Posted on 09/08/2007 10:16:49 AM PDT by Right Winged American
As he shifts his weight over his cluttered desk and hoists himself on his feet, John D. Atkins lets out a wail.
The pain in his back is so great that tears well up in his eyes and his hands shake. Breathing hard, he turns and stumbles, reaching for a cane that lies across his double bed.
Eventually, from the dresser he grabs a miniature bottle of Cutty Sark scotch from among a dozen pill bottles. Then he smiles.
The 60-year-old Vietnam veteran said he self-medicates when doctor-prescribed morphine pills aren't doing the trick.
Atkins, a Lake Oswego resident and former U.S. Marine with late-stage leukemia, is one of more than 400,000 military veterans fighting for financial help from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Although he receives monthly disability payments, Atkins has been in a paperwork dispute with the VA for almost three years over whether he should receive thousands more to pay for home nursing care.
"They're stalling me until I die," he said. "I've accused them of that many times."
Snip...
On March 14, Smith received a letter from Gerard F. Lorang, then-director of the VA regional office in Portland, about Atkins' claim. Noting that Atkins' cancer is terminal, Lorang told Smith that Atkins' claim would be expedited.
Lorang has since retired, and Atkins has yet to receive any money.
(Excerpt) Read more at oregonlive.com ...
Discussions/Forum about Blue Water Navy Vets, Here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BlueWaterNavy
FreepMail me to join the Blue Water Navy ping list.
Does the whOregonian write anything besides bashing the military or Bush?
He should get a better doc. Those Morphine pills suck, they just aren't the same as liquid morphine, they are morphine salts. He should be on oxycontin, lots of it, plus a fentynol patch.
Well, technically, this is bashing the President's handling of the Department of Veterans Affairs. As you might know, I have the same leukemia this man suffers from, but since I was in the 'Blue Water Navy' I don't even qualify for the compensation he's getting. (At least until 'Haas vs. Nicholson' is decided. If I survive that long.)
Also, the DBA system is severely backed up due to Vets who file speculative claims, thus slowing benefits for more needy patients, such as this one. Unfortunately, it is my opinion that some veterans use the VA as a rolling ATM. They're all about money.
This hurts just to read about it ping
You DID read the article, right? Nevermind.
Also, the DBA system is severely backed up due to Vets who file speculative claims, thus slowing benefits for more needy patients, such as this one. Unfortunately, it is my opinion that some veterans use the VA as a rolling ATM. They're all about money.
Now THAT is so incredibly, egregiously thoughtless and stupid I don't know where to start. ASIDE from not planning or responding to the number of injured from this war; the DVA (Dept. of Veterans Affairs) has, over the years since the Second World War, evolved into such a bloated, incompetent bureaucracy that unless they are going down the tubes no veteran WANTS to get involved with it.
A more simple and honest examination of the facts would show that, regardless of the party in power, the DVA's policy is to delay, deny, and obfuscate claims, until the veteran either dies or goes away discouraged. The DVA has been more about finding or making loopholes designed to delay or avoid the just compensation due men who fought our wars from Korea through the War on Terror.
I understand that this is your opinion. Mine is that yours is as dishonorable as it is wrong.
Feh!
Hope you well soon.
Hospice care is at home. Why do you want to warehouse him until he dies. Doesn’t he deserve to die at home.
Regrettably, one does not 'get well' from CLL Leukemia. But thank you for the thought, it brightened my day, considering some of the other replies.
Its not a problem until something happens to them. Stay strong and keep busy.
if only medical science was more advanced, so many people could live longer healthier lives
“Hospice care is at home.”
It can be done either at home or at a nursing home. Either way this guy seems to need it and hasn’t gotten it. He also needs a new doctor who knows how to manage pain.
Correct. Hospice care can be at home. This patient, however, is non-compliant in that he is self medicating with alcohol. In hospital, this should not happen.
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