Latest / Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison / If it’s not treated, it’s going to kill you

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If it’s not treated, it’s going to kill you · Red Onion Randy - Life in a Supermax Prison

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Hello, this is a pre bid call from and make it the Virginia Department
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of Corrections Red Onion State Prison to accept this call, Chriss zero. My
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name is Randall Vahm. I'm currently serving one thy two hundred and fourteen years
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for capital murder and Wallace Ridge State Prison in being stove at Virginia. This
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is my podcast, Red Onion Random. Today I'm gonna talk about my health
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situation. We can give a little bit of an update on that. As
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people who have listened to my podcast from the beginning it knows, you know,
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I have a tumor in my right tibia and it first popped up in
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twenty seventeen and when I was at Red Onion, and it took me two
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years of going back and forth and dealing with medical and writing it up and
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getting people to write in and complain and call Richmond and red Onion and so
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on and so forth. In January of twenty nineteen, I was finally sent
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down to VCU, and you know, they transferred me to Sussex one and
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I was placed in solitary confinement and I lost my TV, I lost all
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my commissary, I lost all my privileges, I was stripped back to just
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basic SAG, even though I'd been charged free for fourteen years at that time.
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I believe if my memory is correct, So I go to the hospital.
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I go to VCU, which is the initials for Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital.
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I go there and I'm talking to the doctor and he just basically runs
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his finger down my leg. He kind of, you know, probes at
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the tumor and everything, and you know, he asked me a couple of
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questions and I answer him. Then he x raysed me again for what feels
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like the hundredth time. I'm getting tired of having my leg X ray.
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Y'all have no idea how tired I am having my damn leg X ray.
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That seems like that's all anybody wants to do is X ray at X ray,
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at X ray, put radiation into the tumor. Just keep putting more
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and more and more radiations into the tumor, and that's all they want to
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do. They don't want to cut it open, they don't want a biopsy.
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Hence the doctor at that time he did not biopsy. After he did
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the X rays, he says, Oh, I'm going to schedule you for
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a CT scam. I'm like, doc, man, look dude, like
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I need the biopsy. I'm sending here for the biopsy. And I pointed
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to the computer that's sitting right beside. Just got a list of every inmate
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in the Virginia Department of Correction. She was going to be visiting VCU that
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day, and it had my name right there at the top and it said
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bio, like, that's what I was sent there for. But he didn't.
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He told the officers, man's going and take him back to prison.
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I almost schedule a CT scan for two weeks. I never got the set
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scan. I set in the hole for four months before that doctor called the
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prison and told him, oh, well, I was able to determine from
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the X rays that it's nothing but a hemangioma. The hemangioma is nothing more
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than the blood vessels. They just tied themselves in a knot like a little
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kid. He playing with strength, and his blood backs up and it can't
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get past it and it just kind of swells it up, and that's what
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creates the tumor. You know, it's painful, blah blah blah. So
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I'm having the doctor at Sussex one explain this to me at like four thirty
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in afternoon. These people leave at three o'clock on the dot every single day.
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They do not stay over toime. Yet this dude is here at four
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thirty in the afternoon. So I talked to him. He explains it to
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me and everything, and you know, I keep trying to ask, like,
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man, you cannot tell what a tumor is from looking at a picture
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of an extray, Like I'm summ dumb. I'm not plumb dumb. Oh
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no, we can tell technology, now, man, technology, my ass
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br He can't do this. So he got mad at me, and he
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gave the signal to the lieutenant who was there, and to get me out
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the officer. The lieutenant takes me back to my cell and I can either
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comply or just come out to handcuffs and throw everything I've worked so hard for
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a way. And so I got going back to the sell. Maybe thirty
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minutes later, they're getting ready to count and they shut down all movement at
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count time. Property comes over and packs me up and within a couple of
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hours I'm going to bust back the red onion. I never got a chance
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to grieve it. I never got a chance to speak to somebody over the
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doctor's head or I never got none of that. They told me it's an
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amangioma and packed me up within within moments of one another. Send me back
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of red Onion. So when I get back your red Onion, they refused.
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They were like, look, we already sent you to the hospital once,
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We're not sending you nowhere else. Because I was asking for a second
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opinion. I never got it. So long story short, I get transferred
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October thirteen from red Onion up to Walling's Ridge, which is red Onion Sister
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prison. It's another level five supermacs. Now I'm up here and you got
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doctor Smith. He he goes through my medical fallow and everything, and he's
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like, man, I am really concerned when I first see him. Just
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a little background. Whenever you get transferred from one prison to the next prison,
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no matter what that transfer is, for the doctor there or the nurse
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practitioner has to come speak to you or they you have to go speak to
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them. But one of the way, one one way or the other,
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you're going to speak to the to the doctor. So when he done that
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for me, I was in the office and he was like man, I
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am really, really, really concerned about the erosions in your bone. I'm
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going to send you for an MRI. I'm like, doc, Man,
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I don't I'm tired of dealing with it. Man, I don't want to
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go, he says. Nah, he says, look man, like I
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really, I'm real, I'm going to I'm going to schedule this for you.
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And I'm like, doc, Man, I've had multiple MRIs with die
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without die. I've had X ray after freaking X ray after X ray.
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You can look in the file right there. It's got it all listened,
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he says. I know, he says, man, but I'm really really
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concerned about the erosions in your bone. All right, fine, doc,
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So November thirtieth, I go out to a Ballid Health and I get another
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MRI. So when that comes back, he says, look, man,
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I'm going to schedule you for a biopsy. And I tell him straight up,
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look, I'm not going to Sussex one again. I've already been through
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that. I've already done that. Find me, find me an oncologist somewhere
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up in this area, and then you know, we can do the biopsy
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and so on and so forth. What they told me and they've been telling
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me this for years. It read onion too well. There there are no
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on pologies in this area. But yet I have somebody go online because I
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don't have access to the Internet, of course, but I have somebody go
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online and they found like five on collegists who can do a bone biopsy in
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this area. But the Department of Corrections they don't want to pay them for
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some reason I don't know. But uh so, last Thursday, I mean,
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excuse me, last Wednesday, property comes over to pack me up.
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I'm talking to them and I tell them, I ask them, I mean,
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hey, it's my property coming with me or is it staying up here?
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They tell me, your property staying up here, We're not sending it
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with you now. And that told me when I asked them that that they're
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just going to drive me down to VCU, do the biopsy, and then
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drive me right back up here. I'm not going to Sussex Swan. I'm
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not getting stuck down here. I'm not going to be placed in the whole
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because Sussex one does not have a single cell pot. I'm a single cell.
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You cannot put me in the cell with someone I've been in the cell
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by myself going on seventeen years April twenty eight. For next month A twenty
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twenty three will be seventeen years that I've been chargedery that I haven't had a
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seller or any of that stuff, so I can't. You cannot put me
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to sell with someone. So when I go down there, they're gonna put
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me in the hole. I'm gonna lose my TV, I'm gonna lose my
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commissary, I'm gonna lose all my privileges. I'm not gonna have access to
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the phone. I'm not gonna have access to the kiosk, I'm not gonna
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have nothing. I'm not gonna have anything. So basically, once again,
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I'm gonna get sent down there and get punished for being sick. But that's
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hard. I'm jumping ahead of the store, so I'm thinking, Okay,
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this is good, this is what I want. I just want to be
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driven down there, have to biopsy, and then be driven right back up
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here. So every time somebody gets transferred to Sussex one VCU medical run or
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transfer whatever, the bus always leaves red Onion and Walling's Ridge at one am
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in the morning. They don't come getting me at one am. They don't
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come and get me until at eight am the next morning on Thursday. So
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I go over there, and you got a whole bunch of other guys over
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there also. They got them pressed up against the wall with CEOs leaning on
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them on their elbows and everything, and I'm like, that's something wrong here.
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So when they take me into the room, when they start to strip
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me naked and everything so they can change me out into transportation clothes, you
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know. And that's just to make sure that you don't have like a homemade
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handcuff key or razor blade or something stashed in your waistband or whatever that you
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can use to escape or something. So I'm standing there talking to the guys
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and everything while I'm getting undressed. The transportation officer some way, you look,
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man, what hospital am I going to? Because it's eight am in
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the morning. I'm thinking maybe I'm going to a local hospital. I'm hoping
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I'm going to a local hospital. Then they tell me, now you're going
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to VCU, and I'm like, well, wait a minute, bruh.
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If we're going to VCU, that means we're just driving straight down there and
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driving straight back. Because my property ain't going with me. Why didn't we
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leave at one am last night? He said, nah, he said,
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you're getting transferred to us to strongly. You've gotten multiple appointments, like we've
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seen your paperwork when we filled transportation orders and all that stuff, like you're
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going to be down there for months on end. I was like, man,
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I'm gone on I refuse. Well, we don't know if you can
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do that. Well, bru it's my damn body, man, I refuse.
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Like transportation officers were actually pretty cool. They told, you know,
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they went and talked to us Sergeant Woods from a previous episode and he actually
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went and talked to whoever and found out, Yeah, you know what,
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I have a right to refuse. So that's what I did. And I,
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you know, as I was leaving, I was like, look,
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man, will y'all please get my property? So the property office, I
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mean, excuse me, the transportation officers, I mean they went and got
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my property and they brought it back like thirty minutes later, so at least
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I didn't lose anything or so on and so forth. So the assistant warden
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come the very next day on a Friday, and he comes up to the
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door and he's like man, let me talk to you. And I was
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like, all I will be a man. Bro pop the door and let's
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talk face to face out of the eye. So he pops the door and
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we standing there. We talk, We have a conversation, and I explained
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to him like I'm not going there, man, like I'm just I'm not
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going to go down there. I don't want to go down there. I'm
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not I'm tired of being punished for stuff I don't do. And he's like,
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dude, I understand that. You know what I'm saying. He tried
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to convince me to go. I'm like, I'm not going money. So
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he finally leaves. About an hour and a half after that, they called
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me over to medical and Nurse Collins speaks to me and she tells me,
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hey, look, VCU called up here and wanted to know why you counseled
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your appointments. So I talked to her for forty five minutes. I explained
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everything, y'all going to take me down there, y'all were gonna put me
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in a hole, and the only thing VCU was going to do was an
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X ray it again or MRI it again. And they're not going to do
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the biopically. They're not going to treat me because their doctor was wrong.
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Their original doctor was supposed to biopseee me and he didn't. He made a
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call that he never should have made and said it was an emanngioma. And
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I don't know if it was just incompetence. I don't know, if he
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just hated me for some reason. I don't, I don't. I don't
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know why this dude decided that he could, all of a sudden determine a
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man's illness from a picture of an extra And VCU knows this. These people
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aren't stupid. They know this. They know with they biopsy me and they
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it comes back as anything other than a hamangioma. If it's anything other than
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emangioma, I'm going to soothe the people like it's over with. I'm going
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to suit the hell out these people because it was clear medical malpractice. So
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I'm explaining all this too. I'm like, why all of a sudden they
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cares like, well, you know, I'm just you know, I understand,
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I get it. You're just doing your job. And so I come
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back to the and Tuesday, doctor Smith comes over here with the registered nurse
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and they pulled me into the office and he sit down and he's talking to
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me, and he starts telling me stuff that no one has ever told me
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before concerning my medical issues. He tells me, he says, look,
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man, he says, your leg is a whole lot worse than you know.
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Like he this man was getting emotional. He sit there and told me.
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He says, look, man, please, he says, man,
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reschedule it. Go down there and get to biops like it's it's this has
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nothing to play with. He says, Look, he says, if you
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don't, if you refuse, he says, I'm gonna go out to my
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car, I'm gonna smuggle my cell phone in here and I'm gonna bring it
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to you so that you can go ahead and make your funeral arrangements because this
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is gonna kill you. So I'm looking at this dude, and like I
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said, I he's getting emotional, Like I mean, he's not he's not
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crying or anything, but like it's upsetting to him. So I'll, you
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know, while I'm sitting there listening to him, and he says he's been
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an er doctor in an emergency room doctor for thirty three years. He says,
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he's seen this before. What he believes it is, he says he
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can't tell for one hundred percent sure unless there's a biopsy done, But he
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believes that it's something called osteomyelitis. And he says, if it's not treated,
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it's going to kill you. And it's a pretty gruesome depth. It's
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not an easy way to go, he says. But the thing is,
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it is treatable. But if you treat it, it's you. You have
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a very high rate of living, of being cured of it, of overcoming
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it. So I'm thinking about Nicole, the woman I'm in love with now
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and I hope to marry someday. I'm thinking about my friends Michael one and
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Michael two. I'm thinking about Pauline and ju Jenn and Ava, and I'm
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thinking about Charlotte and my little Tiglet. I'm thinking about Auntie and little Lyddy
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and Felix. And I'm thinking about John and Drew and Josh. I mean
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so many people I can't even name name them all. I'm sitting there thinking
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about them and like, yeah, you know, I'm going to be in
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communicado for a couple of months. I'm not going to be able to record
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episodes for the podcast down there. I'm not going to be able to get
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access to the key hook. I'm not going to be able to keep in
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touch with people. I'm not going to be like and the podcast is,
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it's at the point where it's really starting to grow. I mean, there's
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so many things I'm working on. It's just that's going to get put on
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the back burner. And You're like, I'm sitting there thinking about all this,
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and I'm like, you know what, man, what would they think
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if I refuse? What would they think? How would they feel if I
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don't treat this, if I don't go and find out what it really is
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one hundred percent sure what it is, and you know, I take care
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of it. You have one minute remaining. How would they feel if I
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died from this? So I made the decision to go ahead and reschedule it.
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So I'm gonna go down to Sussex one. I'm gonna suck it up.
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I'm gonna deal with it for however long I'm down there, and uh,
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I'm gonna get to biopsy, and if they try to do anything other
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than the biopsy, I'm gonna show my ass and show them aside of me
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that they don't want to see because I'm gonna custom slam up one side and
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down another. I'm not gonna do nothing stupid. I'm not gonna get violin,
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but I am going to get verbally abusive anyway. That's what I'm dealing
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with at the moment. I hope you enjoyed listen to me today. Don't
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forget to check out my website at Redonion Randy dot com. I'm on Twitter
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at red Onion Randy. And for those in the US who would like to
16:41
call and leave me a question or a comment down one eight eight eight five
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two four one nine three two for all international calls outside of the US,
16:52
and just put a plus in front of the one, and it's the same
16:55
number. I look forward to hearing from you. Tay Care, stay safe.
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