————————————–
Original Post from This Morning
This morning I awoke to a new story about Henry’s death in our local newspaper. The story is pretty much a recap of what I blogged about two days ago regarding Henry’s autopsy results, except in this case, the newspaper story makes me out to be a bit of a nut.
For the record, I did not show the reporter “selected” medical records. He called me at around noon and said he was on deadline for a story about Henry’s final autopsy, so I offered to go pick up a copy of Henry’s complete medical records (I didn’t have a set in my possession that day) and bring them to him at the newspaper’s offices for his review, which I rushed out to do so he could meet his 2pm deadline.
I went and picked up Henry’s records and brought all of them to the reporter at the KNS offices and I would have sat there as long as he would have liked to review them. He chose to look at only a few pages during our relatively brief time together. I declined to leave them with him, as the story notes, because they were the only copy I had. I offered to get copies made and bring them back another day but he said he needed to finish up the story that afternoon (there were about 300 pages to get copied).
So that’s how that went down.
I can’t wait to read the comments under the story today that make me sound deranged for only being willing to offer “selected” medical records.
Additionally, when the reporter asked me for a direct, on the record quote about this matter, and I started my quote by referring to Henry as “a teenage boy.” The reporter stopped me mid-quote and told me that my son was “not a boy, but a man.” He then went on to lecture me about how some 18 year old boys, Henry’s age, are fighting and dying in Iraq. He basically refused to take my quote in which I referred to Henry as “a boy,” and insisted that I reword what I’d said to something else. We settled on “teenager” or “teen.” I can’t quite recall. By that time I was in tears, having been fussed at by the reporter for calling my son “a boy” when describing him at the reporter’s request.
On a happier note, I am very pleased to read in the story that the Sheriff’s Department intends to keep looking into where Henry got the drugs that killed him and why help wasn’t summoned. Kudos to KCSO on that. However, the comments below the story in which folks are suggesting that I publicly apologize to the KCSO for having suggested that the investigation wasn’t handled properly are very hurtful because THE INVESTIGATION WASN’T HANDLED PROPERLY. And you have no idea how painful it is for me to be unable to share the details of what I know about what happened that day when Henry was assaulted because I continue to hold out hope that things WILL be investigated properly, and I don’t want to sully the investigators’ work by talking publicly about the facts and details of the case. But it’s really difficult for me. The KCSO knows a lot more than they are sharing publicly at this time and so do I. And that’s all I can say at the moment.
I guess I shouldn’t read the comments. I’ll try that, but it’s hard.
69 Responses to “UPDATED: Those “Selected” Medical Records”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
DON’T read them. Newspaper comment sections empower every looney and ignorant jerk to share their half-baked drivel.
Wow. . .how ridiculous. Of course he is your boy. I’m sorry, but that really made me angry. How dare anyone, reporter or no, question a mother’s description of her own child. What is wrong with people? My heart goes out to you, Katie. I hope you don’t read the comments. It will just take away your precious energy – giving it to people who will never understand the whole story.
DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS…DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS…DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS…
Sending you hugs from across the state. And from where I sit, with daughters 22 and 18, if it has “teen” in it, as in eighTEEN, they are boys and girls.
XOXOXOXO
Here is a comment from the KNS:
So lets cut through the noise here. The victim’s family and the Sheriff agree that the victim was beaten and robbed by four men in a drug deal gone bad. The Sheriff says he has gotten confessions from several of the assailants. So the only disagreement is whether or not the assailants beat him with a weapon while robbing him or if they just beat, kicked and stomped him while robbing him? So even giving the Sheriff the benefit of the doubt that no stick or weapon was used in this four on one beating/robbery, why are these four dangerous men not being charged with aggravated assault and robbery and locked up? An assault during a robbery is aggravated assault. Robbery is robbery. The thugs have admitted they did it. What am I missing? The Sheriff has their names and addresses and confessions. Why are they not being picked up?
Baaaaaaaaah don’t read the comments! I’m continually amazed at the audacity of people under the guise of internet anonymity. Don’t read them! xxoxoxoxoxo
Katie,
Can you address the inaccuracies within the story directly with the paper? It sounds like the reporter was more worried about making his story more interesting and beating his deadline. Normally, I would say it is not worth the effort, but this is LYING. Just my two cents.
I know it is hard not to read the comments, but try not to if you can. Take on the real issue here, the reporter. If we can help in any way, send out your army of supporters to write whoever we need to or call whoever we need to. My heart breaks for you.
Just close your eyes and remember that you are doing the best thing you can possibly do for yourself, for Henry and for your family by putting those comments out of your personal existence. This is a huge part of why so many media personalities and politicians pay someone else to do their social networking rather than keep up with it themselves! As a social networking specialist… you know as well as I know… that more than not of those more ‘nasty’ comments are directed at their own selves and/or views of life rather than you as a person. It’s not worth your energy. Energy that you so badly need elsewhere.
And I DARE anyone to tell me I can’t call my own son a boy. Quote or no quote! He is my heart and I will express it to the world as I blooming well please. It’s more than obvious that specific reporter had an agenda when he interviewed you. Ethically he could not mis-quote you. And you simply were not cooperating with the direction it wanted it to go.
The 18-year-olds we sent to fight and kill and die in wars are teenaged boys, too. Outrageously insensitive, at best. Sorry you had to experience that.
You are a warrior to honour your son. You are such an inspiration.
Your 18-year-old son was a boy. My 18-year-old son is a boy. Those 18-year-olds serving in Iraq are also boys although I seriously doubt many of them in Iraq are actually 18 since they have a lot of work to do before being shipped off to war. My almost 21-year-old son who is in college and the Air Force ROTC is just now someone I would call a man. Huge difference between an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old. That reporter was rude and out of line.
Stay strong, Katie. And I’m in no position to give advice on this situation, but I would recommend not reading the comments- I don’t think any good will come of it. Read your comments here. We support you.
The KNS has some of the meanest commenters I’ve ever read. At times some of the funniest, but at most times just flat-out mean, and proud of the level of snark they can generate. I hope you can ignore them too.
Dear Kate, Im am so sorry about you being hurt so badly in this process. I cannot believe any reporter would call a 18-year old “man” and the reference to your young American soldiers is shocking to me… I’m a mother of a 4-year old son, who will always be my boy, just as I am my parents little girl. I guess this reporter is not a daddy… I am sorry for all the pain that you and your loved ones have to suffer. My heart goes out to you XXX
I am a military wife living on a military base and I can say for sure that the 18 year old BOYS who walk around here joking with their friends and pulling pranks and using offensive language in oevery other sentence are just that…BOYS! Hitting the age of 18 does not make a boy into a man. Making them into a legal adult does not mean that they suddenly grow up and act as an adult. I am sorry you have to go through this and I am sure you just bursting inside wanting to scream from the mountain tops the truth that you know!!!! Henry will get justice, I know he will!!!
Hang in there Katie. All the important people in your life know the truth about you and won’t be in the least bit interested in what the KNS has to say.
Another comment on KNS;
When Ms. Granju arrived at the hospital to see her critically injured teenage son, she was told by doctors that her son had overdosed on drugs and inhaled his own vomit, depriving his brain of oxygen. She was also told by multiple doctors that it was medically obvious that he had been very recently assaulted in and about the head, face and chest with blunt object(s). The medical records repeatedly reference these conclusions by multiple physicians. This last point bears repeating: When the victim’s mother arrived at the hospital to see to her son’s injuries she knew nothing of any assault. She was TOLD by the DOCTORS that her son had clearly been assaulted. The DOCTORS also wrote the same conclusion regarding assault in the victim’s OFFICIAL MEDICAL RECORDS.
So, not surprisingly, during her son’s initial recovery, the victim’s mother thought it reasonable to ask the Sheriff to look into the doctors’ claims that Henry had been assaulted. When the Sheriff did nothing to check into this, the victim’s mother took it upon herself to look over her son’s cell phone records and speak to those who were with him in the two days preceding his admission to the hospital. It took only a couple of hours for her to find out that an assault had taken place, just as the doctors had insisted. The doctors had been correct when they told Ms. Granju that Henry had been assaulted. She gave the information she had gathered regarding the assault and robbery, including the names and phone numbers of the assailants/robbers, to the Sheriff.
Weeks later, after being prodded by Ms. Granju on her blog, the Sheriff finally interviewed the assailants. The assailants admitted to the Sheriff that they had robbed and beaten the victim. They denied using a weapon. But instead of arresting them for aggravated assault and robbery, the Sheriff went to the press on the day of the victim’s funeral and came out with a front page story defending his decision to let assailants and robbers go free and disparaging the victim and his poor grieving mother.
This is a joke. At this point, what does it matter if the assailants used a weapon or if anyone can prove that the blows to the head contributed to the victims death? Why are these men walking the street when they have admitted their crimes to the Sheriff? And why isn’t that the story here?
what you just described on the part of the reporter – coaching you/pressuring you on a quote – is a fireable offense. if what you said is true, he should be pretty ashamed of himself as a person and as a journalist.
No wonder you are beyond your wit’s end. These “professionals” wouldn’t know how to find their way out of a brown paper bag if they had a flashlight. Keep on keeping on, it is the art form our country was made from.
I don’t think you come off sounding like a nut at all.
I’m an outsider far from Knoxville.
I read it and thought the medical examiner comes off sounding incompetent, and with a hidden agenda.
My concern about her is why did she not see what the doctors who treated him notated in his records?
It’s a sad chain of events in his last days.
Stay outspoken and vigilant, and keep everyone accountable that did not help him in his final day.
I am not from Knoxville, and I have not read the full article; however, based on this post, it truly sounds as if the reporter bullied and harassed you. He took advantage of your (understandable) emotionality in the situation and pursued his story in an extraordinarily insensitive and unethical manner. It is one thing to report facts in an unbiased manner; it is another to badger a grieving parent.
As a high school learning specialist, I work with juniors and seniors in high school, many of whom reach their 18th birthdays while under my care. I absolutely do not consider them adults. Sure, most of them go off to college, but they are not ready to be in the “real world” yet. If one were to get scientific about it, it is a fact that the brain does not develop neural synapses in the areas that control decision-making until a few years AFTER a person reaches 18. Until that point, teenagers/young adults have the conscious decision making skills of a 16 year-old. Tell the reporter to look THAT up…
Since when do reporters tell their interview subjects what they can and cannot say in interviews? I thought their job was to report statements, not to manufacture them. If you feel up to it and think it will any good, Katie, you might want to lodge a complaint with the newspaper.
I certainly don’t like to ring the collusion/conspiracy bell, but this is getting quite weird. The ME goes on to state that she would have been able to detect fractures and such as long as a year after the injury, but she can’t see any evidence of what occurred just a month prior? Injuries that were documented by medical professionals who had no agenda with regard to their findings.
And now we have a jerk of a reporter who happily plays along with the “Kick the Katie down the road” game.
I guess the questions to ask are who is being threatened by the truth and who is benefiting from this spin? It’s frustrating, unproductive and highly disheartening.
Katie, it’s clear to anyone with an IQ above room temperature and a beating heart you’re not a nut, but the press is more than happy to make you out as one if it will sell more copies of their newspaper. It’s weak journalism written for the consumption of the narrow-minded. As for the reporter, what an insensitive jackass! I’d reserve whatever comments you are allowed to make for more responsible, credible media outlets and completely dismiss the small town “trash-bloids.”
Ignore and do not read….it’s all about selling papers and nothing about the thruth right now. Pointless to subject yourself to the rude, arrogant comments of strangers who never know you or your boy.
Katie — I don’t think you sound at all like a nut in this story. It’s just so painful reading the account translating into oh-so-objective (not really!) journalistic style.
The reporter was completely unprofessional and inhumane – I wonder if he has children to say that an 18 year old is not your “boy”? I’m so sorry
18-years-old is still a BOY. I don’t care if one can go into the military at that age! That reporter apparently isn’t a parent, or maybe just has little ones yet.
I have been a journalist in a newsroom for twelve years. When asking someone for a quote you don’t ask them to reword the quote. YOUR QUOTE IS YOUR QUOTE. What YOU have to say. To inflict his opinion on your quote and ask you to reword it is as egregious as staging a scene for a news story. How HE feels about an 18-year-old being a boy or a man is irrelevant. IT’S YOUR QUOTE. Douche.
Also, comments on newspaper stories are always from the biggest nutters around. That’s common knowledge. Don’t read them Katie.
I hope this article will continue to prod the investigation along.
Please try to ignore the comments from people who don’t understand the situation. I am not from Knoxville, but the comments in my local paper often are from a few individuals who appear to feel the need to be anonymously contrary or spiteful and can’t be considered truly reflective of the community.
Oh, Katie, I’m so sorry that you are receiving self-righteous judgment from so many, now even the newspaper(!), when you should be receiving nothing but grace and compassion. To treat a grieving mother in such a way is evidence of someone who is both insecure and unsure of their ability to write a quality piece of journalism. This reporter’s behavior was not just unprofessional, but also deliberately hurtful to you as an individual. Why anyone would enjoy causing additional pain to a mother who has lost her son is beyond me.
PLEASE surround yourself with people who love you and uplift you – and don’t read those comments. Sooooo not worth your time.
when i first talked to the officer who was investigating our son’s OD from methadone/alcohol, i was surprised that they were even trying to find where he got the drug. our son was an alcoholic/addict, and i guess i assumed that since he willingly took drugs, the police wouldn’t be too interested in doing anything about it. but as the officer said, whether he took them willingly or not wasn’t the point, the point was it IS illegal to supply someone with methadone (our son didn’t have a prescription for it, so he got it from someone), and even if he sought it, the person who supplied it still broke the law and they would try to find out who it was. He also did say that these kinds of cases are very hard to get a charge or a conviction on. sadly, i think that is very true.
they never were able to know for sure where nick got the methadone, they were pretty sure it was someone he worked with, and of course he said no, he didn’t. his roommate didn’t see Nick buy or get it from anyone, or if he did, he wasn’t talking. as frustrating as it is, i think it is very hard to get a charge or a conviction on this, someone needs to be willing to testify that either they supplied it, or that they saw someone else supply it. We did have a person here admit to selling heroin to two young girls, one of them od’d and died, and he was prosecuted and convicted. but that is pretty rare, i think. i have noticed that since that happened, we have not had the the heroid related deaths in the community, possibly the suppliers got scared by it. hard to say.
i wish the supplier would have had to be held accountable too, nick was certainly held accountable for his actions in the most permanent way possible. my husband and i thought about trying to pursue it more, but realized there wasn’t much we could do from here (we live 3 hours away) and that as much as it bothers us to know the person who gave/sold the drugs to nick is living and he is dead, it was just keeping us more agitated to keep calling the officer and trying to pressure him to do more. I am not suggesting that is what you should do, katie, that is just what worked best for us, concentrating on healing from the loss of nick rather than who supplied him the drugs he craved. I admire your wanting to continue on and hopefully save some other family from having to go through what you and I are living, but for me, I needed to just worry about me and my family and how we were going to survive this loss.
You are often in my heart.
geri
Just posted to the KNS site — but it’s awaiting “approval…”
Mr. Jacobs–
In your research for this story, did you have any discussion whatsoever with Katie Granju regarding her use of the term “boy” to describe her own son, or did you lecture or hector her about 18 year olds going to Iraq? If so, you are unprofessional, unethical, need a lesson in journalistic integrity, and at minimum, you owe her a public apology in your newspaper.
When you asked Katie Granju for a complete set of her medical records, did she say that it was her only copy but she’d get a copy made and bring it back to you? And did you, in response, say, “No, I’m on deadline,” and then proceed to write “Katie Granju declined to leave the records with a reporter for a comprehensive review.” If so, you are unprofessional, unethical, need a lesson in journalistic integrity, and at minimum, you owe her a public apology in your newspaper.
As Mark Twain said, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort ‘em as much as you please.”
Oh, mama…don’t read the comments…just don’t do it. So many newspaper commenters are trolls even about things small things. You are going to be exposed to all kinds of harshness and very little good….and you can’t unring that bell…
much love from Texas,
Jote
I am furious at how you have been treated by the KCSO and this reporter. As if it were not painful enough to lose a child, but to have to endure this as well!
Much like The Girl WHo, my reaction was “How dare he challenge your quote, or tell you what your quote should or shouldn’t be??!!! Your words are your words — not his”. This reporter is too biased to be writing about Henry’s case.
As for the KCSO… !
I was struck by the different reaction and resolution to another drug death one of your commentators posted about this week. An 18 year old girl in Michigan, a lovely and talented young actress, died of a heroin overdose. It was not the first time she used heroin. But the man who sold her the heroin has already been sentenced, and the girl who took her to buy it, and was shooting up with her, is on trial. What a night-and-day difference compared to how Henry’s death has been treated!
I truly believe that besides sloppy and uncaring policework, the root of the problem is society’s attitude towards drug addicts. Even though addiction is a medical condition, a disease, the people who suffer from it are treated as if they just made very bad choices, and they deserve all the bad things that follow. That is a despicable attitude.
By fighting for justice for Henry, you are confronting that attitude head-on, and that is why you are being attacked. Standing up for Henry is a matter of justice, of human rights, of human dignity and human decency, and I support you all the way Katie.
Katie, FWIW — the Knoxville News Sentinal ALSO seems to be afraid of criticism, and may be selectively censoring some of the posts. My above post was submitted to them almost 2 hours ago, and others are showing up at their site since that time — all KNS/Jacobs-friendly of course — while mine is not.
Maybe Jacobs himself is in charge of approving comments to his story?
In any case, there appears to be some journalistic monkey business going on at the Knoxville News Sentinel…
Wow, your local “news” paper is quick to remove comments that suggest any mishandling of the investigation or ones that elude to possible, linked untruths on the parts of the first officials on the scene though to the medical examiner. I suppose my calling them a “trash-bloid” didn’t help either.
My heart sincerely aches for you and the struggles you are facing. I know you will not be silenced and you will continue to fight for the truth until some form of justice is served.
Katie —
I think you have another story here, because it seems that the Knoxville News Sentinel is censoring criticism of its writers, and censoring criticism of the police, in its blog comments.
It certainly adds credibility and weight to your concerns regarding the journalistic integrity — or, more specifically, the LACK of it – on the part of Don Jacobs and the KNS.
It it possible that the KNS has a culture of shoddiness, poor journalistic ethics, and is also too cozy with the officials — i.e., the sheriff’s department, coroner, etc. — to the detriment of actually covering the story fairly?
If KNS and its writers handled this appropriately, why are they failing to approve (and deleting) comments that question their handling? Why don’t they respond?
Pretty telling…
Another reason for me to never purchase another newspaper from the KNS or to view it online. Never again…..my hart goes out to you.
oops…heart
Katie,
The comments here, on this post, seem to be very supportive of you. These are comments that come from people who have read your blog since Henry was first admitted to the ER and even before then…the people who REALLY HEAR what you have been saying all along. I wish you could find peace in knowing how many people are standing behind you. You are not alone. You are not a nut. Henry was just a boy.
It appears KNS is screening the comments. That speaks volumes regarding their journalistic integrity.
Katie —
Truly, if I were you, I would never speak to KNS again. They clearly can’t be trusted to even report on something as basic as getting records, they have reporters who harangue and hector interview subjects to try to impose their own values/beliefs on a quote, they censor the comments regarding their stories.
They might as well be the National Enquirer, instead of a city newspaper.
Next time they call you, I’d say “NO comment.”
And then I’d call your own public press conference — with someone there to video/audiotape the entire thing for the record — to respond to the situation.
And if you DO decide to EVER speak to anyone at the KNS again, I would do so only with a tape recorder on, to record the entire interaction, so that you have your own record of the interview in its entirety to post/share with the public if necessary.
If they wanna play fast and lose with journalistic ethics, then you have to do what’s necessary to protect your rights to the truth.
Nothing good will come from reading the comments, Katie. I know it’s hard, but stay away. The people who care about you and Henry will post their support for you here.
I feel certain no parent of an 18 year old or educator sees a kid in his final year of high school as an “adult”. Being a drug abuser /seller does not take away his youth, still developing brain, and lack of experience in the world!
Henry was not even an “emerging adult”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html
I don’t think the ME has an agenda. It’s about the timing of it all. Henry did not die immediately upon sustaining injuries from an assault. By the time and autopsy was necessary, most of Henry’s wounds from the assault had probably (mostly) healed. The assault was a sad and brutal companion to the cause of his death, but not the cause itself.
Katie,
I can not comment on the article, I would just agree with everyone else.
But please please never doubt that you did everything possible for Henry. I would love for my parents to do half of what for Henry for my younger sister who is addicted to anti-depressants and has a result is not living a normal life.
I’m sorry Henri wasn’t saved, but you did everything you could. You were a great mother to Henry and you are a great mother to your other wonderful children.
I have an 18 year old son. He is a boy. I have a 21 year old son who just moved out last February and I just now refer to him as a man. I would grieve those boys of mine just as deeply if they were the age they are now or 3. And I would fight to my last breath if anyone laid a finger on them in a harmful way, especially if it contributed to their death. That reporter may have been “just doing his job” but he injected his personal opinion into his story when he brow beat you into changing YOUR definition of YOUR son. Bad journalism. He could have put what you said in quotes. He’s a bully.
I pray for you daily Katie. I am stunned that this whole situation has been handled the way it has. I admire your consistent insistence on being fair and balanced when it comes to the powers in charge of deciding whether justice prevails here. Hang in there!!
There but by the grace of God….
My son is a twenty two year old marine. He is still very much a boy.
KAtie: Don’t read the comments. You are conducting yourself admirably, and you are honoring Henry with your words and actions. G-d bless.
Katie,
There are people that care for you and even don’t know you. My heart was broken by the story of your son. It is almost as if the police are impugning the doctors that also used “science” to diagnose and treat your son. I believe there is more to this than the police want to acknowledge. Stay strong and know that you have support and people that see through this for what it is. The story was disappointing from a human stand point. He was a beautiful boy.
May God bless and keep you strong at this time.