Elderly Man with EHS Abused by Hospital and Nursing Home

by Lisa Bryngelson (translated from Swedish)

This is a disturbing story about how an elderly man with electrical hypersensitivity was mistreated by the medical and social system.

Keywords:

Aging, senior citizen, elderly, social services, hospital, assisted living, nursing home, electrical hypersensitivity, electrical sensitivity, accommodation, abuse

Elderly people with electrical hypersensitivity (EHS) who are institutionalized are made to suffer. The personnel is supposed to listen to people with disabilities and try to accommodate their needs and wishes, but who listens to someone with electrical hypersensitivity? Nobody listened to Kalle.

Kalle fell on the floor of his home. As far as I know, this was the first time it had happened in his old age. He was so unfortunate in that he landed between the sofa and the wall and couldn’t get up on his own.

He had to lie there for hours until he was found by his son. The son didn’t believe in EHS and would not listen to Kalle; instead he called for an ambulance and Kalle was taken to the emergency room. From there he was admitted to the hospital. Kalle wanted to get home again, but then he heard the words “forced hospitalization”.

Kalle was able to move around the hallways using a walker for the first few days, but then he became unable to walk. The high radiation (EMF) level in the hospital paralyzed his legs. He now had to sit in a wheelchair.

The medical tests could not explain why Kalle had fallen in his home. After a week in the hospital, he was told he would be allowed to return to his home and receive assistance from the social services. He met with a social worker, whom he told he had EHS and that he needed the social services to accommodate that. He thought the social worker made a note about the issue.

Kalle was able to walk again when he returned home. He walked on his own legs from the car and up the steps to the porch and into his home. He was overjoyed when he called me on the phone and told me that now he could walk again. Now he wanted to exercise his legs.

A nurse showed up while we were talking, so we ended our conversation. What did the nurse do? Did she listen to Kalle? She brought along a wireless monitor, which she fastened around his wrist. Kalle protested, explaining he had EHS and did not tolerate such a wireless device. He had to have it, the nurse replied. Kalle sat in a chair in the kitchen, and there he continued to sit, as he was not able to walk with the monitor on his wrist. “She was not nice,” Kalle later said about the nurse.

The next day a man showed up and started to drill a hole in Kalle’s front door. Kalle was still stuck in his kitchen chair and could not walk, so he shouted “What the hell are you doing” to the man.

The man replied that he was installing a wireless door lock, so the nurse could open the door with her cell phone. Kalle replied that he didn’t want this new lock, as he did not tolerate wireless things. He had to have it, the man replied, and he installed the lock.

Kalle was stuck in his chair. He received visits by the social services morning, noon and evening. He was left alone to eat the meals they brought, even though it was difficult for him to eat and swallow his food. He used the wireless monitor on his wrist to get help, but that taxed the social services so much they moved him to a nursing home.

The EMF radiation levels were higher in the nursing home. The dining hall was the worst, with all the cell phones, electric wheelchairs and hearing aids. Kalle had even more trouble swallowing his food, so it was almost impossible for him to eat. He could eat yoghurt. He asked to eat in his room, but that was denied.

Kalle was plagued by dizziness, headaches, various pains and simply feeling poorly, due to the electrical environment in the nursing home. He had problems sleeping, eating and drinking. Nobody cared. Kalle wanted to get home, that was better than the nursing home. Kalle was not allowed to move back home.

“That I should end up in such a bad situation!” he said. He just wanted to die.

Finally, he was allowed to move back home. Of course, he had to live with the wireless monitor and door lock, and not enough assistance, but he came home. His health was now much worse after living in the nursing home. He died not long after returning home.

Kalle’s obituary says that gifts to cancer research are welcome. But wait, it was EHS that was the problem! Even in death, his illness is ignored.

There are many like Kalle — suffering, ignored and finally destroyed by an environment they cannot live in. You and I are next. How long do we have to be silenced and ignored? We must raise our voices to stop these abuses.

This story is written by Lisa Bryngelson, who was Kalle’s friend and next door neighbor. The story was first published in the 2013/3 issue of Ljusglimten, which is a magazine from the Swedish EHS organization. This English translation is made with Lisa Bryngelson’s permission.

Responses to the story

In the following issue of Ljusglimten (2013/4), the editor reports receiving many responses to the story about Kalle. Two of the responses were printed, including one from Jan Hanes, who visited Kalle a few days before he died. He mentions how weak Kalle was, and generally supports Lisa Bryngelson’s account of Kalle’s story. He comments that he knows four women with EHS who live in elder-housing and who are treated as poorly as Kalle was. He also knows a woman who had to flee to her uninsulated vacation cabin during winter, and who later died shortly after a 3G cell tower was erected nearby.

Translator’s comments

This story takes place in Sweden, but the problem is global, and likely to become worse as the first generation of people with EHS is aging and more wireless gadgets are introduced.

I inquired about the story and learned that none of Kalle’s friends know the direct cause of death, but it is unlikely to be cancer that killed him.

The wireless monitor they put on Kalle’s wrist allowed him to press a button to call for help. The device transmits continuously, so the social services know it is working properly. It might also inform them of his location.

One naturally wonders why Kalle didn’t refuse the monitor and didn’t stand up to the authorities more than he did. In some of the European countries, the culture is that people do what they are told by authority figures. This is a concept that is rather alien to the American culture, though even in America the medical system can exert a lot of control over its patients. If Kalle had lived in the United States, the story would probably not have ended any better.

The article Prescription for Abuse by Jan Goodwin in the July-August 2014 issue of AARP Bulletin describes how nursing homes in the United States routinely drug patients into submission, simply because it is convenient for the staff — a staff which is generally overburdened and undertrained in order to maximize profits. The article quotes Charlene Harrington, professor at UCSF, that this is done to as many as 20% of the nursing home residents in the United States. Being drugged into oblivion probably does not reduce the health effects of EMF.

Also, in America, a person refusing to comply with monitoring devices and other insults may simply be given the choice between going along or be left with no help at all. People there do not have the same rights to social services as is the case in Sweden.

2014