Mumia is incredibly sick

by Prison Radio and other supporters

Mumia’s health is seriously deteriorating, as has been witnessed in recent weeks by his visiting doctor, clergy, counselors, teachers, family and friends.

Evidence of intensifying hepatitis C symptoms and possible development of the diabetes that nearly killed him a year ago call for immediate and appropriate treatment.

Once again Mumia’s life is in danger as prison officials continue to deny him the basic treatment for hepatitis C.

Please contact the authorities listed below and press them to render the best available treatment and to release his complete medical records to his own doctors. Meanwhile, Mumia’s legal fight for hep C medication remains in the courts.

Mumia needs us again! Please call, fax and email now! Medical malfeasance and deliberate indifference at SCI-Mahanoy are killing Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Call, fax and email with the following demands:

• Immediate provision to Mumia of anti-viral treatment to cure his hepatitis C condition that is, as his doctor testified in court, the persistent cause of worsening skin disease, almost certain liver damage, now extreme weight gain and hunger, and other diabetic-like conditions.
• Immediate release of all recent blood test results to Mumia’s attorneys.
• Vigilant monitoring of Mumia for signs of diabetes, especially of his blood sugar level, since a diabetes attack nearly killed Mumia last spring of 2015.

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, phone 717-787-2500, fax 717-772-8284, email governor@pa.gov

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel, phone 717-728-2573 or 717 787 2500, email ra-contactdoc@pa.gov

SCI Mahanoy Prison Superintendent Theresa DelBalso, phone 570-773-2158

Pennsylvania DOC Director of Medical Care Dr. Paul Noel, phone 717-728-5309, ext. 5312, email ra-contactdoc@pa.gov

Correct Care Solutions Chief Medical Officer Dr. Carl Keldie, phone 800-592-2974 x 5783

Go HERE to sign the petition to demand Mumia’s right to life-saving hepatitis C care.

Petition to provide immediate lifesaving hepatitis C treatment to Mumia Abu-Jamal

by Keith Cook

My name is Keith Cook, and I am Mumia Abu-Jamal’s brother.

My loss and my pain have been constant for three decades since my brother has been in prison. He needs to come home, like so many of the men from our community.

Mumia is very ill. I was in the waiting room of the Intensive Care Unit, just feet from where he lay nearly dying, for 28 long hours in Pottsville, Penn., before the guards would let me see him.

He was chained – his right arm and left leg shackled to the hospital bed.

Did you know that there is absolutely no reason for him to suffer? There is a cure for hepatitis C – just one pill a day.

I see my brother. But the Department of Corrections and the courts see “a prisoner.” Wasn’t Jesus a prisoner? Wasn’t Nelson Mandela a prisoner?

Dr. Paul Noel, director of health care for the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and Dr. Carl J. Keldie, chief clinical officer of Correct Care Solutions, would let incarcerated people die from this disease.

Mumia is very ill. Did you know that there is absolutely no reason for him to suffer? There is a cure for hepatitis C – just one pill a day.

Yes, Mumia is supported by Amnesty International and Desmond Tutu, among many others. But he is also just like any other Black man in prison.

Together we must stop this shameful practice of denying lifesaving health care to Mumia Abu-Jamal and all prisoners. And we must expose the public health imperative of treating hepatitis C inside and outside of prisons. As the drug’s inventor, Michael Sofia, asks, “How can you deny people access to a cure?”

Right now, my brother is in the infirmary at SCI Mahanoy, and he is receiving absolutely no treatment.

We are in court right now with a petition. You can make sure that the U.S. District Court Judge Mariani and Magistrate Mehalchick see and hear more than the word “prisoner.”

As the drug’s inventor, Michael Sofia, asks, “How can you deny people access to a cure?”

We know these folks are our mothers, fathers and brothers. We know they deserve to be treated with dignity and with respect. We need your voice to be heard. Tell them you know that intentional medical neglect is a violation of the Eighth Amendment and their Hippocratic Oath.

Medical apartheid must stop. Please join me.

Keith Cook, retired command sergeant major, U.S. Army; former chairman, Orange County School Board; past president, North Carolina Caucus of Black School Boards; and district director, North Carolina NAACP Conference of Branches, can be reached through Prison Radio, at info@prisonradio.org.