Vet Shares Heartbreaking Story of Malpractice, Internet Demands Justice
There's no getting around it: This video is tough to watch. But having actually lived the things described therein — that may be the literal definition of torture.
An Air Force veteran by the name of Robin Temple sits with her scars fully exposed, each one a permanent reminder of her living hell.
She recounts in excruciating detail how each one came to be, sparing no detail of the years-long nightmare that's fast approaching a tragic climax.
She deserves to have it all heard in full, but this is what it boils down to:
After going to a VA OBGYN to undergo an oopherectomy (ovary removal surgery), Temple emerged with a colon that was not properly sewed up.
She complained to her doctor that something didn't feel right, but was told she was suffering from PTSD and to ignore it.
Ultimately, she experienced sepsis and fell into a near-death coma.
After pulling through, she underwent resecting at another VA hospital an hour and a half away by car.
Once again, sensing that all was not right, she informed her surgeon on multiple hospital visits, but was again told to blame it on her PTSD.
Finally, during an emergency room visit, she was told by an intern that she appeared to be suffering from two hernias.
An MRI scan to confirm revealed something much scarier: The ovary she supposedly had removed was still in place, and the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes.
A follow up surgery was performed to correct the initial mistake as well as address the metastasizing cancer.
A year later Temple once again went under the knife to treat a hernia, but this time a sheath installed by the surgeon sliced her bladder, which resulting in another bout of sepsis.
The sheath was replaced with a different sheath that caused a whole new host of medical complications.
Eventually, both sheaths were recalled by their manufacturers, but it was too later for Temple.
It was at that point that all the infections and drugs colluded to cause renal failure, which resulted in severe loss of kidney function.
Adding insult to injury, Temple then discovered a new lump in her breast which led to a preemptive double mastectomy and lympectomy.
After everything she endured, Temple's abdominal muscles expired, and she is currently relying on cadaver skin to hold her intestines together.
The skin, which has a five-year shelf life, is about to expire as well, and she is quickly running out of cash after having to sell her house and move into a camper.
This is the part of the video where she talks about having been raped by her boss and being demoted for bringing it to the attention of higher-ups.
According to Temple, when confronted, her boss claimed she was lying and psychotic — a claim that allegedly landed her in a straight jacket.
During a 115-day psych hold, Temple says she had her belongings stolen, and was administered overdoses of lithium and haldol, which resulted in grand mal seizures on a daily basis.
She goes on to say that she was released after being forced to sign a piece of paper in which she admitted to being mentally defective at the time of her enlistment and having made the rape up.
Finally, she was honorably discharged from service.
Temple does appear to misspeak or exaggerate several times during the video — the accusations against Dr. Robert Grover, her comments about "illegal" overdoses, the claim that a penicillin allergy led to her teeth being stained, the figure of 80% for the number of service women who were raped — but the Internet has taken the whole over the sum of its parts, and launched a campaign calling for justice.
"Calling all lawyers," reads the top comment on Reddit, where the video has received nearly 9,000 upvotes. "Someone help this lady sue the shit out of those doctors who destroyed her body. That is all."
At least two IndieGogo pages have been set up for Temple, though neither seems to have drawn much support at the time of writing.
"This poor woman," reads another Reddit comment. "She's sitting in her bed right now, as we are watching this. We're going to go about our days, and she's still going to be there. Waiting. I hope this gets a lot of attention. Seems like she's been ignored a long time."