Right now, Raytheon and the National Science Foundation are denying Renee – Nicole Douceur, the Winter Site Manager at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, life-saving medical treatment after a stroke she suffered last month. To avoid transporting her to an actual hospital, against theor own doctors orders, they have declared her stroke, a severe medical condition, not an emergency even though the lack of treatment endangers her vision, her mental capacity and her very life itself. This denial means they are making her wait for treatment for another month, when the regular transport arrives. Money should not be considered more valuable than the life of an employee, and as a government agency the National Science Foundation is acting in an appalling manner. Please help us take action to correct this situation and make their decisions no longer “cost effective.”
Go here and make the calls and emails.
Before we get to far with what I know the inevitable comments will be: This woman’s physician, in the antarctic, has recommended she be evaced, and the request for spreading info about the petition comes to me from a former safety director at the research stations. So assumptions that ‘they can’t do an evac’ or ‘medically it is not recommended’ should be weighted against these facts, and if you are concerned about her, should not stop you from signing the petition. I promise you that your signature is not going to cause the launch of a c130 into a deadly storm.
Have Dr. House direct her to perform brain surgery on herself via a video link. That always works on TV.
Can she be evaced by another country? New Zealand has done this in the past.
I can’t get the link to work so here is the one without the a href tag: http://www.airforce.mil.nz/operations/airforce-news/archive/109/antarctic-medivac-mission.htm
US Government Funded Contracts overseas mandate Worker’s Compensation coverage under the Defense Base Act.
Raytheon would purchase this coverage and be reimbursed for the cost of the premiums as it is “cost reimbursable”.
The Defense Base Act Insurance Company, my guess would be Liberty Mutual, is responsible for medical care, medical evacuation/repatriation, and lost wages.
When my husband was blown up in Iraq doing humanitarian demining under a State Department funded contract the military medivaced him immediatley to Landstuhl due to the severity of his injuries.
The DBA Insurance Company CNA refused to arrange a medivac for him out of Landstuhl and to a civilian hospital in Florida despite the Doctors in Landstuhl stating that he must be returned immediately in order to save his leg.
The military finally medivaced him to Walter Reed where he did not belong and it was not the military’s responsibility to do so.
He nearly lost his leg and his recovery was severly limited due to this negligence.
There were no weather complications in this case.
This abandonment by his company and CNA Insurance Company was pure greed.
I have no doubt that the bottom line on the profit sheet is what this is all about.