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I've been trying to track this down and I guess even the VA hospitals have different levels they can handle. They call it Tertiaty level. Albuquerque VA Hospital is a Tertiary level 1 which means basically it is a full fledged hospital, and they work with the civilian hospital/medical school there. Tucson is also a Tertiary level 1. What we need to know I guess is what Tertiarty level the Spokane facility is. It sounds like it is a hospital, but maybe not a high enough Tertiary level to treat this man.

It is confusing, and I am not sure how they expect Veterans to keep up with it- how are they supposed to know if their local VA hospital is a "real" one or not.

This also makes me angry, this man and his family may not have even known they could not treat him there. If that is true then it is negligence- maybe not of this hospital, but in the system.

I also totally agree with other posters that illegals are treated better medically than our veterans. An illegal can show up at any ER and get treated, they don't have to know how a complex system works to show up at the right ER to get treated for what ails them. Illegals use the ER for primary care and if a Veteran tried that- they would end up with the bill. If we don't follow all the millions of rules of VA care, and get all the right approvals for treatment for my hubby- we will get stuck with the bill.

This VA is 1.5 miles from my house and it shut down the ER back in June. There are no ER staff and they don't handle advanced life support.

It's basically a clinic now and if you have an emergency you don't go there. They sent all the vets registered there a letter telling us this about six months ago.

Also, there is a fire station with paramedics right next to this VA a few hundred yards away.

Finally, this is a Gov't facility and they go home one minute after their shift ends.

I was in line at the pharmacy one time and my prescription was ready for pick up and the guy closed the window and said we're closed come back tomorrow then walked away. A few of us in line looked at each other and everyone said what the hell it's 5:01 and he just walked away. One guy drove all the way from Montana and went looking for someone to help him but I just went home because I lived 5 minutes away.

"Fuller had been a regular patient at the VA Hospital, officials and his friend said. So when Singleton got a call on Sept. 30 from Fuller's wife, Marilyn, saying her husband wanted to go the hospital, the request wasn't out of the ordinary."

The failure for this man began at this point right here, not with the VA. His wife should have called an ambulance.