Thirty years ago today: The final hours of Lisa McPherson’s Scientology life

[Karen#1]

TONY ORTEGA
Excerpt:

​

We want to warn you the story we’re reprinting today is very disturbing and contains graphic descriptions that some may find difficult to deal with. Ten years ago we marked the 20th anniversary of the death of Lisa McPherson by recording, in real time, the final weeks of her life. Today marks the 30th anniversary of her final day on earth, and we have been repeating our series, culminating with this piece today.

It’s a harrowing account of Lisa’s final hours, and not for the squeamish. If you are not familiar with her story, you might go back to the beginning of our series (links are provided below) about this lovely woman whose mental breakdown was treated by Scientology with a grim enforced seclusion at their holiest place, the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida. By this point, she was on her 17th day of isolation, with her caretakers not saying a word to her as dictated by the policies of L. Ron Hubbard.


What Laura Arrunada, Lisa McPherson’s final caretaker, saw in Room 174 of the Fort Harrison Hotel in the last three days of Lisa’s life was so upsetting, Marty Rathbun made her reports disappear.

Laura had trained to be a doctor in Mexico, and had completed her coursework and a two-year residency, but had stopped short of taking the board exam to become a physician. Ten years later, she was working in the Sea Org at Scientology’s Flag Land Base in its medical liaison office. She had first been asked to work a shift with Lisa McPherson on the day after Thanksgiving.

A week later, she was working with Rita Boykin and Heather Hoff while being overseen by Janis Johnson. Laura’s shifts started in the late afternoon and went until the early morning. And on Lisa’s final two nights, Laura witnessed a disturbing sight.

Sunday night, December 3, 1995, Laura watched as Lisa, who at this point could no longer stand or get around the hotel room on her own, was lying flat on the floor, face down. And her hips began to move.

READ MORE

Thirty years ago today: The final hours of Lisa McPherson’s Scientology life

We want to warn you the story we’re reprinting today is very disturbing and contains graphic descriptions that some may find difficult to deal with.

tonyortega.substack.com

 

[I M Dex]

What a sad, horrific story. I don't know what else to say, other than this story should appear next to every reference to the "church" of Scientology on the internet.

 

[Hatshepsut]

That was smart to include the diary of Lisa's last days at the close of the article. Anyone who thinks the story incredulous, can reaffirm the truth of it.

My mother is very into the church and was ordained a minister with training to give last rights. She had gone into many nursing facilities in a person's final days, to give them. I had thought only priest could deliver this Catholic sacrament of Extreme Unction. Mom had told me of the prevalence of bladder infections in the dying and elderly. The more sickly and helpless the person, the more dire the need of extra assistance to stay clean. My grandmother died of sepsis over a few day period and was delirious the couple days before. The family lodged complaints as this scenario had become all too common.. A final stroke came to end her ordeal.

Extreme Unction is the former name for the Catholic sacrament now called the Anointing of the Sick. It is a sacrament for those who are seriously ill or in danger of death, not just those at the point of death, and involves a priest anointing the sick person with blessed oil. The effects of this sacrament include spiritual comfort, forgiveness of sins, strengthening against temptation, and, where it is God's will, bodily healing.

Scientology should have had the pants sued off them. The attitude of hiding things gone wrong and holding their patients to blame is sickening. I'm remembering the relief I felt after watching David Mayo's one tech training film. It was where the female celeb getting Flag auditing hit a bad rollercoaster. He played the Sam Spade character who uncovered her previous psychiatric incident as a girl with possible sexual abuse by that relative. When found, the woman sprang back into present time/ functioning. Voila. Amazingly, it was the only time I'd seen a higher up admit you might focus on what happened TO the suddenly declining person who went off the rails.

Somewhere in the tech volumes, I'd read that bad errors in case handling can trigger earlier implants. I had cause to wonder about that one.
A person masturbating and grinding on the floor like in Lisa's case, could easily bring about infections. Especially if leaking fecal matter. Many women are prone to urinary tract infections and if not nipped in the bud, they get worse, it passing through the entire system.

By the 90s, the general public knew how important it was to keep a body hydrated. We'd gone through so many aerobic and jogging crazes and there were health food stores across the street on Fort Harrison Ave where items got purchased for the Purif. And traveling way up to Newport Ritchie to get to a hospital while Lisa's custodians were desperately searching for her pulse, is unforgivable. More sickening is that it's likely Lisa was used as some example of what can happen, when, after reaching a higher level, you let your ethics 'go out'. Seen that one happen several times once the person was finally diagnosed as terminal.

 

[Type4_PTS]

Knowledge Report: Scientology Corrupts Legal System
33,130 views Nov 18, 2012
In this raw footage interview, the former second-in-command of Scientology, Marty Rathbun, explains how Scientology coerced medical examiner Joan Wood to change her opinion on the cause of Lisa McPherson's death which then derailed the criminal charges against Scientology.

 

[Hatshepsut]

Knowledge Report: Scientology Corrupts Legal System
33,130 views Nov 18, 2012
In this raw footage interview, the former second-in-command of Scientology, Marty Rathbun, explains how Scientology coerced medical examiner Joan Wood to change her opinion on the cause of Lisa McPherson's death which then derailed the criminal charges against Scientology.

God, it took Marty a long time to say anything specific. Did Lisa die of dehydration of not. Was it false testimony that she didn't .