people?Check out the story of Alyssa Gilderhus and her brilliant parents, especially her step-dad Duane. He's the farm hick the prestigious Mayo Clinic thought they could just walk over and do what they want with his step-daughter.
He's also the guy who orchestrated busting Alyssa out of hospital jail and getting her across state lines - on gravel roads with the batteries out of their cell phones so the three police departments chasing them couldn't find them - to escape to Sanford University's hospital for a second opinion freeing Alyssa from medical imprisonment in Mayo.
Lifesaving Surgery
Alyssa herself suffered a brain aneurism on Christmas Day 2016 and barely survived after being a 2% chance of recovery. Her parents are grateful to the neurosurgeons at Mayo who pulled off the near impossible and did emergency brain surgery to repair the aneurysm.
It was after that the going got tough. Amber, Alyssa's mother, disagreed with "a top physician" about some of Alyssa's medication and treatment options. The family requested a transfer to a different hospital and were denied. They tried getting a lawyer involved and Mayo "literally laughed off" the request to transfer. Alyssa's mother was banned from the hospital on unfounded claims of mental instability and social services began court-shopping looking for a judge who would award Alyssa's guardianship to them.
That's when a cowboy rescue turned out to be the best option. Her parents managed to trick the hospital staff and head for a different state to get out of the Mayo hospital system in order to seek a second opinion. And boy, was it ever a chase!
Alyssa Is A Competent Adult
Through it all, Alyssa was involved. In spite of Mayo trying to insist otherwise, she's turned out to be a tough, scrappy young woman who helped rescue herself from medical kidnapping, relearned to walk, talk and feed herself and got back to the family farm where she is competing her peacocks in competitions, graduated from high school and is off to university this fall. This is a resilient homestead kid at her finest!
Know the System
If you want a good look into the current state of how the medical system treats dissent from their almighty medical opinions and want to read a story that actually has a truly happy ending with even the "experts" shaking their heads at the actions of social services and the Mayo clinic...and the Mainstream Media reporting on a story completely outside their usual narrative...this is the story for you.
It's like a Western Sci-Fi but it's true history.
NOT Fake News!
The icing on the cake is that it's reported by CNN and MSN. I was so excited I read the entire lengthy article to Ben this morning. This the first time I've seen CNN report real news in a while and it's heartening and exciting to watch the dust-up with Mayo Clinic as Mayo tries to recover from this devastatingly embarassing story.
I don't think we should necessarily be too hard on Mayo, though - they are acting as the System as been trained to act and they have never had cause to rethink the way they pressure families. We have granted them that authority by backing down as parents and when we stand up, this is the kind of outcome we hope for.
Take that, you big impersonal heartless family-breaking system! This is a blow to the heart.
And it makes farmers, parents, feisty kids and even the police department look pretty good. Because it was the police in the end who had the crucial recognition that the Mayo Clinic was stepping out of bounds and the officers weren't going to support them.
WHEW! What a way to start the day!
Lead Image pulled from video of Alyssa's escape
Image of Alyssa on Family Farm
This post is written in support of 
