Posted on 04/24/2010 7:27:49 PM PDT by Mountain Troll
...interviews with more than a dozen soldiers and health care professionals from Fort Carson’s transition unit, along with reports from other posts, suggest that the units are far from being restful sanctuaries. For many soldiers, they have become warehouses of despair, where damaged men and women are kept out of sight, fed a diet of powerful prescription pills and treated harshly by noncommissioned officers. Because of their wounds, soldiers in Warrior Transition Units are particularly vulnerable to depression and addiction, but many soldiers from Fort Carson’s unit say their treatment there has made their suffering worse...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good first post. Thank you. Our wounded warriors deserve only the very best and I recommend people get involved in the Wounded Warrior Project.
I’d definately get other sources. The New York Slimes is to be taken with a huge dose of salt.
The situation at Fort carson, if even partially accurate, is unacceptable.
Thank you for your service Mountain Troll.
Thanks for posting this. I’m 54 years old, so it’s nice to get a preview of my old age health care will be like under socialized Obamacare.
warehoused?
wait until ObamaCare gives us 40-bed wards
wait until ObamaCare gives us 40-bed wards
And 5 bed pans to share.
I won’t even comment on what’s going to be going through the IV’s.
I’m stationed here at Fort Carson. I always tell folks in the outside that if they ever want to know what socialized health care looks like (coming soon after they bankrupt the industry over the next couple of years), then they need to come and witness military health care. In order to see a doctor, a soldier first has to see a medic (equal to an EMT-P in the outside world), then they get sent (if the medic doesn’t try being doctor first) to a P.A. (physician’s assistant). If the P.A. wants, and it usually ends at his/her office, then they can refer you to a doctor. Finally, days after the condition began, you might see a doctor. Otherwise, you can go sit in the E.R. for hours upon hours after work hours. If you go, and check in, it becomes your place of duty and you can’t leave until they clear you. Then the E.R. doctor will prescribe you “vitamin M” (that’s what we call Motrin because military docs prescribe it for everything) to get you by until the next day and then refer you back to square one, your medic’s aid station.
God forbid if you get cancer and need care.....thank God I’ve never had cancer, but I’ve seen another go through the process from my unit.
Just getting them ready for their VA experience...
Again, thank You.
Thank you for writing this. I recently went through almost a year of medboard hell and you described the healthcare aspect of it dead on. I literally dread the VA claim. My son will never enlist if I have any influence at all. ROTC or Academy or forget it.
Amen
What location is this?
Please don’t misunderstand, I’m not in the Wounded Warrior Program; I just know the medical system all too well. Thank God I don’t have a Purple Heart, and thank God for those who do! In fact, in six days I’m leaving for SFAS (Special Forces Assessment and Selection). Hopefully, in 29 days from today I’ll be selected and awaiting jump school on the way to Q-course.
I hope the care the soldiers get when coming home from Combat is better. At the bottom of all this, don't forget the military is, at the bottom of it all, an agency of the government. This kind of health care is what we'll be getting once Obamacare goes into effect in 2014.
lol. Thats a UK hospital I believe.
Well then, Thank you in advance ;o) And may God protect you as he has my dear grandson - on his 2nd tour in the ‘ghan...
Airborne - Battle Co.,
Movie coming out in July - “Restrepo” about his platoon - written/directed by Sebastian Junger (wrote “Perfect Storm) and Tim Hetherington.
The book “WAR” by Junger available on Amazon for pre-order, comes out mid-May. “Restrepo” will be shown again in the fall on Nat’l Geo and DVD and ebooks.
They fought in “The valley of Death” - the Korengal - over 1,000 firefights -
the POS in the WH just handed the whole thing back to the taliban - even left a lot of ammo and rockets, missiles, morters - for them. Real nice thanks to our heroes.
here’s a clip of he Taliban prancing around the base - sickening.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WamBeYQeRvE
I’d like to see an explanation for why all that ordinance wasn’t destroyed - I suspicion a deal was made...and someone ought to hang. (that ammuntion will be used against our troops)
It’s all Bammy’s fault.
Thanks for your service. As a former Medic, (never worked at Carson...but at Benning, Sill, BAMC and a tour with the Infantry boys) I can tell you from experience, there were plenty of guys I wanted the Docs to see, but sending them over from the TMC to the Hospital incurred alot of grief from the brass. Also, our profile rates were often scrutinzed. If you wanted a Doc to look at a patient, they would also give you a hard time because you were interrupting their Tee Time at the Post course, or taking time away from that three martini lunch at the O club...
I took my wife there one day at 8PM when she had a fever of 103. We were there until 0300 the next morning and the only care she received was when she was moved from the waiting area into a bed in the ER. We ended up leaving after I raised hell and still received no attention from the medical staff. I took her to see my Bn PA for treatment the first thing in the morning. I also filed a complaint with the command.
Reading your post, I see things haven't changed there much in the last 12 years.
OTOH, we now use BAMC in Ft Sam Houston. It's a much better facility.
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