Posted on 06/18/2014 4:13:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
They don't care."
As Obama administration officials pivot like haywire jewelry-box ballerinas to divert attention away from the nationwide Veterans Affairs disgrace, a reader who has been fighting the system urged me to urge Capitol Hill and the American public to stay focused.
This former Special Forces soldier and medic served his country for 25 years. He worked in the health care field managing military field medical clinics. "I know how health care is supposed to run, even in austere or low-budget environments," he says. And in his nightmarish, ongoing experience, the VA is an epic, deadly, monstrous failure. He minces no words: "They're getting billions of dollars, and they treat veterans like s-t. There's no accountability, no buy-in, among civilian unionized employees. We mean nothing to them. It's like going to the DMV for your health care."
Over the past four years, the veteran tells me, he has been under direct VA care for two major line-of-duty-related injuries, including one combat-related injury. One of the medical centers that treated him -- or rather mistreated him and maltreated him -- is the Coatesville, Pa., VA. It's the same facility where four vets died due to medical malpractice, leading to nearly $1.4 million in settlements to vets' families, according to The Center for Investigative Reporting.
The harrowing cases included two fatal failures to monitor patients, improper management of a psychiatric patient, and wrongful diagnosis or misdiagnosis of a patient.
These details are all too familiar to my reader. "I have been misdiagnosed, had a missed diagnosis, and had delays of care lasting months," he says. "My records have been lost, changed, split and mismanaged." He has experienced firsthand the same "slow-walking" of care that millions of other VA patients have encountered and scores have died from -- a systemic modus operandi of "lie, delay, deny."
The vet gets a catch in his voice as he relates a horrible anecdote. After refusing to return to the Coatesville facility and seeking treatment at another VA clinic one day, he became nauseous. Instead of allowing him to lie down on a gurney, a nurse made him vomit outside so he wouldn't soil the bed. He believes the office was open not to treat patients, but as a front for nurses to pick up extra shifts. He has encountered similar degrading and condescending treatment across the VA system.
When he appealed for help and advocacy within the system, the veteran was met with a stone wall of "Not My Job"-ism. Through denials of care, contraindicated medications, repeated mistakes and delays of pharmacy items, he endured callousness, humiliation and stigmatization. "When I get angry, they call me 'crazy.'" Classic blame-the-victim tactics from the VA abusers.
Big Government politicians want to throw more funding at the VA, as usual. The veteran offers a scathing reality check: "There is ample money to address the needs of American veterans," he says. "The problem is far deeper and more dangerous than just secret waiting lists. The VA almost killed me; my health is worse now than it was when I entered care; my quality of life and living conditions have been nothing short of horrific as I have waited years for adjudication of my benefits case, which in the end was botched."
Again, the vet refuses to candy-coat the roots of the festering VA scandal: "The problem is not just waiting lists. It is utter fraudulent expenditure of enormous budgets, not on veterans, but on overpaid lazy, surly civilian employees that often make it clear that a) they do not like veterans and b) that the veteran is actually a nuisance. The problem is endemic, at every level, in the VA. The unfortunate fact of the matter is this: Veterans have become incidental to the process at the VA."
The system is "an enormous cash cow, warehousing tens of thousands of overpaid employees" who "keep the gravy-train rolling." The vet has a plea on behalf of all of his brothers and sisters who are drowning in the VA's "lie, delay, deny" abyss:
"Please, don't let this die."
CORRECTION: In last week's column, I erroneously stated that ProgressNow was responsible for an attack ad against Colorado GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Tancredo. The ad was sponsored by Protect Colorado Values, a separate Democrat-linked outfit.
He’ll move on. He wants to be a fire fighter, the problem is he will need to lose 100 pounds before that happens. :)
On target. My working days are done, thank GOD. Now I can do the little stuff I do for the Lord and my family. Health stops a lot of stuff, but when I have a good day, I do try and get something accomplished, even if it is just Pocket Prayer quilts, I use as witness cards. Made a 100 for the pastor when he does hospital visits. Or calls on new people. More personal than a business card. They have a note card with a prayer and the church’s address.
You’re still working... differently.
Your experience has been mine as well GOPster. My mother for instance believes that most people are inherently good, she’s never had an enemy in her whole 67 years, But she does admit they are getting worse as time goes by...I, on the other hand have not had such good interactions with other people. From the time I was young. Heck, an example I can relate that popped into my mind...When I was a relatively new driver at 18 I was going down the road and must have cut this guy off or something...I don’t even know what it was...but as he drove past he called me a “F’ing C**t” thing is I recognized him from the church I had gone to with my parents up until a year prior. At another point some guy rear-ended me and got out of his car angry and calling me all kinds of names. My father even went to the police station to complain and it turns out the guy was a fireman in town. Last year there was an incident where I and a guy were both at fault, I turned my car around to apologize to him for my part in it, he ignored me and made threatening motions, proceeded to get my plate and called the cops (one of who came into the building I was at, and he LIED to them, not admitting his part, stating that I screamed at him and HE felt threatened.
I do not trust people. Too many have wronged me. Too many I’ve encountered have been liars, vindictive, mean, or plain crazy.
There you go: Multiple examples of societal decay.
And isn’t not going to get better. Brace yourself as much as you can and avoid dealings with “them” as much as you can.
And remember those that have wronged you.
“Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Yeah, and I like it, I can do things at my pace. Which for the past 3 yrs has been snail slow, with to many days and nights spent in the recliner in pain. I have Meniere’s and fall easy. Bruised my entire AB wall and ribs, so that pain has been slow to heal. Then the back from Hades to add to it along with some other crap that they can only treat symptoms, and the drugs are worse than the symptoms.
But did stumble on to a great Osteoarthritis NSAID, I pay for it as ES will only do a 1 time 5 day 20 pill script. I have a feeling it got the black box FDA because it is fairly cheap when compared to the pricey OA drugs. $40 per 60 tabs 10 mg Toredol generic version I take i AM/PM I can now walk the grocery store instead of using one of those stupidly built electric carts.
I can buy the IV level being hard on veins. But that little 10 mg is a wonder drug. I’ve reacted bad to all OA drugs. No reactions to this one and I react to a lot of meds. OA pain in hips, shoulder are gone, back is down 75% in just 2.5 weeks. Still have the spine damage that only surgery will fix, and with my DX score that ain’t gonna happen.
Type 2 diabetic diet does wonders for weight loss, and cholesterol lowering, just ditch the high sugar fruits.
If he is not willing to work hard for you, he won’t as a fire fighter either. Health issues will start to set in real soon if he is that much over weight. To much time eating, tv, vid games, not enough physical activity.
I have to count every calorie as I am not able to be very physical, to much un fixable spine damage.
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