Another explotation of immigrants

Skimming the Chronicles of Higher Education website last week I was surprised to see a photo from a business district I had to memorize as a rookie firefighter/EMT.

Welcome to Beautiful Downtown Annandale

The view from the front ramp of Fire Station 8 is a patchwork of commerical and retail buildings surrounding an intersection of five roads.

Matching street address to business name

Captain W. would yell at us when Rescue 8 (ambulance) would scream out of the fire station, make a hard left … and then have to make a U-turn because the incident location is "over there."

In those prehistoric days, I contributed to a hand-drawn map that showed the central business district.  Every building with street addresses and business names. Many were more easily accessable from the ocean of asphalt parking spaces surrounding the buildings.

In the late 1970's noticed about a 30% annual turnover in commercial and retail occupancies.  By 1990 there were about 100 Korean-focused stores, restaurants and clubs in the greater Annandale business district.

The Chelation Incidents

I was special-called as an EMS Supervisor to the east end of the business district. Medic 8 was working a troublesome situation.

An older Indian person who appeared very ill was laying on a bench outside a second floor allopathic and nutritional clinic. The clinic specialized in EDTA chelation therapy. I also observed signage promoting Ozone therapy. 

No one would speak English and none of us were conversant in Korean or Standard Hindi. It appeared that the clinic was closing for the day and this patient was removed from the office. An unidentified party called 9-1-1.

Medic 8's crew had called for an EMS Supervisor because this was the third or fourth time they encountered a patient apparently dumped outside the clinic.

Clinics dumping patients on EMS at closing time is not new, but the circumstances with this clinic left me uncomfortable. There was no patient information or transfer paperwork. The clinic went to great effort not to speak with the paramedics. Discovered that the 9-1-1 call was traced to the clinic's phone number.

Discomfort grew as I got inside the clinic and noted the dirty and unkempt condition of the patient care areas.

A Korean fluent police officer arrived. Long after Medic 8 cleared the hospital, I was still working with police and health department representatives. We appeared to have a multicultural incident:

The owner of the clinic had an earned PhD while serving in the US military as a warrior and later a researcher. His 1958 thesis covered altering bacterial endotoxins.

After leaving the service he obtained a medical degree from the Open University for Complimentary Medicine in Sri Lanka. Would you be surprised that OUCM is not a recognized or accredited medical school?

The other physician was trained in the Republic of India.

Four years after that incident the corporation lost it's laboratory permit from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services because of:

• Condition level non-compliance causing immediate and serious threat to the health and safety of patients.
• Failure to correct deficiencies.
• Failure to submit an acceptable plan of correction and failure to comply with a Directed Portion of a Plan.

Losing the permit means Medicare will not pay for services. A year before Medic 8's incident, the American owner was found guilty of mail fraud and closed down his first Annandale clinic.

By advocating for these patients, and documenting what they observed, the crews of Medic 8 facilitated to the closing of a bogus clinic.

A Naturally Occuring Immigrant Center

The Annandale business district had 929 Korean-focused businesses in 2005. 

According to David Cho, in this March 14, 2005, Washington Post article, the stores represent about one-third of all the Washington area Korean businesses. 'Koreatown' Image Divides A Changing Annandale

Liz Farmer, writing in a July 21, 2011, Washington Examiner article, points out that the Korean population has increased 50% since 2001 and the Indian population has increased 71%.  Koreans, Indians lead Northern Virginia's Asian population boom

University of Northern Virginia

On the west end of the Annandale business district, a for-profit university catering to Indian students was raided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security last week.  About 2000 foreign students were enrolled in UNVA and residing in the United States on student visas.

They are working in New York, Ohio and elsewhere, returning to Annandale one weekend a month to study business administration or computer science.  Many are working in the three Super Q Mart International Food grocery stores owned by Daniel Ho, who is also the UNVA founder and majority owner.

Tom Bartlett, Karin Fischer, and Josh Keller published the results of their investigation into unaccredited schools catering to foreign students and exploiting loopholes in the post 9/11 visa process.  Little-Known Colleges Exploit Visa Loopholes to Make Millions Off Foreign Students was published March 20, 2011 in The Chronicles of Higher Education and UNVA was one of the featured schools.

Last week the other shoe dropped.  Bartlett, Fisher and Keller reported: Federal Agents Raid Virginia Institution That Draws Many Students From India on July 29.

Language and Culture may mask target hazards

When I worked as a fire inspector in the same neighborhood, I would find owners living in their store. It was their only home.

That certainly added to the risk-reward equation when rolling up on a strip shopping center with smoke coming from the jeweler's store!

Would stumble across religious services and multi-level marketing seminars held in spaces too small or unsafe for an assembly. Often in places never considered for such use, like the service department break room at a car dealership.

Raves in out-of-the way commercial structures. Unaccredited assisted living or day care facilities in residences.

The attaining of the American Dream is different for everyone. In some cases it creates hazards or harm to others. Other times it just exploits desire and aspiration.

Wonder how valuable it would be to learn more about our new neighbors before showing up on the Big Red Truck on a 9-1-1 initiated event?

Mike "FossilMedic" Ward