RE: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,143733,00.html Well good they got a report out, but action speaks louder than words. Lets see if both houses and the white house support these changes.

quote:

Originally posted by big_daddySPS:
RE: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,143733,00.html Well good they got a report out, but action speaks louder than words. Lets see if both houses and the white house support these changes.

So true. I'll believe it when (and if) I see it...

I agree that there has been lots of talk and little action. We need to look at other military medical facilities. Walter Reed is not the only one. I have friends at another medical facility that have gotten little to no help. Not to mention they have been there for months when they could be home recieving better care in a shorter period. True they could be here but only if they sign a document the basically releases the Army from any liability. Then the soldier would have to pay for the care he needs himself. Doesn't make sense to me.

Ditto Long Beach Vets hospital. What the h^%$ is going on. I had to buy my grandsons foam inserts to prevent their head from rocking back and forth in the helmets. Why doesn't the Government take charge of that? I'm totally disgusted at the treatment of Veterans, the word is going out soon the government will have to redo the draft.............An all volunteer army deserves the best treatment in the world

I was discharged from Walter Reed in 1981,it is still a disgrace. The people responsible should be rung out to dry ! they should answer to it,shame on them !

Walter Reed was just the beginning for me...literally...16 August 1957.

They should get rid of the VA medical facility all together and let the vets see REAL doctors. I know alot of people are against that ie the cost but if you look at the usual state coverage like here in Mass we have Mass Health. The doctors milk the crap ou of the system to make money so its all the same no matter what way you go. If the Vets could see real Psychologist, not some idiot in training who thinks that they know what PTSD is or an injured vet thats in recovery can see a real surgon, doctor specialist etc. instead of a bunch of PA's who matc the above criteria then the vets would have alot better care. Just use the VA for the bennies etc. This way they can cut 99% of the fat, get rid of 99.9% of the staff who cant stand there job and concentrate on evaluation and voc rehab etc for the vets.

It doesn't matter if we served during times of war or times of peace. We are still all Veterans and we deserve better treatment from the Veterans Administration (it's veterans affairs now isn't it?) It should be run by Veterans for Veterans and not by some Political Appointee. Veterans will fight for Veterans and will fight Congress for benefits for the Veterans. Gen. Peter Pace would be a damn good man to put in charge of the VA. He knows what the veterans actually have gone through and still are going through. Of course he would be a political risk because he is too military.

Just the thoughts of an old WOPA member

What about spouses? My wife has a TBI and Tri care has washed there hands of her. She was 39 years old when this happened, and I was in Iraq. I was brought home to fight the insurance. They delayed all treatment that the doctors where saying she needs. Now sense Tri Care is done with her Medicade has stepped in to help.

I have two appeals still pending, and they have been over 4 months. no word.

I am an active duty soldier and they just don,t care except for the bottom line. MONEY!!
There is so much more I could write about Tricare.

One of my soldiers came up to me this week and told me that Tricare has denied his wife's care, Basicly he told me it coast $60,000.00 for having her blood cleaned, and if doesn't get it she ill die. Great health insurance.

By the way my wife has been in some type of rehab hospital sense OCT 2006. She is having to learn everything all over again. And all of it was caused by a military doctor.

Tank

This whole system is a national disgrace. How about instead of trying to implement an overarching comprehensive health care system that covers everyone including illegal aliens, Hillary Clinton focuses on providing our injured warriors with decent medical care? Maybe if she can do that, I will be more receptive to her grander schemes.

Based on my experiences with the VA, I have to wait and see if Dole and Shalala will be listened to. I want to see results, positive results. I have been dealing with this organization since 1984.

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The Commission deserves to be commended for their hard work and dedication. But most of these recommendations should have been made in 2003.

Even with a "full court press" to deal with this fiasco the results would be too little too late. Brave men and women get great healthcare when wounded, but the haphazard and inadequate follow on (healthcare, financial support, VA, etc.) is a national shame. Would it be a stretch to think that the terrorists at Gitmo get better care?

Congress has an excellent healthcare setup. Why not have them trade places (and medical plans) with the military? Why not have their families subjected to the same indifference (not necessarily intentional) and approach to their needs? Maybe bivouwac these highly efficient/successful pols at Walter Reed until we win (whatever that is.)

Why would anyone want to join the military, or have their kids join when they see this debacle? Whether you're on a Democrat or Republican matters not. We're all responsible.

Time to take out the trash - get rid of the incumbents who talk the talk but are unwilling/unable to walk the walk!

I work at a VA hospital. Everyday I see VA workers busting their *ss to give the best treatment they can. You want to complain, complain that tax monies aren't going to increase man power to accommodate what everyone wants the VA to do. I put in almost 40 additional hours weekly to try to keep up with all the demands that my job requires. You want to place blame, place the blame where it belongs, with the political creeps that suck money out of our tax dollars to study pig farming in Antarctica, or to teach monkeys to sing, or to save the three eyed fish in the great lakes. I'm not making fun of anything. These sound stupid and to me so do most of the pork that are added on to legislation so that someone in Kansas can get money to see if ferns have feelings. I am so tired of everyone complaining that the people there or the people here don’t give a damn about treating military personnel or the veteran. It isn’t true and most of you know it. I don’t give a damn about the overtime pay I'm getting I do it cause I served 20 years in the military and you stay until the job is done. So when you're in one of the military or VA facilities and you're pissed, take a deep look into one of the employee’s eyes. Chances are you'll see one of two things. A look of being knocked down dragged out tired because NO ONE appreciates the job that they do. the hours they put in, AND yes the time away from their loved ones also, JUST LIKE YOU. Or you'll see that they are just as pissed as you are because they don’t have the resources available to them or the staffing to provide the care that YOU DO DESERVE. That’s my fifteen minutes.

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SPAUNY
Basic Training
Posted Sat 28 July 2007 07:47 PM Hide Post
I work at a VA hospital. Everyday I see VA workers busting their *ss to give the best treatment they can. You want to complain, complain that tax monies aren't going to increase man power to accommodate what everyone wants the VA to do. I put in almost 40 additional hours weekly to try to keep up with all the demands that my job requires. You want to place blame, place the blame where it belongs, with the political creeps that suck money out of our tax dollars to study pig farming in Antarctica, or to teach monkeys to sing, or to save the three eyed fish in the great lakes. I'm not making fun of anything. These sound stupid and to me so do most of the pork that are added on to legislation so that someone in Kansas can get money to see if ferns have feelings. I am so tired of everyone complaining that the people there or the people here don’t give a damn about treating military personnel or the veteran. It isn’t true and most of you know it. I don’t give a damn about the overtime pay I'm getting I do it cause I served 20 years in the military and you stay until the job is done. So when you're in one of the military or VA facilities and you're pissed, take a deep look into one of the employee’s eyes. Chances are you'll see one of two things. A look of being knocked down dragged out tired because NO ONE appreciates the job that they do. the hours they put in, AND yes the time away from their loved ones also, JUST LIKE YOU. Or you'll see that they are just as pissed as you are because they don’t have the resources available to them or the staffing to provide the care that YOU DO DESERVE. That’s my fifteen minutes.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Fri 19 May 2006

--Thanks for your hard work and dedicaion Spauny. I spent 1966 in Walter Reed and was in a VA hospital for months--both times for combat wounds. They have some great people on board. The whole system should not be comdemed.

here is a copy of what I sent to my Congressman and it happened to me just like that so dont tell me that the VA is doing a good job I have pictures if any one wants to see them Ill send them!!!!! Read my report


My complaint and statement of happening


On sat.21 2007 I was turning a bowl of purple hart wood , The block that I was using exploded on the lathe sending flying debris through the room one piece or what I thought to be one piece hitting my left hand holding the tool to the tool rest. I pulled the wood from my hand washed it and put a bandage on it . That night when I went to bed I was having minor pain around my thumb. I woke early in the morning of Sunday the 22nd to find my hand swollen and in a high degree of pain, I had my wife drive me to the VA in Louisville for treatment . The ER doctor ordered a x-ray of my left hand which nothing was shown. The ER doctor did however see a black spot in the wound and tried to remove it with tweezers, when she could not get it she prepped my hand and injected lanacain and started to cut it with a scalpel right after the injection without giving it time to react the pain was something I have never experienced in my life it was so bad that I cried in my wife’s shoulder, seeing this the ER doctor stopped and injected my hand again and again did not wait for the injection to work my hand was not numb, after cutting about a ¼ inch below and right of my thumb she dug and every time she hit something hard the pain shot through my had as if some one had just set it on fire with a hot metal rod, she finely got a wood splinter about a ¼ inch long and sewed my cut she had made up putting in 4 stitches and the numbing just started as she tied the last not on the last of the 4 stitches, she then rubbed my wound area asking did I feel any thing else I replied that I didn’t feel any thing as the hand just went numb. She gave me a rx for antibiotics and referred me to the primary care in 7 days to remove the stitches. I left for home after the rx was picked up.

On Sunday night my hand had swollen and was turning color almost like a purple and I could not sleep for the pain was so bad my head hurt. On Monday morning I called to make an appointment in the hand clinic to be told that I must go through my primary care so I called there, no appointments were available she was booked and I was advised to go back to the ER. I did, when I got to the ER I reported my pain at 10 and was told that the Emergent care would see me.
When I saw the doctor he looked at my hand and said he could see something under the skin but also said he could not do any thing about it, and that he was going to send me to the hand clinic on Tuesday the 24th at 10am. He again sent me home in pain with no med to kill or ease the pain.
On Tuesday the 24th I was at the VA hospital waiting to see the doctor by 9 am.
At 10:25 am when the doctor called me in and saw my hand which was now a bright red and swollen and oozing a clear liquid he said that he could see something under my skin and he could take care of it in two ways one would be in the office and it would be painful and the other was in the OR but he couldn’t do it until Thursday the 26th , I told him that was not good enough that I had not slept in 3 days had no pain meds and it was still a 10+ pain and that if he didn’t take it out then I would go home buy a razor blade and take it out my-self and would come back in to have it sowed up by them, he left the room and a minute to so came back with another doctor who said “that is no emergency and we will no do any thing “ That was the final straw I just could not contain my self any more I yelled that I would take my f@#$ing complaint up stairs, and left the room with my wife following. As I got to the middle of the hall the doctor yelled down the hall at me go right ahead. I went into the patient advocates office where I saw another person from the hand clinic making a complaint about the same doctor as I was there for . I at this time was in sever pain had a lack of sleep for three days and my PTSD was active due to the way I had just been treated the same as in the army all over again. I was in defensive mode and started yelling while holding up my hand to show the stitches and red swollen hand, I also informed them to call security, the next thing I know there were three cops telling me to go out into the hall and I told them I was where I was to be and for the to leave me the **** alone they then responded that if I didn’t go into the hall I would be arrested and I said Ill just leave the hospital and go home and they refused me the right to leave the hospital as I turned around to speak to the people behind the counter they all three jumped me shoving me into the counter and then threw me into the brick wall head first cutting my scalp. They then threw me to the floor with tow cops retaining my arms pinned to the ground I could not move them , the third was on my back yelling for me to put my hands behind my back and I could not respond as I had lost my breath with the person on my back, but I did hear my wife yell “DON’T DO THAT HE IS A HART PAITIENT” then I started getting hit in the ribs several times and in the kidneys one of the officers let go of my hand as I was trying to say I cant and I immediately moved my hand to my back where they twisted my other hand behind me handcuffing them together.
They took me down stairs where they did a booking sheet saying that they could charge me with a terrorist act and were charging me with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. They let my wife in to speak to me and told me that they were going to take me to the jail downtown where I could be bonded out and ordered my wife to leave. My wife informed them that they were working on getting me the surgery I needed to get the wood out and she was told that wasn’t going to happen today.
After about an hour they took me up to the ER to be examined and medically released and then they would book me, I had asked for them to release the pressure of the cuffs on my hands and they refused . I was then removed and taken up to the ER as if I were on a side show. In the ER I was put in a glass room where I was told to sit in a chair. A nurse came into the room saying that she had looked at my x ray from the night of Sunday the 22nd and their was nothing in it my hand. She took my blood pressure and put a o2 sensor on my left hand and left the room. I could hear the cops laughing at the desk in the ER the were joking and having a good time . Soon the patient advocate and my wife came in to give me my glasses and my wife was aloud to stay. Soon she was told to go home and I could call after I was booked in the Jail and she could come bail me out but that I would probably only be their about two hours as the charges were not that bad and I would get released on my own. She refused to go home and then was told to go sit in the front lobby not the ER lobby, she informed them that the patient advocate was working on getting me the surgery I needed for my hand and again the cops told her it wasn’t going to happen today. She left as told but went to the ER waiting room . Soon she saw the patient advocate and a doctor go into the ER.
The doctor came into the room and asked to see my hand that he was a surgeon and wanted to see if it needed surgery, I replied I am in cuffs but Ill try, he turned to the door and asked to let my left hand out of the cuffs and the cops said no not at this time refusing him to examin my injury. He looked at my hand as best as he could and said that it needed to come out now as it was infected a nd swollen he futher said he would see me in surgery and left the room.
After about an hour the head nurse of the OR and chief of police of the VA came into the exam room , they said that the charges were going to be dropped and I was going to get the surgery I needed but I was told by the nurse that if I caused any trouble with her nurses I would be recharged and arrested and the chief said if I caused any trouble I would be arrested and if I agreed to that he would let me go I agreed and was taken to the OR. The doctor told me that it took about an hour but they had gotten a piece of wood 1 inch long by about 1/8 inch wide from my thumb and that it was deep but they left it open for it to drain and that I needed to a bandage on it and I could shower but to change the bandage daily and that he wanted to see me in two days. I went home When I got home I couldn’t walk without pain in my back and ribs I couldn’t cough as the pain was real bad, my wife took me to the Shelbyville hospital where the ER nurse helped get me out of the truck and into a wheel chair , a full body x-ray and cat scan were done as the complaints of head pain back pain chest pain and leg pain. The report said I had deep muscle bruising he gave me Demerol for the pain and I cried as I was in fear that if I fell asleep they the cops from the VA would come and kill me because of this I was given advent to calm me down it put me to sleep,. I went home at about midnight.
When it came time for me to return to the doctor I didn’t want to go as I had a fear of dieing from the cops as the abuse they had given me on the 24th, I was told by Sheila that she would not let anything happen to me and that she would be with me and my wife all the time and all I had to do was close my eyes and we would be in the exam room I did as I was told but refused to let go of my wife’s arm as I was afraid I was going to be killed .
I left and went home where I did as I was told by Shelia and complained to David Hill who took a report .
On July 28, 2007 I got a registered letter from the VA hospital thinking it was from Dave I opened it to find three notices to appear in us district court one for disorderly conduct one for resisting arrest and one for assault in the 3rd degree all of this after I complained of how I was treated by the officers at the VA , So the chief is doing just as he said I made waves and now have a felony up to ten years charges against me of which was not in the original charges Now I know that they are trying to get back at me for reprisals they were wrong and are trying to get out of trouble. Further as a result of the charges being refilled and a new charge added my thoughts of harm from the VA PD I know that my life is at risk from the officers and on the 28th I requested the VA cancel all of my VA appointments for fear of death or harm from the VA PD


Carl M Joseph
Mount eden ky 4004