Page 53 of Raymond's Forever

“After he healed, and you gave him a clean bill of health, did he ever come back to you asking for more pain pills, or saying he didn’t feel like he was healed? Did he try to get more drugs from you?”

Amelia laughed. “I’m sorry, this isn’t a laughing matter. The only issue I had with Mr. Hall was that he wanted to getout of his brace before I thought he was ready. I had a long conversation with him when I went to see him, and he explained that he believed that because he had served his country for over twenty years, where he faced bullets flying at him, war, commanding others, and paperwork, he was just used to calling the shots and wanted to command his injury to heal. I told him that it didn’t work like that, and if he wanted to get technical, he needed to have R&R in order for his body to heal itself. He wasn’t happy, but he did heal, and did not need my services any longer. I put him in my success column.”

“Thank you, now can you tell the court why you left the clinic in Colorado Springs?”

“I started my own private practice.”

“OBJECTION! That’s a lie! We fired your ass!”

“For what?” the judge asked with a question and a frown. It turned out that Reuben Perkins had been the one that yelled that.

“Counselor, control your client or I’ll find him in contempt of court.” He scowled at them, and turned back to Raymond. “Continue.”

“Dr. Johnson, please tell the court how you came about opening your own practice.”

“Actually, it started with Mr. Hall. I knew my contract with the clinic was coming up, and I didn’t really want to stay there. Ever since I got my first white coat, I had dreamed of branching out on my own. Part of my job is to get to know the patient. After talking to Mr. Hall about his injury, how it happened, what he was doing when it happened, and what he did for a living, I asked him how he knew Dr. Lassiter. I had worked with Dr. Lassiter for almost a year. I would refer patients that lived in his area for physical therapy, and he would refer patients to me. Like Mr. Hall.”

“So, professional curiosity?”

“Yes. I was intrigued by what Mr. Hall had to say about his job, and he actually handed me a business card with his boss’s name and number. It took a couple of weeks for me to reach out to that person, and I set up an interview with them on my day off. The day of that interview happened to be why I was in the area to be able to examine Mr. Hall, and told him that he could resume his duties, like driving, and working, though he had already been working, but very carefully. However, I told him that he had to continue to wear the brace Dr. Lassiter gave him for another three weeks. I then told him to call my office if he was still in pain after those three weeks.”

“Did you physically examine him that time?”

“Yes, we went over to Dr. Lassiter’s office and I saw that the initial bruise, that was black, was now a sickish yellow looking.”

“Sickish?”

“The color of yellow when a bruise is almost completely healed.” She rolled up her sleeve and pointed to the bruise on her forearm. “That color indicates that the body is successfully healing itself and doesn’t need any intervention from an outside source, meaning me.”

“Okay, now, how long has it been since you’ve started you own practice?”

“Two months.”

“Have you had any problems with any patients?”

“Yes,” she said on a sigh, and shook her head as she rubbed her forehead. “When I first opened my doors, I had about five patients. They were patients I had over the years while working at the clinic. My new office is an hour or more away from the clinic. The new patients live in the area I moved to. Several of my former patients reached out to me once they learned that I had struck out on my own, and about fifteen of them came to see me. It was good, until it wasn’t.”

“What happened?”

“All of a sudden, these previous patients started calling and cancelling their appointments. After the third one, I flat out asked them why.”

“What did they say?”

“That I had lied to them about their initial injuries, that I was incompetent, and that they didn’t want me as their doctor any longer. When I pressed them, because I had a right to know who was spreading lies about me, all fifteen patients told me that Dr. Reuben Perkins, and Dr. Alexander Ervin had called them to tell them that I had lied to them when I treated them and that they had to go in and have the surgery I denied them. These former patients also told me that Perkins and Ervin said because of my incompetence, they had fired me from the clinic.”

“To the best of your knowledge, what happened to these patients that called and said they would stop seeing you?”

“I don’t know what happened to all fifteen, but I do know that four have died on the operating table, and one had lost a limb during surgery.”

“How did you know this?”

“The family members of those patients came to me for answers. They asked why they stopped seeing me, and then told me what Dr. Perkins and Dr. Ervin told them on the day of the botched surgeries.”

“What did they say to you?”

“That their loved one died during the surgery because I was so incompetent that if I had done my job correctly to begin with, then they wouldn’t have died.” She wiped a small tear from the corner of her eye. “These family members of my former patients threatened to sue me for negligence, but so far, nothing has come from it.”

“Thank you, has there been any other instances of defamation from Dr. Perkins or Dr. Ervin that you can recall?”