A Jefferson City man who picketed for a year to get copies of his medical records has got them. And he's still picketing.
Cal Winter was a client at New Horizons Community Support Services, but stopped his treatments in February 2010, when he couldn't afford to continue. But the local not-for-profit community health program wouldn't give him his patient records, and he started picketing the agency in April 2011.
For 35 hours a week or so, he held his 6 1/2-foot sign in front of New Horizons as well as other locations, including the county courthouse and intersection at Dix Road and Missouri Boulevard.
This April, Missouri Protection & Advocacy Services helped him to get his records - 465 pages of them. The agency offers advocacy and legal services to protect the rights of people with disabilities.
"Before I got the records, I was very angry," he said. "I would have to say I was becoming dangerously angry. And when I got the records, that all began to dissipate. I was angry at being done such an injustice, and when the injustice stopped, then I stopped being angry."
While he hasn't picketed nearly as much during the past half year, he hasn't entirely stopped.
"Sometimes I to go New Horizons and picket for old time's sake. I like seeing the case workers," Winter said. "And then I think that they deserve to be hammered a bit because they did something that I think was unethical, and they're just walking away from it."