Where Is Pam--Mother of US Marine Missing In Florida
January 28 was Pamela Biggers and her husband Don's 26th wedding anniversary. Instead of spending the day together, however, Don spent the day searching for his missing wife. She still hasn't been found and a law designed to protect people's medical privacy could hinder the search. Cassie Thomas, Pam's niece-in-law, is maintaining a website to help in the search by spreading information and seeking tips. The family needs your help to bring her home safely.
Pam traveled the 5 1/2 hours from her home in Hueytown, Alabama to Panama City Beach, Florida the day earlier. Driving with a co-worker from Acosta, they were heading for a business meeting and checked into the LaQuinta Inn around 5:30 p.m. After picking up some snacks for the night, they both went to their rooms. Pam was last seen entering her room at 7 p.m.
"They were all supposed to meet in the hotel lobby Monday morning," Cassie said. "She didn't show up. A hotel worker went to her room and knocked on the door. Nobody answered. The manager opened her door. All of her stuff was there...her clothes, her cellphone, her purse, all her money. The bed was turned down like she was getting ready for the night but it hadn't been slept in. Her car was still in the parking lot."
Before we continue, it's important to know more about Pam and who she is. At 52 years old, she looks years younger. She is very personable, unafraid to talk to a stranger and she has a hearty laugh that is sure to catch your attention. And she laughed a lot. When her face lights up, it lights up the whole room. Her family is her life. She is the mother of two boys, both in their early 20's. Her younger son Jake is a US Marine stationed in Jacksonville, North Carolina, awaiting orders to be deployed overseas. It goes without saying he wants his mom home safe before he heads off. Cassie said she's also a tremendously caring person. "She's one of those motherly, nesting type people."
One other thing. And it could play a big part in her disappearance. She may be bi-polar. "It became apparent about a year and a half ago," Cassie said. "She would talk about hearing voices and weird paranoia stuff. Her dad was bi-polar and we thought she might be too. It's very hard to convince someone who is manic that they are manic and they have a problem. So her family had a very hard time to get her to go to the doctors. And the one time they got her to go it was to her general practitioner. The doctor recommended she see a specialist. The appointment was made but she broke it. So she was never formally diagnosed with bi-polar disorder. She was, however, prescribed medication but she didn't take it after complaining of side effects. "When she and her co-worker Brenda got into Panama City, they went to Wal-Mart to get some snacks. Brenda said that Pam would walk really fast in the store and stop and wait on them. She kept repeating this behavior. When Brenda thought back to that day, and after hearing Pam suffered from bi-polar disorder, it hit her that Pam was acting strange."
The family, about 20 of them, headed to Florida to search for her. Hundreds of posters were put up as well as searches by foot and by car. "We have no leads and we haven't since she's been missing," Cassie said. "The Bay County Sheriff's Office used search dogs and they traced her scent going out of the side door of the hotel. Her husband Don saw shoe prints along the border of the woods behind the hotel which he believe were Pam's. They seemed to pace along the wooded area, stopped and turned around and came back. The search dogs traced her scent down the main road where they lost it. So they believe she wandered off. Family and her co-workers searched the woods by foot. We drove all over Panama City looking for her which was just overwhelming."
Imagine searching a city with nothing to go on and miles of streets, alleys and highways. Where do you look? "You're trying to do everything you can think of," Cassie recalled. "Your instinct is to just drive and look along the roadside. It's very overwhelming. We decided to focus our efforts on posting flyers hoping someone would spot her."
After searching for about a week, investigators told the family it would be best for them to return home. Given the time she was missing, she may not even be in Panama City anymore. The theory police have after talking with her doctor is she might have dozed off in the hotel and woke up disoriented in an amnesic state not knowing where she was and wandered off. "Truthfully," Cassie said, "that's what gives us hope. That we're going to find her at some point."
However, this is where HIPAA, an act that protects the privacy of patients may in fact hinder the search for Pam. "We just recently learned that because of HIPAA, investigators and police are not able to be told if Pam is in an area hospital. If someone picked her up and brought her to a hospital and that's where she is, the hospital is bound by HIPAA not to disclose this information," Cassie said. That means if Pam is suffering from amnesia, and doesn't know who she is (and remember she is carrying no identification) medical staff can't tell anyone including police.
"We draw on our faith," Cassie said. "God has a will, whatever that may be in this situation, something good will come of it."
Pam was last seen wearing a white sweater and black pants with white pinstripes. If you have any information at all you think may be helpful, call the Bay County Sheriff's Office at 850-747-4700.
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Thanks, Holliston, for giving us more information. I am praying!
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This is one part of the HIPAA law that needs to be changed, and changed fast. An amnestic patient with no ID, the family could be downstairs showing the patient's ID to the hospital, with all of her medical details to help the hospital treat her, and the hospital can't tell them she is there. So we are at a stalemate. The family walks away not knowing she is there, and takes the valuable medical records with them that could have helped the physicians treat the patient . Oh what a tangled web we weave !! Somehow, we have to find a way to help this family. Will the hospitals talk to her doctor?
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barbie....I totally agree with you here....this should be an exeption. It's not like we need to know any personal info about her that they can't give out....her family would just like to know if SHE IS THERE OR NOT....
WHEN she is found safely....if it found that she was at a hospital this would be the perfect time for people to come forward to try and get the HIPAA changed alittle.(am I making any sense at all...sometimes I ramble..LOL) I pray that she is found safely....and is returned home to her friends and family.
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There was a recent case in the Atlanta area where there was an injured patient in the hospital, unable to provide her identity and the hospital asked for help identifiying her. Why is this any different? It absolutely makes no sense to me. If HIPAA wasn't violated in this story, it shouldn't be violated in Pam's case.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319711,00.html
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I have this question purely out of curiousity, if one of the local hospital's did have a patient that had amnesia, could the hospital call in the local media to see if anyone recognizes her? Holliston, could you answer this? Maybe that is away around the HIPAA act, I don't know, but just a thought.
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Thank you for the piece you have written on Pam Biggers. She is my sister, Cassie is my daughter-in-law.
Paula Thomas
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I hope she's found soon. My thoughts are with you.
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Hey PAULA
This is Rena Morris Lyle. I have been praying for Pam and the entie family. I did speak to Randy last week and he was going to email me your phone# but I never received it. I know he has been busy. Please send me your ph # via email if you see my email address on this site . Is there anything I can do?
Rena
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THANK YOU for posting this story. It gives me great hope knowing there are caring, wonderful people out there. Until this has happened to you, it's overwhelming! I am a co-worker that was with Pam, and I miss her! As does her family and friends. PLEASE keep praying and looking.
Thank you again
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I just happen to think I don`t know all the ups and down on her health and I don`t know if she possibly went in on her own or not I am sure the family knows about Bay behavioral here they will not tell you anything if you are not on the list and they can even send you to other hospitals out of town as well this is a lock down hospital . She could of been brought there to if she did not know who she was which it would be much harder to get to her and check out than just a regular hospital . My thought is this .. I understand the hippa law but in this case the family don`t know if she is safe or foul play is involved ( we hope that is not the case ) Can`t the Husband go get a court order to search the hospitals or the police get a seapona ? I would not give up . We can not use ones illness to let days weeks or months go by at the risk or really putting a human life in real danger and I mean that to say what if someone has her and she still is a live for example take the little girl that was took out of her home buried alive but kept right across the street .. I am just saying what if we as a nation said oh she may of ran away oh she had an illness look at the marain what her own mother or stap mother said We / the cops who ever have to stop this that should not matter when someone is missing lets not drop the ball . Lets do what we can to find them . Also , I live in Bay county florida I know how it is I beg you if this woman is in your hospital off the clock at a pay phone pay a drunk off the street I don`t care about hippa FIND A WAY TO CONTACT THE FAMILY AND AT LEAST LET THEM KNOW SHE IS THERE AND ALIVE ! Other wise time is wasting I would want my family to know period !
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I meant to say it does not matter if someone is sick in any way shape or form if they are missing we should find them at all cost do not drop the ball .
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Because of a neurological condition which I have, I have sometimes experienced periods of amnesia (retrograde). It can be a very frightening experience. Luckily, my attacks have been very brief. However, due to this condition, I have made up a Medical Power of Attorney for my husband, with both my brother and my son as alternates. If I should find myself in this condition such as Pam is, my family would have the documentation needed to overcome the HIPPA laws, I hope. Anyone with a serious illness should do this, and talk to their doctors about what protections it gives them in an emergency. What would their family be able to do/not be able to do. Make sure you choose someone to give your power of attorney to that has the same desires you do, or at least understands yours and would do all possible to fulfill them. Do all possible to ensure noone ever has to go through what Pam's family seems to be fighting. You can get the forms off the web.
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Hello,
I am sorry I have not been on in a few days . I hope all is well . My thoughts and prayers are still with Pam and the family . I wanted to also stress that everyone needs a poa- Power of attorney . Especially in the state of Florida . Be a ssured that there are different types though and just a POA is not good enough to surpass the hippa laws make sure its a Medical Poa or else it will not mean the paper its wrote , typed or signed on unless you get very lucky and get someone who don`t know the difference . I don`t mean to stress anyone out but I know alot about this from dealing with my own husband from a near fatal car accident about 8 years ago and all the medical ins and outs of the hospitals etc . its such a shame with one POA YOU CAN SELL ANYTHING CONTROL ANYTHING WHAT EVERR YOU WANT and yes all the medical in the world you have the say so over what to do with or with out any POA but if they are lost missing or hurt Hippa laws at least in the stste in the state of Florida will not tell you a thing Something needs to be changed its very sad . I sure hope that she is found soon . I hope and pray for her safe return everyday .
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To Pam's family we are praying for you daily. We are praying for God to give you the strength and courage to go on each day. We trust you find her safe very soon. We love you your family in Lynn,Al.
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