually brought on by the treatment he had received for an undiagnosed skin condition that had been bothering him and suddenly progressively worse over the year prior. Well, he survived that due to really, not due to anything that was happening in the prison, because they delayed his care, but due to the heroic efforts of the doctors in the local hospital, and with that kind of wake up call and the incredible support that he got from the outside, his care had been, after protests and his demanding, much better. And he was in the infirmary for a long time to care for this very difficult skin situation. It’s an itchy rash, skin that at one point covered 70% of his body, and that the doctors who– I read all the medical records as one of his medical consultants– and the doctors who were treating him wrote notes of shock and awe over the sheets of skin peeling off his back and things like that during the worst of the crisis, so unique and terrible circumstance.
So, he did come out of that, and he’s getting regular light therapy treatment that seemed to help a little bit. And he had a lot of local treatment, a lot of creams and ointments and dressings on his skin for a long time in the infirmary. Since then, he is now back on main line. Well, back on main line he’s not around doctors. He’s not around nurses. And those treatments, the local treatments, have pretty much stopped, although he continues to get his light therapy treatments. But one thing that has occurred is that the doctors have kind of forgotten about him, and he’s not getting his blood sugar checks to make sure he’s not slipping back into diabetes. And over the past month, this is what has occurred. He’s become tired, kind of lethargic, easily fatigued, and is gaining weight and those are things that happen when diabetes might be possible. And so he has demanded now that he get his blood sugar checks, but we don’t know if that’s going to happen. And in the back of this all, if you don’t mind me going on.
Dennis Bernstein: Please.
Dr. Cory Weinstein: In the back of this all is this lawsuit that is trying to get him appropriate treatment for his hepatitis C. He probably acquired hepatitis C during the early stage of his hospitalization after the incident in which he was shot, in which the police officer was killed, and as a result of transfusions. and And they never tested him for it, despite his medical history, until a few years ago, and he tested positive for hep C even. And then no workup and no follow-up was done. Well, turns out that he has markers for degenerative disease of the liver due to hep C, including cirrhosis, and there’s a good chance, based on his blood test, his platelet count, and a few other things, his blood counts; that and some CAT scans and sonograms of his liver, that he does have cirrhosis. And by ordinary standards, and by the national recommendations for these new liver drugs that are on, that he be treated and people like him should be treated to prevent liver cirrhosis and, in tragedy, from hepatitis C. His doctors there keep on insisting that his skin condition is not caused by hep C, despite the fact that there’s this really under current driver of this skin condition that persists, and that we know that up to 40% of people with hep C have skin disease.
They say it’s psoriasis, but their own diagnosis is that it’s something like psoriasis and eczema. So, even without a real positive diagnosis, they’re going ahead and pretending it’s psoriasis, so they can pretend that they’re giving him definitive treatment, which, of course, they’re not. The definitive treatment for his skin condition is treatment of his hepatitis C. So, that’s what the lawsuit is about, and so he’s in this limbo with the lawsuit going on, and now seems to be slipping back into — I’m worried that he’s slipping back into this kind of state that he was as he became sick over the winter and spring of last year. So, there are things that people can do to kind of mobilize to demand further treatment and demand that he be looked into now.
Dennis Bernstein: And what would that be? What’s the best way if people are interested in getting more information or in holding the officials accountable? I guess there’s a number of officials and phone numbers and stuff. Where’s the– Where do people get that information?
Dr. Cory Weinstein: They can go up on the Prison Radio website. And on the front page, there will be a button to get to it. If you can’t find that. I’m a little challenged computer elite myself. So, a secondary thing would just be to email prisonradio@gmail.com. Prison radio, lowercase one word @gmail.com, and the people in that office will send you back the email blast that lists what you can do.
Dennis Bernstein: All right. Dr Corey Weinstein spent many years dealing inside prisons trying to get prisoners proper care, and it’s still a tragedy what happens inside prisons. The battle goes on, and we will continue to cover it. Thanks so much, Doctor.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
