Things kind of went sour though. This was a hospital like none I had ever seen, not that I had seen that many. The place was dark and foreboding, it smelled of disinfectant hiding some kind of bad medicinal/biological/fecal odor and the place was grungy. The staff all seemed to have attitudes ranging from "who give a shit" aloof to hostile and bossy. Nobody seemed to be doing anything.
Anyway, we walked down a big corridor past the six man rooms and there was shouting coming from one. There was some patient giving the business to presumably a doctor and a couple of nurses. As I recall they were trying to restrain the guy and get him back in bed. I was kind of embarrassed as again, this was outside anything I had ever experienced. Where I came from one did not cuss at a doctor, it would be like cussing a preacher, would not could not happen.
So we continue on and spent about an hour or so with Danny's pop and decided to go get him some magazines or something (he wasn't that talkative). We get in the elevator and guess who we see, the irate patient, AND he's still fuming. Although he never addressed us directly it turns out he was a F4 pilot shot to hell in the skies over North Vietnam and he's upset he's not getting the appropriate treatment he deserves, and Goddamnit he's going to call his Congressman etc. I learned a lot of new GI swear words that day but at the time my 16 year old brain could not fathom the idea that our government wouldn't take care of our combat casualties. Unfortunately I can now.
This VA scandal we're currently reading about is a damned disgrace, but I guess we're getting used to damned disgraces with this bunch of incompetent, corrupt pricks running our government. Plus it seems General Shinseki's only qualification for the VA's top dog was his opposition to GWB's Iraq policy, and now he's fired some underling who was retiring anyway! Big friggin' whoop!
Here's my thinking, I never liked the fact that just because you served a tour in the service then all of a sudden you're entitled to healthcare for life. That to me is taking advantage much the same as a welfare whore. You served the country, did your duty and now it's somebody else's turn, get on with it. But by God an active duty or most especially a war zone casualty, those people deserve the best we can provide end of friggin' story! Obviously they're not getting it.
The facts seem clear, the VA is mismanaged and corrupt...and all the Obama Administration sees is a PR problem (as they see every problem). So don't expect anything to be done about it, at least anything that will make a difference.
what about those pensions for the one-star admiral who single-handedly won the war by redoing the power point master slide template from the comfort of their own air conditioned con-ex trailer?
ReplyDeleteMy experience with the VA hospital was in New Orleans, 1975. My father, a WWII vet (US Army, 71st Recon Unit, Mechanized) had problems with his left leg due to an industrial accident in 1957 that crushed his left leg. Doctors at Touro Infirmary were able to save the leg, but the outcome was (among other things) very poor circulation in his foot that kept him in constant pain. He refused to have the foot partially amputated despite the pain.
ReplyDeleteIn late 1974, he developed an ulcer on his left ankle that would not heal. Over the next several months, he went to the VA hospital for outpatient treatment that was useless: at one point, when the wound began to scab over, an intern examined it and removed the scab without giving him any particular reason. The wound did not heal again, so he was admitted to that hospital where he went through several attempts to improve circulation in the leg. Eventually the leg became gangrenous and they had to amputate above the knee. After the amputation, the artificial leg they provided him with was so heavy and fit so poorly that he was unable to use it. This experience left him feeling so despondent that he buried himself in alcohol, and he died five years later from stomach cancer.
A few things on this experience.
I was not quite 10 years old when these things took place, but I have vivid memories of the VA hospital. Your description of the smells and the attitudes of people there were exactly the same as what I experienced whenever I went there to visit my father. There were times when he wasn't cared for by nurses at all, except to bring him meals. The place stank of disinfectant. People were rude. I will never forget that place, and I hope to never have to set foot in a VA hospital ever again.
I agree with your point about being entitled to free healthcare just because you served. My father's injury was not incurred during his active service (he was shot up a couple times during the war, but that had nothing to do with his leg injury). I feel the same way about the GI bill that entitles vets to massively subsidized university studies. Both have wrecked the markets of what was originally intended to be a way to compensate WWII vets for their service in wartime.
But the issue I have with all that is, if those were the conditions under which vets served their country, those conditions should be honored - at least by way of some kind of defined benefit that the vet can choose to apply to whatever they want. That way the benefit is nothing more than additional compensation that the vet has the choice of using, rather than being a benefit that inflates prices of schooling and sustains a bloated healthcare bureaucracy.
Finally, for anyone who was stupid enough to believe the lie that is Obamacare, all they needed to do was look at how the VA Hospital system has been run for the past 70 years to figure out that they were being sold a massive bill of goods. The check's in the mail, boys, and we'll pay you Tuesday. Promise.
And when it goes horribly wrong, it won't matter, because it's not their fault, and they meant well, you see...
My experience with the VA hospital was in New Orleans, 1975. My father, a WWII vet (US Army, 71st Recon Unit, Mechanized) had problems with his left leg due to an industrial accident in 1957 that crushed his left leg. Doctors at Touro Infirmary were able to save the leg, but the outcome was (among other things) very poor circulation in his foot that kept him in constant pain. He refused to have the foot partially amputated despite the pain.
ReplyDeleteIn late 1974, he developed an ulcer on his left ankle that would not heal. Over the next several months, he went to the VA hospital for outpatient treatment that was useless: at one point, when the wound began to scab over, an intern examined it and removed the scab without giving him any particular reason. The wound did not heal again, so he was admitted to that hospital where he went through several attempts to improve circulation in the leg. Eventually the leg became gangrenous and they had to amputate above the knee. After the amputation, the artificial leg they provided him with was so heavy and fit so poorly that he was unable to use it. This experience left him feeling so despondent that he buried himself in alcohol, and he died five years later from stomach cancer.
A few things on this experience.
I was not quite 10 years old when these things took place, but I have vivid memories of the VA hospital. Your description of the smells and the attitudes of people there were exactly the same as what I experienced whenever I went there to visit my father. There were times when he wasn't cared for by nurses at all, except to bring him meals. The place stank of disinfectant. People were rude. I will never forget that place, and I hope to never have to set foot in a VA hospital ever again.
I agree with your point about being entitled to free healthcare just because you served. My father's injury was not incurred during his active service (he was shot up a couple times during the war, but that had nothing to do with his leg injury). I feel the same way about the GI bill that entitles vets to massively subsidized university studies. Both have wrecked the markets of what was originally intended to be a way to compensate WWII vets for their service in wartime.
But the issue I have with all that is, if those were the conditions under which vets served their country, those conditions should be honored - at least by way of some kind of defined benefit that the vet can choose to apply to whatever they want. That way the benefit is nothing more than additional compensation that the vet has the choice of using, rather than being a benefit that inflates prices of schooling and sustains a bloated healthcare bureaucracy.
Finally, for anyone who was stupid enough to believe the lie that is Obamacare, all they needed to do was look at how the VA Hospital system has been run for the past 70 years to figure out that they were being sold a massive bill of goods. The check's in the mail, boys, and we'll pay you Tuesday. Promise.
And when it goes horribly wrong, it won't matter, because it's not their fault, and they meant well, you see...
For Hammer & Wanderlust:
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry for your personal experiences w/ the VA hospitals, as well as the circumstances that caused you to be there. That said, I strenuously object to your characterization of a veteran WHO SERVED AN ENTIRE CAREER and is now entitled to health care as a "welfare whore" (your words).
The original promise was that our health care would be "free for life". They lied about that (wow, a lie about health care - sound familiar?), and now we pay for it. I can't complain, as I currently pay far less than most folks do for their health care, but it shows a bit of a pattern w/ the promises gov't made to the people who serve.
Back in the early 80's, when retention in the military was poor, I would receive a paper from my Disbursing Officer every so often (annually?). It listed what I got paid in actual $$, then it added to that salary the $$ value of all my benefits. The net result was to inflate your "true" compensation to the point that you might think twice about leaving the military. As benefits, it listed such things as the tax advantages of some of the specialized pay, commissaries, health care, and retirement pension.
A deal's a deal. A veteran signs on the dotted line, raises their right hand, and swears an oath. They make a commitment, and if they honor that commitment by serving 20+ yrs in uniform, going into harms way, I don't think it's too much to ask for their gov't to live up to their end of the bargain.
JB maybe you misunderstood. I'm am in no way opposed to career military receiving medical benefits for life, in fact I would insist upon it. My point was someone like me who served one hitch in the military in no way deserves "free" healthcare.
ReplyDeleteHammer,
ReplyDeleteMy apologies - I did misunderstand your intent. I still think you might be in error though (unless I am again misunderstanding).
It is up to the VA, at the conclusion of a military career (whether a full 20+ yrs, or a single "hitch") to determine whether lingering medical issues are indeed service-connected. In other words, if an individual sustains a serious and long-lasting injury, say while loading weapons aboard a ship, then they are entitled to VA coverage for that injury, even if they only serve a single hitch. The coverage the VA provides (or is supposed to provide) only pertains to that service-connected disability, as well as complications directly related to it, not complete "free" health care. Hope that makes sense.