Over the past several years, many of us with and without ME have looked on in horror as Karina Hansen was forcibly removed from her home and institutionalized. This was in part due to Denmark’s decision to rename myalgic encephalomyelitis “bodily distress syndrome” and classify it as a psychological illness.
The Hansens’ fight to regain their daughter was long and challenging, emotionally and financially. Significant legal costs have accrued over the past several years, and more will likely continue to do so in the future, in part due to prospective legal action.
The fund created in order to help pay the Hansens’ legal fees currently stands at 4000 euros. This is equivalent to roughly $4300 US dollars, 3400 British pounds or 30000 Danish kroner, and does not over the legal fees that have piled up over the past several years.
“The fund is a vital resource – and Karina’s family are extremely grateful to those who have already donated – but it is a tiny fraction of what is required,” says Valerie Elliot Smith, who has documented Karina’s legal journey in her blogs and kept the ME community apprised of her condition.
You can donate in order to support Karina and her family through this challenging time by clicking on the link below. All donations will go solely towards paying the Hansens’ legal fees. If you scroll down on the donation page, you will see that there are links for specific countries and languages to make it even easier to donate.
Please consider donating, even if it is just a dollar or two, if that is possible for you. Karina deserves all the support we can give her.
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4 thoughts on “Donate to Karina's Legal Fund”
Thank you to MEAction and Valerie Elliott Smith for keeping us updated on this horrendous situation. Words of support seem inadequate in the face of such a tragic situation, but I do hope Karina and her family can begin to have a better situation with Karina now safe at home with her family.
I totally agree with Valerie Elliott Smith’s logic to “follow the money” and see where it takes us, In other words, who financially benefits in this tangled situation?
Where money is concerned, governments are often short sighted and illogical. Denying biomedical research funds for ME, stalls discovery of effective treatments that could get persons with ME back in the mainstream of life. This inaction and disdain, in turn downloads welfare and social security costs onto other departments and levels of government. Which, in the long run, causes further tax payer burden, as the Institute of Medicine has shown.
The “ME problem” does not simply go away because governments refuse to fund biological research for it. These many millions of persons with ME, legitimately debilitated by this life shattering disease have to survive somehow, and turn to social safety nets. Neither the tax payer, nor persons with ME benefit from this scenario. Some of those who do benefit include members of the mental health profession, who can, as Valerie says bolster their reputations and their finances.
Despite governments’ denial of biological research funding, and the influence of the mental health profession, we have had sufficient proof of the organic nature of ME, some of it for decades. The proof is in testing. Dr. Lily Chu, MD, and ME expert, says in the link below,” 50% of respondents had never had the test before partly due to cost, insurance coverage, or physician ignorance and resistance to ordering a test.” The tests discussed include: natural killer cell activity, repeated cardiopulmonary exercise testing, brain imagining, neuropsychological testing, and tilt table.
http://iacfsme.org/portals/0/pdf/FDA-AugustFinalReportforUS-Version2.pdf
In addition, page 18 of the Overview for the Canadian Consensus Criteria notes many tests that may show physical abnormalities. A very simple in office test that may reveal chronic orthostatic intolerance is noted: ” Use tilt-table test or monitor the pulse and blood pressure while standing. Note this monitoring must be done with caution and someone standing beside the patient.”
http://mefmaction.com/images/stories/Overviews/ME-Overview.pdf
Patients of all sorts and descriptions deserve time and care be taken for in-depth physical investigations, if a physical cause is not easily noted with basic testing. For many, with suspected ME (CFS) this time and care does not seem to be taken. If many or indeed even some of these available tests were done for Karina Hansen, before her incarceration perhaps the whole ordeal could have been avoided. If these tests, and others were done for the millions with ME, governments and the medical profession could perhaps see there are indeed organic abnormalities readily evident, if they would only look.
Well-put, Cindy!
Hi Jaime, thanks!
A couple more points:
1) persons with ME are tax payers too – making this situation a double whammy for us.
2) ME is an area fraught with misplaced, and tenacious self-interest on the part of some influential individuals who do not have ME.
3) persons with ME have lost their careers, money and reputations; others build their careers, money and reputations on the misfortunes of those with ME
This is what in part terrifies me about single payer government monopolies on hc.
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