G.R. PRESS SPIKES MEMORIAL OBIT

Phyllis Jennings of Families United for Justice is no friend of Spectrum Health Corporation after her father died under suspicious circumstances in one of the facilities managed by the local health care behemoth.  As regular readers will recall, the Kent County medical examiner, who just happens to run a business on the side with Spectrum as his biggest customer, fumbled the autopsy of Jennings’s father to declare he could find no fault with Spectrum.  They will also recall how Spectrum has actively worked to squelch the coverage of this story in the mainstream media.

Even so, the scandal of a medical examiner in the pay of an organization he is responsible for investigating has gotten enough attention that some members of the Kent County Board of Commissioners are seriously considering the need for a full-time public official to run the medical examiner’s office instead of a moonlighter.  So, even if Jennings may never get justice for her father, her fight (along with that of the Sallie family) may soon bring about for us a long overdue restructuring of the medical examiner’s office.  For this we all owe her a debt of gratitude.

However, the Grand Rapids Press appears to disagree.  Jennings asked the Press to run a memorial obituary for her father on the second anniversary of his death at Spectrum-run Kent County Community Hospital.  The Press refused unless Jennings deleted from the memorial her family’s promise to her late father to “never give up our fight for the truth and for justice”.  There is, of course, nothing indecent, improper, or even controversial about such a statement to a departed loved one, but it looks like publisher Danny Gaydou’s Press insists upon sticking it to the Jennings family any way it can.  The fact that Gaydou is also chairman of Spectrum Health is no doubt merely a coincidence.

Comments

[Brandon Potts]

I've been paying particular attention to this story since you started writing about it, and this latest twist brings on a whole new level of anger and revulsion. Not that you need any urging from me or anyone else, but all the same, please continue to keep it in the spotlight.

Brandon

[The Executive Director]

Will do, Brandon. It's always good to know that we are giving our readers information they find important.

Regards, Bill

[Phyllis Jennings]

To Bill and L.A.W.,

Thank you for posting a link to our group's recently launched Web site, www.familiesunitedforjustice.net. We appreciate the help in letting others know about our efforts. We can only continue to hope that other families in this community who have been lied to like we have will contact us with their cases as well. We know they're out there. All I can say is that there is NO excuse for what the Grand Rapids Press and its Spectrum Health Chairman of the Board Publisher Danny Gaydou did to my family with that memorial obit. But then there's also NO excuse for those in this community who have obstructed and denied my father the proper military honors he deserved at his burial, either. My father was a World War II Veteran (Lieutenant) who proudly served this country. Why would anyone (especially fellow Kent County veterans that we called for help) deny him the honors and respect he so deserved? If there are any veterans outside of Kent County who would be interested in helping my family arrange some kind of memorial service with the proper military honors and send off for my father, please contact me at your earliest convenience. My entire family (especially my mother) would greatly appreciate the help. Thank you.

[Drew]

Maybe a billboard dedication along 96 near downtown would raise some "awareness"of this issue. I would surely pledge money for this.

[The Executive Director]

Hi, Drew.

I suggest you contact Phyllis Jennings of Families United for Justice about your idea. Their website is located at www.familiesunitedforjustice.net.

Regards,
Bill Tingley
Executive Director L.A.W.