Posted on 03/05/2007 12:36:05 PM PST by neverdem
Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier at Walter Reed, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well. His own VA hospital in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken.
"It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva slowly tapped out on his keyboard at 4:23 in the afternoon on Friday. "The VA hospitals are not good either except for the staff who work so hard. It brings tears to my eyes when I see my brothers and sisters having to deal with these conditions. I am 70 years old, some say older than dirt but when I am with my brothers and sisters we become one and are made whole again."
Oliva is but one quaking voice in a vast outpouring of accounts filled with emotion and anger about the mistreatment of wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, their family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working inside the system. They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey. They tell stories -- their own versions, not verified -- of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets.
The official reaction to the revelations at Walter Reed has been swift, and it has exposed the potential political costs of ignoring Oliva's 24.3 million comrades -- America's veterans -- many of whom are among the last standing...
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
A friend of mine did her OT/PT internship at a VA Hospital in SC and she was very upset by the conditions she saw. She said what angered the most was that all of those men in that facility had given their all and for our country to pay them back by providing such shoddy care was reprehensible. I agree.
Dana Priest=traitor.
These are the people Hillary wants to take over our health care. F*** that !
Dittos!! The return back to gubmint by sob stories.
When I got my medical discharge from the Navy, the doc said, "Son, I'm a weekend warrior as I was drafted, but straight from the hip:
"I know that check from Sam is needed, for they owe you a hell of a lot more than that, a lot more. But, you'll be with the VA, and Son, man to man, off the record, they'll KILL YOU, SON! Please listen."
Aug 7, 1980
Is this some kind of shocking new revelation or something? VA hospitals and base hospitals have always been a disgrace.
I could have had free knee surgery at the VA when I seperated from the military. Based on my personal observations, I decided I would prefer limping for the rest of my life over taking my chances in a VA hospital.
I've had recent experiences with the VA. Strangely enough, saying this as a healthcare professional, I have had nothing but excellent service and treatment. The facilities have modern, up to date equipment and overall very clean and professionally managed. My disappointment comes from the fact 75% of the staff speaks english as a second language.
There's a MUCH more useful way to approach this. Rather than allow the DOD/VA to sweep this type of concern under the rug as might be SOP....
Take the opportunity for a rare media event with OBVIOUS fallout, such as the head of Walter Reed AND the Secretary of the Army getting canned....ASAP at that.....
And apply your wits to righting some of the wrongs.
~~~~~~~~
"I'm calling from Summerville, South Carolina, and I have a story to tell," began Horace Williams, 62. "I'm a Marine from the Vietnam era, and it took me 20 years to get the benefits I was entitled to."
I can top that one. I filed my first VA disability compensation claim in 1971. It was FINALLY partially decided in my favor in the spring of 2005....AFTER I "reheated" the claim in 2002 and AFTER I had FIVE heart operations in a period of 15 months....
There are SERIOUS problems with the VA health care system. Bringing attention to those problems at a time like this is just SMART BUSINESS...while the "iron is hot".
Believe me, I've communicated with ex-Secretary Principi, and everyone ELSE I could think of over the past five years....and it's VERY difficult to get ANY press on this kind of issue...VERY difficult.
I went to ALL the national talk show hosts with it and NONE of them would touch it with a ten-foot pole....Rush, Sean, Savage, Ingraham, Bill Bennet, etc. The ONLY guy who gave me a whole two minutes was Alan Colmes.....that's RIGHT ...a "stinking liberal"....!!!
Unfortunately there are THOUSANDS of our fighting forces who are getting NO proper health care or compensation...NONE ....after DECADES of fighing for those things.
I don't care WHO prints a TRUTHFUL article about it, these matters will NOT be "solved" in any way without PUBLIC uproar.
I fought long and hard to get what little progress I could. The SAD thing about all this is that the SICKEST guys have not the energy or the time to fight political battles and budgetary issues...they are LITERALLY left to die in ignominy.
[USN 1967-70]
Here's one I BET you never heard of...
http://www1.va.gov/SHAD/
Contrary to ANY reports you may be able to find on this...the progress in getting these veterans their due is SEVERELY lacking...but, hey...it's only been 35 or 40 YEARS.
Somebody OUGHT TO "look bad" about that...from the top on down.
AND what does Mrs. Bill Clinton have to say about this? After all, its her darling husband that cut the defense budget for 8 YEARS!!!!
I'd like to see the vets receiving their medical treatment at the same hospitals and providers that our congress people do and have our elected ruling class receive their care through the veterans administration. That will straighten everything out.
-cause they can hang it on Bush.
A big part of the problem is the inability to fire stupid and lazy staff
Yes me also
If only it were that easy. :) The Navy base is actually on Santo Stefano. You have to take a boat from La Maddalena or Palau (on Sardinia) to get there.
That is what I don't understand, the quality of care at VAs has not been that much of a hidden secret
"I've had recent experiences with the VA. Strangely enough, saying this as a healthcare professional, I have had nothing but excellent service and treatment. The facilities have modern, up to date equipment and overall very clean and professionally managed. My disappointment comes from the fact 75% of the staff speaks english as a second language."
It REALLY varies a lot from locale to locale.
I've had the questionable "plus" of having been treated at Military/VA hospitals in Bremerton, WA, San Diego, CA Ft. Harrison, MT Denver, Co Salt Lake City, UT and East Orange, NJ.
This included three "experimental" heart operations for a rare condition...and stays up to 8 1/2 months. In general the nursing staff and such are VERY dedicated people...the doctors that are their on internships leave a bit to be desired in some instances...and the WORST of the lot seem to be the "mental health care professionals" who seem to speak English only at gunpoint.
Given the hundreds of thousands of dollars my emergency health care WOULD HAVE cost due to my being unemployed at the time due to my failing health.....I was 'LUCKY' to have gotten ANY care of the sort that saved my life....
But, I've ALSO seen rather dismal results in certain situations. Believe me, I do NOT relish the amount of experience I have had and do NOT enjoy becoming "institutionalized" by "the system".
But, I HAVE learned a few things about playing the game. One of which is that the "patient advocate" in ALL VA facilities is often a good place to start if you encounter particularly egregious behaviour. Another is to get a qualified Service Organization behind you.
After all is said and done, however...the LARGEST and DEEPEST problems come from the administrative side of the VA absolutely REFUSING to communicate with the medical side. This is NOT a "joke". The lack of cooperation is STUNNING.
The major problem for many veterans is not getting "good health care"...it's getting ANY health care whatsoever.
Many get discouraged at the overburden of paperwork. Some of us have NO choice as most public concerns will NOT attend to you as a "charity" case....unless, of course, you snuck over the border at night.
Oh, and speaking from experience...you CAN get innefective or unprofessional parties REMOVED from the system...but THAT takes some congressional horsepower.
Which puts back where we started...
With an OPPORTUNITY to set off some alarm bells in the Public's mind. And, the BEST part of this is that the media coverage is FREE....!!!
I'm not sure why you are hollerin' at me. I answered DakotaRed's question as to why it's in the news all of the sudden. That's all.
As far as letting them sweep it under the rug--not with me they don't. I have been fighting with TriCare and military hospitals since my first wonderful induction into the world of the military medicine. That would be giving birth to my youngest in a hallway at Camp Pendleton after being shoved out there and told I was not in labor (it was my third, I think I may have known) and to stop complaining; right up to my last lovely encounter, when my 8 year old had a 102.4 fever, and I was sent to urgent care (no full-service clinic here in lovely Yuma) only to be told that TriCare hadn't gotten around to paying them (4 months after my last visit) so I was more than welcome to go spend 10 hours in the local emergency room, where I was free to wait with a very sick child while all the illegal immigrants with no insurance got to go whizzing on through. There are plenty of nightmarish encounters in between.
I don't blame the doctors (well, except one, but this is too public a forum to get into that), I blame the beaurocracy. And I'm sorry, but all the newspaper exposes in the world isn't going to change it. It may change WRAMC (and rightfully, it should), but it will fade from the public eye, Britney will have another breakdown and distract the general American public and things will go back to business as usual in no time. Sadly enough, when it doesn't fit the mainstream agenda, the majority of the public flat out doesn't give a crap. It's not a PC enough cause. That in no way refers to anyone here. I know we all care, but we aren't in charge anymore.
Actually the soldiers and vets would fare better if they were illegal aliens. That way they could be treated in ANY emergency room for ANY problem at ANY time.
I hope our Pubbie Congress-critters are as astute as you and will use this ironic situation to good effect in the partisan "show" hearings. VA hospitals have been a disgrace forever, but the WAPost is only interested when it thinks it can embarrass our side. Unfortunately, by firing the General in charge, the Administration has basically accepted responsibility.
I had excellent treatment as a dependent under Tricare while husband was stationed at Norfolk. Gave birth to a healthy baby at Langley AFB. No complaints.
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