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Rosebud IHS: Woman says hospital took her smile

Dana Ferguson, dferguson@argusleader.com
Blanche Long wipes her face as she recounts issues she has had with the Indian Health Service. Long has had longstanding medical issues that she says have been made worse by her care at the Indian Health Service hospital in Rosebud.

Blanche Long can't talk about her experience at the Rosebud Indian Health Service hospital without breaking into tears.

After days of severe stomach pain and headaches, Rosebud doctors referred Long to Winner Regional Healthcare Center. It was there that doctors found a tumor on her pituitary gland at the base of her brain.

The 36 year old first went to Rosebud in 2008, complaining of flu-like symptoms that wouldn't go away for more than a week, though emergency room physicians prescribed her drugs to treat the virus.

Physicians removed Long's front teeth and drilled into her scull to remove the tumor. While she was glad to be rid of the cancerous growth, Long said the delay in diagnosis has left her without sight in her left eye, and her face droops on that side.

She's self conscious about that and her missing front teeth. Without them, she said, she can't smile and worries she pushes other away.

In 2011 she was stabbed in the left lung and returned to the Rosebud hospital. She's thankful to have survived, but during that procedure she contracted tuberculosis, which has prevented her from being able to work as a childcare provider.

More recently she was misdiagnosed with diabetes at the Rosebud hospital, and the medication started eroding her organs, Long said.

“All them just put more wear and tear on me,” Long said. “Why do I have to be like this because these guys can’t get stuff right?”

The mother of three said she changed providers so that she doesn't have to go back to the Rosebud hospital. She hops rides with friends to a clinic 12 miles away in Mission.

She doesn't trust the Rosebud hospital to care for her two sons and want to move them to Mission for health care.

"They've already had to grow up too quick," Long said. "I don't want IHS killing them, too."

Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson