Karina Hansen

Karina Hansen – In Hostage Of The Danish Psychiatric System .

Karina Hansen is a 26-year-old Danish Severe Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) patient.

Unfortunately, Karina's story is no ordinary disabled persons story

Karina, with the help of her parents, was struggling with an unknown disease from the age of 16. She was eventually told she had ME, although no official diagnosis was given. But the treatment she was then given made her condition worse, thus requiring her mother to become her full time carer.

In Denmark, People with ME are deemed to be suffering with a 'Functional Disorder' which is psychiatric condition. Their health service treatment is GET (Graded Exercise Therapy) & CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) & antidepressants.

Treating ME patients with these treatments, due to the PENE (Post Exertional Neuro-immune Exhaustion) effect can often tip them into a severe ME state. This happened to Karina in 2008 when she was admitted to an arthritis hospital.

In 2010 Karina was again pressured into a hospital stay. By this time, she was suffering all the classic ME symptoms, plus light & noise sensitivities. During that hospital stay, a Dr. recorded that Karina was not depressed or had any psychotic tendencies, so there was no reason why she should be kept for psychiatric reasons, so should be allowed to go home. Two weeks later she was officially diagnosed with ME.

In early 2012, I remember reading that a young girl (her name was unknown at the time) was being pressured by a Danish psychiatrist, Per Fink, to be taken into his Hammel Neurocenter psychiatric clinic, but refused to state what the treatment would be.

This reminded me of the case of the UK Severe ME patient Sophia Mirza, who in 2005 was forcibly removed from her home by Social Services and psychiatrists and subjected to intensive GET/CBT treatment which sadly led to her premature death. The coroner stated the cause of death was ME/CFS which was exacerbated by the psychiatric treatment (they did not know about PENE in those days).

Karina and her parents hired a lawyer and were granted the power of attorney over Karina and managed to fend of the advances of Per Fink. So Fink then wrote to the Danish Ministry of health asking for the power to remove the Karina's parents’ legal rights over her.

On February 12th 2013, Per Fink was (not actually there) but behind an unannounced return, by five policemen, two doctors, two social workers and a locksmith, Karina's mother was physically restrained whilst the bedbound Karina was forcibly removed, pleading with them to allow her to remain at home with her family.

The Danish state overrode Karina's parents’ legal rights to represent her, by making some false claims against the family, that resulted in the state imposing a legal guardian hand picked by the psychiatrists. These allegations were later dismissed but the legal guardian has remained and has actually been extended, despite numerous protest from ME patients from around the world.

Since that time, Karina's parents’ rights of power of attorney, have been disregarded and Per Fink installed a legal guardian, a retired policeman named Kaj Stendorf, who has the replaced the rights of her family for her. He has also refused all requests from Karina's family to visit her including Birthdays and Christmas.

The psychiatrists have imposed a total ban on anyone who knows Karina, from seeing her, throughout the two and half years of her captivity. This also includes the Chairman of the Danish ME Assn and the UK Dr. Nigel Speight (ME Expert). They claim Karina has a mental health condition, because they are politically driven to prove that she does not have ME and that ME does not not exist in Denmark.

They are funded by the worlds Health insurance industry and Big pharmaceutical companies. The psychiatrist Nils Balle Chriistensen, has by his own admission, said that he does not know what is wrong with Karina, but he claims it isn't ME.

Per Fink has stripped Karina of her ME diagnosis and replaced it with an unknown psychiatric diagnosis and barred Dr. Speight from carrying out any tests on Karina to get a second opinion.

Their repeated use of psychiatric treatment on Karina, such as GET etc, has by their own admission resulted in brain damage to Karina. As well as being guarded 24/7 by the legal guardian, the staff in the 'care home' are barred from speaking about Karina to anyone, including the rest of the patients in in the home.

There is an unofficial media blackout in Denmark about Karina and she was even hidden when the Danish Royalty visited the Hammell center last year. This is a political situation that was set up by the previous Danish Social Democrat Govt and is now being continued by the current Danish Liberal party Govt.

They have a constitutional monarchy and the main parties are virtually the same. A very similar situation to the pre Corbyn UK situation. The Govt will not respond to appeals by concerned individuals by concerned ME patients around the world.

The Danish State has funded the psychiatrists to redefine the ME disease as a psychiatric disease in Denmark. At the same time Denmark has acknowledged along with WHO's ICD-10 definition of ME as a neurological disease. So it does not make sense.

We are fighting the Danish state and the financial power of the Health insurance industry and Big pharmaceutical companies. Karina's parents have employed a Lawyer for a long while and that has led to them draining their personal finances.

The reason the Health Insurance industry are funding Fink is because ME is recognised by the WHO (World Health Organisation) ICD-10 as a neurological disease. Therefore, ME patients can claim on their health insurance.

These companies have a clause that that enables them not to pay out on psychiatric illnesses. So they can save millions by avoiding the requirement to pay out to the 17 million ME patients around the world. The pharmaceutical companies are also looking to make billions out of the same patients by manufacturing psychiatric drugs for the worlds ME patients.

Last summer ME patients and advocates had a fundraising campaigning to fund further legal challenges against the psychiatrists. They now have a Dr. Stig Gerdes who has been active in campaigning against the use of Gardasil in Denmark. He intends to challenge Per Finks who theory on his BDS (Bodily Distress Syndrome) Diagnosis, which is a psychosomatic functional disorder, that he claims is the real truth about ME and numerous other misunderstood diseases.

Without a doubt, they have all now gone too far to save face in their attempts to disprove ME and are unable to turn back now. The same power that many of the worlds psychiatrists have, is based around the DSM V (Diagnostic & Statistical manual).

They intend to create a huge multimillion dollar psychiatric industry around the manual. We in the UK have the Wessely lobby who claim to be CFS/ME experts and are employed as consultants on ME by the DWP and the NHS. The UK psychiatrist Peter White, who is one of the Wessely lobby, is actually involved in Karina's case and BDS has been trailed in the UK.

The psychiatrist has never allowed her family & friends to visit her, regardless whether it is her birthday, Christmas or whatever.

Is this the way a very ill human being should be treated in a modern European country and where does the Human Rights Act stand on cases like this?

Shame on Denmark for allowing this to happen in 2015 and the Danish media who have imposed a news blackout on Karina's case.

Michael Evison

(Source ME Global Chronicle)