Da Wong Dakta Wong

Dr. Wong is one of the psychiatrists who held me in custody against my will at Del Amo Mental Hospital. He always wore a stethoscope around his neck and always tried very hard to con me into believing that he is a normal doctor. Every time that he talked to me, he would put the stethoscope on my chest, ask me to breathe in deeply, hold it, breathe out, check my pulse, and would stick a tongue depressor in my mouth to look deep into my throat. I wasn’t sick. I didn’t want a check up. But he wanted very hard to prove to me that he was not the most stupid quack in the whole world. (It doesn’t take the most stupid quack to kill a healthy person.) (Any average quack can do that.) I didn’t want a check up. I just wanted to visit my friends and family. I hadn’t seen my family for the last 2 years. I had come to the U.S. to visit my family, not for a check up from Dr. Quack.

After the fake check up, Dr. Wong said that I would be getting out of Del Amo “today,” “You’re either going home or a partial. Either way, you’re getting out today,” he said.

I thanked him out of courtesy, but I never trust a U.S. psychiatrist farther than I can throw a pregnant elephant. I knew he was just another freaken liar like all the others. Two hours later, a woman said that she is my “public defender,” and that she would be representing me at my “trial” to decide whether I would be held in custody for 14 more days or released today.

The courtroom was a small office like in this cartoon. A WASP woman was sitting behind the desk, and Dr. Wong was sitting on the right of the desk. The so-called “public defender” was on the left of the desk. Then Dr. Wong began to tell the so-called “judge,” “I would like to keep Mr. Sanchez here at Del Amo for a 14 day hold. Mr. Sanchez is totally unaware of the seriousness of his illness. He thinks that his $8.⁰⁰ is enough money to find a place to live in and pay for all living expenses for several months. If we were to release him into the community, he would not have the mental skills to find a place to live. He would end up sleeping on the streets and would not be able to get the medication and treatment that he need to recover from his illness.

I had already served 7 days by then. I served a total of 18 days at Del Amo plus 3 more days at Little Company of Mary Bridges in San Pedro. It was then a total of 21 days. I tried to present a lot of evidence to prove to that “judge” woman that I had thousands of dollars in the bank. But she just looked at me with a big smile as if I was just a cute little Mexican with a big “ranchero” hat over my face taking a “siesta” propped up against a seguaro cactus.

I spent a few days with my family and then I had to come back here to Kiev to go back to work. And that’s what I did for my summer vacation of 2010.