Inmate Fern's Story

I arrived at a California state prison in February 2022 where I met a fellow inmate named Fern.

Fern and I had been going to take our insulin together for about two months when I learned about his situation and his story on how he was finally diagnosed as a diabetic which unfortunately cost him his eye site he no longer can see out of his right eye due to negligence by medical staff here at the prison.

Fern has known that he is a diabetic for only a short while though he started showing symptoms the end of 2020 beginning of 2021. He started having to urinate during the day more than usual and was very tired and lethargic. He is an overweight man, was thirsty all the time, was having to urinate constantly, feeling tired all the time and having no energy…all warning signs of diabetes. Any medical person should had recognized them and, if the medical staff had just given him a simple test for diabetes he would not now be blind in one eye and have gone through a prolonged period of feeling sick all the time.

Fern explained to the medical personnel several times his symptoms which continued to plaque him. His legs and feet would swell up from bad blood circulation due to high glucose which again could’ve been detected by doing a finger test that takes a minute. You basically poke your finger and press a little blood onto a strip which gives you readings of where your glucose is at this would’ve shown them that it was high, very high .. too high .. and he needed insulin. 

Fern’s health continued to deteriorate he was having blurred vision, feeling sick and tired all the time and was now up urinating 10 to 15 times a night. This went on for almost a year and still no testing done.

He turned in several medical slips informing the medical staff of his condition. He was seen by doctors where he explained in depth his symptoms which were all red flag diabetes yet still they did not test him for it. 

It wasn’t until he went blind in one eye that they gave him the very simple inexpensive test for diabetes and guess what … he had it and does have it!

Since Fern was diagnosed with Diabetes his family has talked to multiple doctors, all of which have said the medical staff at the prison should’ve known to check him sooner for diabetes – way sooner and if they had he would still have site in both eyes.

It’s very unfortunate that Fern had to go through so much and at such a high cost – TO LOSE AN EYE WHEN IT WAS SO AVOIDABLE IF HE HAD BEEN GIVEN PROPER MEDICAL CARE. 

Just because we are locked away from society and referred to as a CDC # doesn’t mean we are not human beings. We have families and people that love us. We are all still someone’s son, daughter, brother, sister, mother, father, husband, wife, friend and so much more… 

There is so much talent behind these walls and people with good hearts. Everyone makes mistakes; does this mean we shouldn’t be provided proper medical care?!

We deserve to maintain our health while we work on our rehabilitation to return to society and become proper citizens again. 

I hope you feel this story as I did when I heard it and help us on our 

mission to “Keep Us Healthy.” We thank you for your time and consideration in our goal to make a difference when it comes to the health of inmates everywhere.

If you or a loved one has a similar story of poor or incompetent health care behind the walls that you want to share with us and others, we would really appreciate it as it does make a difference. The more we hear from you, the more we can help get to our goal of changing the way medical staff takes care of all of us doing time as we really are people too.

Please reach out to us either via mail or email:

       Keep Us Healthy – 2063 Main St., #132 Oakley, CA 94561 

       Email: keepushealthyinc@gmail.com 

Thank you for the time and care you’ve shown today in reading this and visiting our website.

It’s people like you who are going to help us improve the medical care in prisons and jails.

Nick Jacobson and Keep Us Healthy Organization