GW Dropped Me Like Any Ordinary Patient

I was in psychiatric treatment with a psychiatry resident at the George Washington University Medical Center, Dimitrios Georgopoulos, MD, from July 1994 to June 1996.

--In February 1996 Dr. Georgopoulos diagnosed me with paranoid schizophrenia, a severe (psychotic) mental illness. See letter dated February 14, 1996 prepared by Dr. Georgopoulos that advises me of his diagnosis: Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type (295.30) (subtype unspecified).

--Dr. Georgopoulos knew that my former employer filed sworn statements with a government agency saying that I had been determined to be potentially violent.

--Dr. Georgopoulos knew that I had been under investigation by the U.S. Secret Service from December 1994 to February 1995. In fact, I filled out a "release of information" form with GW in early 1995 to permit the Secret Service to talk to Dr. Georgopoulos or review my chart.

So according to GW I was severely disturbed, and they were aware that there were substantial concerns about my potential for violence.

And yet, in late June 1996, when Dr. Georgopoulos ended his residency program, GW terminated its relationship with me as it would with any other patient. GW was changing it's operation; it would only accept psychiatry patients who were in its insurance program. So I was dropped from treatment summarily. Dr. Georgopoulos had promised repeatedly that he would help me find alternative psychiatric care, but he ended up doing nothing -- absolutely nothing to help me.

I ask you: Was GW's handling of the termination consistent with its stated position that I suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and that I required medical treatment with neuroleptics?

In May 1996 I telephoned the P Street Clinic run by Stephen Quint, MD. The clinic was run by the District of Columbia; it was a public clinic. I spoke with a social worker, Marjorie Heydt, about my desire to enter treatment at the P Street Clinic. Marjorie Heydt said she would discuss my case at the weekly staff meeting. She later telephoned me to advise that the clinic could not accept me as a patient because it was understaffed. (Why didn't she recommend that I contact another District mental health clinic, such as the one on Spring Road?)

I was a frantic asymptomatic paranoid schizophrenic who needed psychiatric care; my current psychiatrist at GW, Dr. Georgopoulos, was doing nothing to help me, and a public mental health clinic had turned me down for treatment.

Such was my desperation that I sent the following letter to Marjorie Heydt at the P Street Clinic on May 27, 1996. The letter is evidence that GW was doing absolutely nothing to help a potentially violent paranoid schizophrenic find alternative psychiatric care. Call me crazy, but I suspect that GW didn't really believe that I was a potentially violent paranoid schizophrenic. Didn't GW's treatment record constitute a fraud on the Social Security Administration, which continues to believe that I am a potentially violent paranoid schizophrenic?

Dear Ms. Heydt:

We spoke by telephone on Thursday May 16, 1996 at which time I inquired about the availability of psychotherapy at the P Street Clinic. You advised me that psychotherapy was not feasible because of the staffing limitations at the Clinic.

I remain interested in therapy at the Clinic, and I enclose a document relating to my current situation: Memorandum dated May 21, 1996 to Stuart M. Sotsky, M.D., Director of Psychiatric Out-Patient Care at the George Washington University Medical Center.

My situation remains desperate. According to senior managers at the law firm of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld (my former employer), my belief system is the product of a severe mental disturbance that renders me potentially violent. Senior supervisors stated a concern during my tenure at the firm that I might be disposed to commit murder. The D.C. Corporation Counsel has affirmed, in a document filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on May 17, 1996, that the fears of Akin Gump managers and senior supervisors were genuine.

Please, please I beg of you. Don't turn away from me. According to the D.C. Corporation Counsel, recommendations that I need counseling are based on a good-faith belief that I suffer from a serious mental disturbance that renders me potentially violent. How many lives light be lost, how many people will be destroyed 1/, if I do not get the psychological counseling that the Government of the District of Columbia has affirmed that I need?

Sincerely,

Gary Freedman

cc: U.S. Department of Justice

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1/ Consistent with the determination of senior Akin Gump managers and supervisors that I suffer from a severe mental disturbance that renders me potentially violent or homicidal.