Dr. Kimberly Lanni and Kaiser Sacramento's Conversion Disorder Mill
How the Movement Disorders Team tried to push me into Psychiatry based on a misdiagnosis
This one will be harder to write, because I’m going to use some names and say some things that I’ve not said before. But I feel the need to write it for many reasons, above all that no future patients ever have to endure what I have endured.
Since early 2018 and for over 2,000 continuous days following, up to the present moment, I’ve had sharp, intense head pain lasting hours at a time, severe intracranial pressure, gait, speech, balance, coordination and cognitive impairment. From the moment I entered Kaiser care in November 2018, whenever I visit a Kaiser facility, staff have offered me a wheelchair. I’ve had four MRIs performed for the purpose of diagnosing gait abnormalities/movement disorder as well as cognitive impairment/dementia/memory loss.
This year, in May, Dr. Suketu Khandhar, Chief of Neurology at Kaiser Sacramento, diagnosed me with Apraxia. Apraxia is a neurological disorder that affects a person's ability to perform skilled movements or execute purposeful actions, despite having the physical ability and understanding of the task. It is primarily a motor planning and coordination deficit rather than a result of muscle weakness or sensory loss.
In August, Dr. Amit Raheja, a neuroradiologist at Kaiser North Valley/Roseville, discovered the parietal lobe atrophy that four previous Kaiser neuroradiologists failed to find in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023. Damage to certain areas within the parietal lobe, such as the left hemisphere, can lead to various forms of apraxia.
an image from my May 23, 2023 MRI brain scan showing temporoparietal atrophy, greater on the left, asymmetrical prominence of the Sylvian fissures, and periventricular parietal white mater changes, also greater on the left.
Damage to the left parietal lobe, particularly in the posterior parietal cortex, is commonly associated with ideomotor apraxia. Ideomotor apraxia refers to difficulties in executing purposeful, skilled movements or gestures, even though the individual understands the task and has the physical ability to perform it. This form of apraxia typically involves impaired motor planning and coordination.
On November 25, 2019, at the referral of Kaiser Sacramento psychiatrist Dr. Anna Vinter, I had neuropsychological testing performed at Kaiser’s North Valley/Roseville facility. The testing was administered by Dr. Kimberly Lanni.
Despite being shown a video of my gait disorder and having seen me walk, Dr. Lanni did not believe I had a gait disorder or movement disorder, any more than she recognized speech impairment or cognitive impairment. She invalidated the results of the cognitive testing based on the premise that “Neurology has signed off on you,” as she put it, but retained the psychological portion of the testing (MMP-2) which was administered via computer questionnaire.
Unbeknownst to me at the time, Dr. Lanni generated four mental health diagnoses that day, including Dependent Personality Disorder and severe Somatic Symptom Disorder. Dr. Lanni did not (and apparently still does not) believe I had an actual, organic neurological condition.
“I recommend that you see a psychiatrist and be treated with medication,” Lanni had told me after the testing.
On December 3, 2019, Dr. Lanni paid me an unexpected (and unwanted) “follow up” phone visit where she again pushed me to have therapy with her and to be seen by a psychiatrist. I told her I did not wish to see her and had no interest in seeing a psychiatrist. I had discontinued antidepressants in 2018 due to a severe adverse reaction, which initiated the head pain and burning/pressure sensation.
Despite my vigorous push-back, Lanni stated in her visit notes that I had “agreed to treatment if necessary.”
A week later I received a call from the office of Anna Vinter, psychiatrist. Dr. Vinter’s office told me they were ready to see me and medicate me. I had previously told Dr. Vinter, and she had agreed with me, that I had no desire to take psychiatric medication. Dr. Vinter had further indicated in her visit note that she believed my condition of “profound deterioration” was more likely to be physical than psychological.
It would seem that Dr. Lanni repeatedly ignored my stated wishes not to be seen by her in therapy, nor to be seen by a psychiatrist, and had even gone so far as to contact Dr. Vinter’s office to state I had “agreed to treatment if necessary.”
Dr. Lanni works side-by-side with a team of doctors, physical therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists who comprise the Movement Disorders Team. Members of the team include Dr. Khandhar and neuropsychiatrist Dr. Michel Medina.
During an office visit October 8, 2020, Dr. Khandhar told me that he had consulted with Dr. Lanni over my neuropsychological testing and concluded with her that I had a conversion disorder. Conversion disorder, otherwise known as Functional Neurological Disorder, is a rebranded version of what was for thousands of years known as “hysteria.” It’s a condition characterized by the presence of neurological symptoms or deficits that cannot be explained by a known neurological or medical condition. The symptoms experienced by individuals with conversion disorder, while real and distressing, do not have a clear organic or structural cause.
Dr. Khandhar then stated that he had gone over the results of my brain MRIs with the Chief of Radiology. “I’ve seen thousands of brains,” he roared, “and yours are stone cold normal!”
On the premise that I had a conversion disorder rather than a legitimate organic disorder, Dr. Khandhar referred me to Dr. Michel Medina.
Dr. Michael Medina is a specialist in conversion disorder/FND research and even co-authored a study on teaching doctors how to tell their patients about their Functional Neurological Disorder diagnosis.
Dr. Khandhar insisted that that fact I no longer worked as a college professor (I had previously taught college in Southern California, but had since authored and edited several books and was studying Law when I succumbed to my neurological condition) had traumatized me, which lead me to externalize my anxiety at the loss of that job and suddenly, out of the clear blue sky, become impaired in early 2018. He said he had recently hired Dr. Medina, discussed my case with him and was eager to have me seen in Medina’s office for diagnosis and treatment of conversion disorder. He also scheduled a DaT scan to be performed to “rule in” Parkinson’s disease.
Again unbeknownst to me, Dr. Khandhar placed “conversion disorder” in addition to “gait abnormality” as the protocols for the DaT scan, which was scheduled for October 6, 2020. The DaT scan was not done as I developed claustrophobia. Dr. Khandhar doubled down in his notes on the DaT scan, adding that “the patient has a conversion disorder.”
As I had substantial impairment and severe pain I knew in my bones was authentic, organic and not caused by a job I hadn’t performed for going on a decade at that point, I dropped out of Kaiser care altogether. There was no point in seeing a psychiatrist for a mental health condition I didn’t have.
I dropped out for two years, during which time Dr. Lanni entered an office visit in my record for January 21, 2022, in which she added Dependent Personality Disorder to my problem list, checking a box that it was “chronic.”
In November 2022, at the urging of my family, I re-entered Kaiser care. I agreed to do so with the stipulation that conversion disorder no longer be considered a viable diagnosis and that I would not see a psychiatrist. My new primary care doctor sought “fresh eyes” on my condition and sent a note to Kaiser Neurology that I “protested” the conversion disorder diagnosis.
On December 7, 2022, I was seen by neurologist Dr. Franklin Lum. Angry and abrupt, Dr. Lum ignored my slurred speech and the fact that I literally could not walk in a straight line. He insisted that I had “no signs of a neurological disorder” and referred me to neuropsychiatrist Dr. Michel Medina.
As a result of Dr. Lum’s treatment of me, I reported him to the Medical Board in March. Their investigation is ongoing.
When I reported Dr. Lum to the Medical Board, he understandably stated he no longer wished to be my provider. I was then left without a neurologist.
On April 6, Dr. Kimberly Lanni suddenly appeared as a Care Provider on my secure message portal, for the first time in my medical history (she had not been present on the portal until this year, and in fact by that point it had been more than three years since I’d seen her). When I asked her to remove herself from my portal, she insisted she had no idea how she got there. I was told by the IT department that there was no way for them to remove her and that her name would fall off naturally after a year.
Dr. Lanni then turned my exchanges with her asking her to remove herself from the portal into a series of “appointments” which appeared in my Past Visits section and remain to this day.
Also in April, my primary care provider, whom I had implored not to refer me to psychiatry and, indeed, made that the one stipulation of my return to Kaiser care, suggested I see Dr. Michel Medina.
On August 2 I was informed by Grievance Operations case manager Thu N that Dr. Christina Bilyeu, the physician lead in charge of the Psychiatry Department, “confirmed” that Dr. Lanni had been my “treating doctor since 2019” and had made “no wrong clinical findings” in my care.
On August 29 I was informed by Grievance Operations case manager Carissa B that, according to the Manager of the Psychiatry Department, Dr. Lanni had “no part of my care” since November 25, 2019. This contradicts everything I’d experienced and documented up until that point.
Dr. Lanni’s fanatical pursuit of me as a patient long after the one-time testing, her influence on Dr. Khandhar and Dr. Lum, combined with the repeated referral to her Movement Disorders team member Dr. Medina, for diagnosis and treatment of conversion disorder/FND, suggests a pattern. Who knows how many patients have been fed into the conversion disorder/FND wood chipper by Sacramento Kaiser’s Movement Disorders Team? One is too many. I’m writing this to warn Kaiser Sacramento/North Valley neurology patients, especially those with gait abormalities, that this may be their fate as well.
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