Emma Gunn, Type 1 Diabetic
Questioning Wireless Equipment in Hospitals
excerpted from An Electronic Silent Spring
Emma Gunn, 31, Type 1 diabetic, Pennsylvania: In the Spring of 2013, I got a stomach virus. After nearly twenty-four hours of vomiting, I went to the hospital. In the ICU, I was wired to several monitors and a digitalized IV drip that gave me anti-nausea medication and another drug (that I am usually on) to raise my blood pressure. For four days, vomiting and dry heaves continued. When my blood pressure went up to 166/115, the drug that raises blood pressure was stopped. I was given another drug that lowers it. I could barely talk.
On Day 4, the virus began to subside. The time between vomiting got longer. I moved out of the ICU into a room that did not have a wired heart monitor – only a wireless one. This room also had a view of a cell tower about a quarter of a mile away. My health continued to improve, but I felt that the wireless monitor kept me from fully regaining my strength.
My mother told the doctor that Dr. Magda Havas, a medical researcher, found that blood sugar control1 and blood pressure2 are affected by the radiofrequency signals that wireless devices use to operate. She asked if he could remove the wireless heart monitor.
Hospital policy states that when blood pressure meds are delivered intravenously, the patient must wear a heart monitor. This good doctor realized that if I took the medication orally, then he could remove the wireless monitor.
My blood pressure normalized as soon as the monitor came off. I left the hospital the next day. My doctor wondered whether other patients are affected by wireless and digitalized equipment.
Indeed, I wonder how exposure to such equipment affected me. I wonder how medical workers are affected since they’re exposed to wireless transmitting medical equipment throughout the work week – along with cell towers, Wi-Fi, fluorescent lights and wireless keyboards. I wonder what my options are if I get dangerously sick again.
While the FDA has the authority to regulate digitalized and wireless medical devices, Congress does not provide it the funding to do so.
In the U.S., Toronto, Canada and in Sweden, some hospitals have designated low-EMF zones.
Endnotes
1. Havas, Magda, “Dirty electricity elevates blood sugar among electrically sensitive diabetics and may explain brittle diabetes,” Electromagn Biol Med, June, 2008; 27(2):135-146.
2. Havas, Magda, J. Marrongelle, et al, “Provocation study using heart rate variability shows microwave radiation from 2.4 GHz cordless phones affects autonomic nervous system,” Non-Thermal Effects and Mechanisms of Interaction Between Electromagnetic Fields and Living Matter: European J. of Oncology, Ed. by Livio Giuliani and Morando Soffritti, Vol. 5, 2010.