'It Is Just Not Walter Reed' - Soldiers Share Troubling Stories Of Military Health Care Across U.S.

Washington Post ^ | March 5, 2007 | Anne Hull and Dana Priest

[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...

[wtc911]

While I agree that the congress critters on the left are jumping all over this issue for political gain and I too question where they've been, the absolute bottom line is that this is an Army issue (not VA as your post identifies it) and there is only one CIC...and the buck stops with him.

[I still care]

It happened a couple of hours after he went home and was in the bathroom. Other than that I don't know anything else. The wife told me she felt he was too sick to have been sent home. She's been raging about the VA all year. (This happened last year.)

I'm not really close to her, she has I love Clinton stickers on her fridge.

[theBuckwheat]

I wonder if some lib will propose we make it a crime for a US Citizen to impersonate an illegal alien. On second thought, it already is a crime, it would be fraud or theft by deceit.

[William Terrell]

On the other hand, the VA hospital in Birmingham, Alabama is well stocked with all the state-of-the-art equipment, cheerful and respectful doctors and technicians and little hassle.

[satan]

I can't answer your question, but

Can I delay paying my income tax until I get my disability pay from VA.

Will VA pay the same interest IRS charges if they approve my disability claim submitted years ago?

[AZLiberty]

I wrote a letter to Senators Feinstein and Boxer a few years ago asking why I had to wear Hospital gowns that had holes in them and torn and why some of the Vets had to ask for beds that had good mattress instead of broken and old. Wheel chairs old and tired and the list goes on and on. I never did get a response.

At least the bureaucratic problem is bipartisan.

This is still a very serious issue, receiving a remarkable amount of attention in the mass media. (Skanky celebrities must be glad that the focus has changed!). I'm having trouble seeing what the "real" problem is, however. We've always known that VA facilities were not up to Mayo standards, but the most visible problem now seems to be this backlog of 400,000 vets waiting to get care.

Waiting lists are the traditional way that socialized health care rations care -- is that what's happening here?

[AZLiberty]

For a frozen shoulder, I highly recommend the book The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, by Clair Davies. In my humble understanding, frozen shoulders are due to trigger points (muscular microspasms) cascading from an original injury. The injury causes one or more trigger points that then pull on other muscles causing other trigger points and so on until the shoulder freezes. This book describes pressure techniques to relieve the trigger points.

Way less painful than PT, and way more effective.

[pollyannaish]

Somehow...I'm guessing no. When it comes to government, some animals are just more equal than others. Sadly.

[<1/1,000,000th%]

In other words, VA hospitals are just like regular hospitals, except the help is better.

[pepsionice]

Years ago...as a lowly SSgt...my wife ended going off-base to a real hospital. Everything ran perfect. Then came the bill-issues and TRICARE. The base office was zero help. After two weeks of trying to get someone to explain the whole thing in English...I finally found a 60 year-old retiree at the base gym locker room who knew every single detail of the system and how I would be "inconvienced" (to a tune of $800 at the end). In 40 minutes walking the track...he explained all the details of what I had to do and how to avoid hassle. In the years since then...I have yet to find anyone in the AF who could make it simple.