FW: THE DEATH OF MENARD PRISONER WILLIAM L. BUHRMESTER B67426

[scudder5]

Doll4babyboy--I totally agree, I was thinking the same thing, why isn't this murder, are inmates not people too? Do they not feel, breathe, love and need the same way we do?  You read my mind on that one

[Terry Buhrmester]

Hello  - I'm Billy's Dad.  First of all, in my attempt to make sure our letter was as accurate as possible, I messed up my email address, it is  tek8@dtnspeed.net  I have some information that has come to me after the death of my son.  I hope it helps someone. 1st - Have 3 Hippa papers signed by your inmate, 1, for him to keep with him in his letters or someplace safe ( a bible or book ), 1, that SHOULD stay in his permanent medical records at their prison, then have 1 sent home to you for your records that can be faxed to anyone with questions. 2nd - Get power of attorney over their medical records, I think it has a much power as the Hippa paper, maybe more.  3rd - A pharmaceutical technician that worked at the Danville prison relayed to me after reading our letter, that BY LAW when an inmate is diagnosed or needs medication, the technician has 24 hours to get the medication that is needed, if they do not have the medication they must do whatever they have to to insure that it is in the prison for the inmates.  She told me has sent taxi's to Champaign, St. Louis, or wherever she had to but it must be there within 24 hours.  If an inmate is transferred to another prison, their medical records and enough of their prescribed medicine to last 7 days has to be sent ahead 24 hours before they are to arrive.  If they do not have it at the receiving prison they have 24 hours to get it there. It Is The Law.  If ANYONE inside the prison would dial 911, let the other end answer and then hang up. It is a hang up 911 emergency call and ambulances and medical personnel must be allowed inside the prison to treat the person in need. I really hope this helps somenoe.  Terry

[Terry Buhrmester]

Billy's Dad again -- Kellie and I both are completely overwhelmed by the outpouring of concern that has come forth.  Friday night after the original letter was posted, I was at my computer writing letters to everyone I could think of trying to shake the trees of justice.  Kellie was in the living room trying to find anything about her brother on the internet when she typed in his prison number, and your amazing web site came up with the  story about our Billy.  She walked to where I was standing and was visibly shaking, holding her lap top, and telling me " dad, you've got to see this".  We were amazed at the number of posts in less than 4 hours.  Inside I was shouting YES!!! someone has finally done what we have been trying to do, get the word out about the injustices that were done to Billy.  Kellie is an amazing sister and daughter, she had to grow up quicker than most girls her age. Her mother in 1999 was diagnosed with a brain tumor and from 1999 - May of 2007, her mama had 2 brains tumors removed, 2 brain stem strokes, and finally succumbed to lung cancer. We buried her paternal grandmother in November of 2008, and now her brother.  She is a strong girl, with convictions and a deep love for her family.  We are not looking for sympathy, I just want you to know that you are dealing with 2 people that are devoted to each other and are committed to seeing justice for her brother and other inmates in the same position as Billy.   We have contacted several agencies by email, starting with Bill O'Reilly, Oprah, Senators Tim Johnson & Dan Ruthelford, The Dept. of Licensing and Regulations, & the University of Illinois Media Department. Tuesday I will be filing a complaint with the Department of Health. You have all been so wonderful with suggestions, and some of them have already been taken care of.  We will be posting on a regular basis, and I think you will be getting more member from the Hoopeston area.  (** ) I want to make a correction to an earlier statement, Billy had not been in SEG for a year at Menard. He was placed in SEG when he reached Menard on Feb 11th.'09 He had been in front of the prison review board and they were giving him a year in SEG, loss of all good time, no phone calls home for one year, two visits for one hour each per month. (**) Kinda sounds like they were trying to cut off almost all contact with his family so they could do what they wanted behind the walls of injustice.  By the way Billy at one time did have Hippa papers in his medical files in Robinson, and at Carle Clinic in Champaign Illinois.  They mysteriously disappeared between Robinson & Menard, and as far as I know up til' March 19th they still had not let him sign the Hippa paper.   Thanks again to all -- Billy's Dad

[ernie694]

Terry and Kellie,  i would like to extended my deepest sympathies for your loss.  My heart hurts for what you have gone thru.  

I pray that your story will get out to the media and a lot of attention is brought down on IDOC and Wexford.  While I am fairly new to this board i do believe that come tuesday by the end of the day Gov Quinn will know none of us are going to sit by and let this go unheard of.

Again my thoughts and prayers are with you and the rest of your family.  

[jlnjy]

I'm not sure if this will have the same effect or not but would anyone agree that we can make the same media contact the family has - so that those contacts will be flooded with requests for this story to get out? Much like we will be doing with our letter writing and phone calls.

Just a thought.

Kellie and Terry - My heartfelt sympathy does go out to you as well as my sincere prayer that though your tragedies have been many - may the triumphs be more. IPT is behind you as well as with you in the support that you need.

-JL- You can call me Dee

[Still love my son]

             

Kellie & Terry    Blessings to both of you...May your pain be lessened by the work before you.
I am honored to speak with both of you, and devastated to hear the news of your son and brother.  There are no words to describe, the injustice, that you have been dealt as many have already posted on this site.  There is not much more I can add.
You have come upon a group of people, that will stand behind you and support you in any way that we can.

May you be blessed today, and each day following, and if we can take one small ounce of your pain and grieve with you we will.
You and your family our in my thoughts and prayers......one day at a time.

SLMS 

[JoLee]

Hello...I'm Bill's Wife Tonia.....This is the first I have been able to come and visit the site I have heard so much about from Bill's dad, Terry and his sister Kellie. I don't have regular access to the internet but am able to visit my sister that does. I'm truly overwhelmed with the response and support from you all. It touches my heart that there are truly people out there that care and are as concerned with the conditions with medical treatment of inmates at the IDOC, and the tragic death of my husband and best friend...the father of my children. This has truly brought me closer with his father and sister because there is nothing I want more than to fight this problem together. Bill was no quitter and WE won't quit either. Justice needs to be served, his sentence of a couple of years ended in as a death sentence and WE want justice. He was the proud father of a stepson who he had raised since the age of 1, and a daughter who is giving birth to our first granddaughter.....He was so excited, he loved his kids so much as we did him. Kelsey and her dad had picked the name Aryanna JoAnn for the baby and since our loss her name is now Aryanna JoLee after her dad and me. He had taught our son to be the man he is today as well. He was the best father you could have. We will never get our Bill, Dad or son & brother back; but we do hope to stop the inhumane things that are happening in IDOC....The pain and the anger, the outraged feeling is the fuel that is influencing me to fight even harder to make sure these MURDERS need to be on the other side looking out and see what others feel. For one time I want nothing more than to see that whoever and how many ever people it takes to stop these people.........There is nothing more devastating than to know how my husband my best friend lay begging for medication that would have kept him alive. WHY!!!!!!!!!!! Bill and I were together for 23 yrs. and he didn't deserve this and no other family deserves to go through something as similar if not the same if something isn't done. So you best believe I will be on the phone as well on Tues. morning. Again...THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND HELP!!!!!

[Dazzler]

   Thank you for posting Tonia.  It doesn't take much to motivate our members to come together to protest mistreatment in the IDOC.  It happens all too frequently.  However, this time we have names and family members to inspire us into action.  Thank you for telling us more about your husband.  I'm hoping we can generate enough disgust and outrage in the Governor's office as well.  No decent human being should sit by and watch the horrendous medical treatment within the IDOC.  It's time for the governor's office to conduct an investigation, not only into your husband's death, but the many others that are denied treatment for grave illnesses.  Unfortunately that list of deaths is getting too long to tolerate anymore....and God knows how many more that were covered up....welcome to our IPT family.

[Forevermah]

I too want to again welcome you all to IPT and am sorry it is under these circumstances, but want you all to know that you are all in our prayers and thoughts.  Everytime I read one of your posts  it pulls at my heart and I think "WHAT IF" this had been my son.  Like so many have said, our sincere sympathy is this tragic death are sent your way and we won't be quiet in this situation, many are committed to voicing their outrage and more!!

Mah

[JoLee]

Thank you again for all that you are doing. Last night my sister and I were on the computer for awhile and we had contacted CNN,Tyra Banks and the Oprah show. We are really hoping to get responces back. I am going to work closely with Terry and Kellie and anyone else that gets involved to get the mistreatment of IDOC inmates investigated. We sure hope that nothing like this ever happens again.

[Esmom]

I will call Tuesday and do what I can. I will keep this up until we get something done. I know the family's fear that we will forget about this after a day or two, but we can't do that, we must keep helping the family until they ask us to quit.

[JoLee]

:) hello my name is Kelsey Buhrmester Bill Buhrmester Daughter........Im under my moms name writing on what i want to say about all the sh*t that is going on..........Ok me and my dad were really close and still are going to be close while he is in heaven......Now what the Prison has done to him was a bunch of crapp....Now i got to set back and relize and see what they put my dad through and now he is dead......I dont care what my family or what any of you guys can do we are going to fight this till the end.....There is no way another family should have to go through this EVER.........Im asking all of you to just help us through this and see what we can do....Even if they ask us to quit buggin them or whatever it aint going to happen till something gets done....Promise that....I got to live the rest of my life knowing that my dad is now gone at the age of 36 because the prison wants to be worried about other things then peoples illness.......yeah my dad got into trouble and was doing his time but no matter what when he needed his med the shouldnt have kept if from him....So Robinson Prison just got rid of him and send him to Menard so they didnt have to take care of his medical problems.......I think it is a bunch of crapp......My dad was a hell of a good man and if he liked you he would do anything in the world for you....Even while he was in Prison.....Thats what i dont understand really i dont.....My dad did NOT deserve to be treated like this no matter what.....He was so excited to see his little grand baby that is going to be born in may 27th and now he will never be there because of the bullshit......My baby is now named after my dad Aryana Jolee Buhrmester.....I just really hope something can get done so my dad knows while he is in heaven that WE HAVE NEVER GAVE UP ON HIM NO MATTER WHAT..........So if u guys could just please please stick by our family and friends on this i would really appraiate this...Thank u so much Kelsey Marie Buhrmester............I Love You Dad.....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:)

[ielene]

 Everytime I read here my heart breaks. To the Buhrmester family, once again I am so sorry for your loss, you will all continue to be in my prayers. I will also be making a call Tuesday and will also send letters. You all seem close and it will help you cope with your loss, IPT will also be here to help. If there is anything I can do to help you with this time just let me know.

[Dazzler]

Welcome Kelsey...I can see how angry you are at losing your father.  It's really hard sometimes for us older folks to explain to our kids why things like this happen in a justice system that is supposed to be the finest in the world.  Americans pride themselves in being better and smarter and kinder than everyone else.  But not in our judicial system...there is no humanity overall.  There are isolated cases of extraordinary human kindness within the prison system but for the most part inmates are forgotten citizens.  They have no rights and no options for their medical care.  They are at the mercy of their captors...the IDOC.. and they have failed your father miserably. 

I suspect that within a few days the IDOC big shots will be here reading this thread...they always show up when their heads are on the chopping block...probably ascertaining how much information is already known to the public....and then hopefully a few legislators will visit here and read your words....and if we're lucky the governor's office might get wind of this (Tuesday perhaps?) and see the grief that this has caused your family. 

At some point our legislators must face the fact that their budget scrimping for medical treatment of our prison population is killing people...the State has no right incarcerating people that it can't take responsibility for.  Illinois has a commitment that must be followed or there should be consequences.  Those should start with the staff and Warden of Menard.  Menard has a very cowardly staff for the most part.  They hate their jobs, they hate the inmates, they hate the state, they even hate their own Union.  They have no sympathy for anyone and it shows.  We've also heard for a long time about the quack doctor at Menard...he's got quite the reputation for being sadistic and downright stupid.  This is where the investigation needs to start....with this doctor and his staff....and continue right into the warden's office....

There are no words that we can express that will lessen your grief over losing your Dad.  It's not fair you should be dealing with this when it should be a happy time in your life...we promise to fight the fight with you....if you have ideas how we can accomplish this we're all ears...in the meantime we will do our phone calls Tuesday and we can make a real stink...trust me....we've done this before...LOL.  One campaign had a legislator's aide call my home and beg us to stop....we'd shut down their whole office...they promised to listen to us and hear our request. 

There are hundreds of supporters that have responded and I hope we can make a difference....we must be very determined....

[sosad00]

Dazzler can you post some of the phone numbers for us Newbiees to call on Tuesday it would really help!    :wc35:LOL

[HisGirl]

To the Buhrmester family:

I would like to once again express my most sincere sympathy for the great loss your family has suffered. I commend you for your strength, perserverance, and unwillingness to give up this fight.

This is a fight we must take up with you. It has been a fear of mine that if my husband were ever to get ill, he would not get the treatment he needed.

I will not let this go until changes are made and justice is served in Bill's name.

Can anyone give me more information about the Hippa form and where to get it?

Here are the numbers to the governor's office: Springfield 217-782-0244, and Chicago 312-814-2121. We should all store these in our phone, and make these calls part of our daily routine. That is what I plan to do.

If more calls are needed to the media to get some movement there, let us know.

[KSwife]

  HisGirl for posting the numbers again, I will start making calls come Tuesday morning. I searched the internet to see if I could locate a HIPPA form and it looks like everything I found is for specific places. IDOC may have a specific form they require, maybe even a different form for each prison. I wrote my Husband and asked him to look into getting a form if he can. If he is able and can send one to me then I will scan it and try to get it on here. I may need a little help from Mah as I am not the best at scanning documents. I can also try and make some calls tomorrow to see about getting a form faxed to me from IDOC, that is if they are willing to be helpful.

To the Buhrmester family, please let me know if there is anything I can do to help from California. We can't allow this treatment to continue in our prison systems. Society seems to ignore that these men and women behind bars do have families who LOVE them.

God Bless!

[Dazzler]

How's this?  You might want to print this post, click on 'print' at the bottom and tape it up somewhere tomorrow.

Governor Pat Quinn's office: 

Springfield: 217-782-0244

Chicago: 312-814-2121

[HisGirl]

Good idea Dazz. I am going to call everyday. And if anyone gets any more information on what we can do to safe guard our Inmates with forms etc., let us know. I am going to be talking to mines counselor to see what his particular institution will require because I know they are different everywhere.

[Dazzler]

I've posted the link to a pdf file with a good generic HIPAA form that can be downloaded and printed.  The form must be signed by your inmate and filed with his facility for future use.  I suggest that everyone do this BEFORE it's an emergency and the IDOC mishandles, loses or ignores it.

The HIPAA form can be downloaded here:

http://www.illinoisprisontalk.com/index.php/topic,15698.msg119780/topicseen.html#msg119780

I might add that I'm not certain if IDOC requirew a specific HIPAA form from their agency but this blank form would have Illinois Department of Corrections typed into the first blank...