Editor’s note: Karina Hansen is young Danish woman with severe ME. In February 2013, she was forcibly removed from her home by police and taken to a facility for functional (i.e,. psychosomatic) illnesses. The ME Alliance is organizing an action for Karina’s third birthday away from home. You can help Karina by sending cards and gifts to her hospital.
November 7th 2015 is Karina’s birthday. Unbelievably, its her third birthday as a hostage of the Danish state, simply because they contest her ME diagnosis, due to their false belief that ME is a psychiatric disorder, that is being pursued on a financial basis, because it is cheaper to fund psychiatric care for ALL Danish ME patients, than fund creditable biomedical treatment and care and then excludes ME patients from many aspects of health insurance or benefits.
This scandal has now lasted 33 months, which is 924 days, but to poor Karina it will seem more like the 22,176 hours!
Once again, we are hoping to send cards to both Karina at her ‘care’ home and to her parents home.
The ‘care’ home management promised our ME friends in Denmark that any post sent to Karina would be given to her. So to test this statement, a plain brown registered letter was sent to Karina at the home. Sadly it was returned, unopened. Further investigations via the Danish postal service led to the statement from the post man who actually delivered the letter saying that he handed the letter to Karina, but she handed it back unopened.
We have to assume that last years statement from the Hammell Clinic, that Karina had been moved to a nearby ‘care’ home, because she now was suffering from brain damage, is sadly very true. Most people who understand ME, know that there is an inflamation issue in the brain, with severe ME and the constant use of GET only exasperates this problem. The clinic are known to favour CBT/GET and mindfulness training, in an attempt to brain wash ME patients into ‘exercising’ themselves back to health.
In order to capture Karina’s imagination, in her present state, we are suggesting that those sending cards to Karina, should use ‘cute’ stickers all over the envelope and make it plain that it is a birthday card for Karina with ‘happy birthday’, ‘birthday presents’ & ‘birthday cakes’ stuck on the envelope. Also fancy lettering with her name may help. These stickers can be bought at a Poundshop for 2 packs for a pound called Fun stickers. Also some are available from Ebay.
Posting a standard card to Denmark 18cm * 13cm, weighing 5grms from the UK will cost you £1 or two 2nd class stamps. The delivery time is 3-5 working days. Those posting from other parts of the world, please either check out your local postal service for international costs and delievery times (this can be done on line) If you do get the information, please share on this page.
The care home address is: Tagdækkervej 10, 8450 Hammel, Denmark.
Karina’s parents home address is: Kløvermarken 8, 7500 Holstebro, Denmark.
Please ask any further questions you may have, about the aims of this Cards2Karina event on this event page.
This year we intend to have a second wave of actions in our continuing campaign to free Karina. The details of the 2nd wave will be released after the final date of UK/Europe posting, on the 31st October.
You’re Invited: The Beth Mazur Innovation Prize Fundraiser
You are cordially invited to The Beth Mazur Innovation Prize Fundraiser on Wednesday, November 13th at 2pm PST/5pm EST. Beth Mazur, who co-founded #MEAction was a kind and compassionate human being. She cared deeply about the ME and the Long COVID communities. She also cared deeply about innovation, new creative ways to solve problems that
9 thoughts on “Send Birthday Cards to Karina Hansen”
i think it is so important for us all to show how much we care about what is happening to Karina. We need to show her parents, too, that we care.
My biggest nightmare is that this could happen to me. We all know how harmful exercise or activity can be for people with severe ME. Imagine being under the control of psychiatrists who are in denial about our very real, neuroimmune condition, which is accepted by the World Health Orrganiisation.
It seems to me that this is the least we can do. Send cards to lighten her day and show her family, friends, and the world that we all care
I sent my card by FunkyPigeon.com. I sent one to her parents and one to the institution. They cost just under £4 each, including postage from UK
Karina’s only crime is Severe M.E.. We need to put ourselves in her shoes.
What would you do if Karina was your daughter, sister, best friend, grandchild, etc…. and corrupt psychiatry following the belief that ME is a psychosomatic disorder won the government’s support to strip Karina of all her basic human rights despite thousands of studies proving it is biological disease.
Great to see this in MEAction. Let’s hope that our collective power can help to get Karina released and cared for by the right doctors. My heart bleeds for that poor young woman and her family.
I’m pretty sure there have been petitions in the past but I wonder if now, around Karina’s birthday, might be a good time for a new petition? http://my.meaction.net/petition/new?source=header With time, we could get several thousand signatures.
Thank you so much, Wendy, for submitting this and bringing it to our attention!
I will be glad to sign. 🙂 Don’t have the energy to start a petition myself, but can sign and share whatever you send my way!
I hope they let her go, before even more damage is done. Sending prayers! And will send a postcard or letter too, hoping to cheer her up at least a tiny bit in her horrible situation.
I will send a gift. I am devisated at this news. The damage they are doing is not reverasable.i hope that as soon as she us released she can get the care thar she needs. I will gladly sign any petition, but i have not got the strength to open one myself.
Was her story the one featured in Unrest? So awful.
Comments are closed.