Covering the wrong point on Walter Reed

[Mojorabbit]

While I think holding recovering soldiers in less than adequate surroundings is bad, this was not what struck me as the most important thing in the article.
They are doing everything they can to screw these guys out of their disability claims. I cannot believe that mold and roaches is what they are covering instead of this.
This will be a lifetime struggle for these guys and they are getting screwed out of their compensation and I am pissed.

[benddem]

1. you are so right!

I don't know if it is still true but they were keeping the representatives of the DAV (Disabled American Veterans) out of the hospital. These are the guys who help you through the snake pit of the disability mess. Someone needs to go to Walter Reed and tell these guys that all decisions can be appealed and appealed and appealed. The VA will deny you were ever in combat and your amputated leg existed prior to service. The VA people (who are overwhelmed with claims) are taught to say no.

[Monkeyman]

6. Here take a look at Larry's top story

http://www.vawatchdog.org Where is the funding going

[Glimmer of Hope]

2. Maybe Dana should do another story?

[Mojorabbit]

5. All of this was in the original story

that is what gets me. They are completely ignoring that part of it and focusing on mold and roaches.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. That is becuase most people will be horrified by the

mold and roaches, but not being familiar with the military will miss the second issue by a mile... even if both are connected

[Mojorabbit]

18. I don't agree

There were a lot of stories in that article any of which could have been used to make the point that these guys and gals were getting screwed out of their disablity. Like the guy who was slow in math in high school and the suits using that to say he had a preexisting condition. Easy to make the point.

They are already in there painting and fixing up the place. No light being shined on the human stories and what is happening. These stories could make all the difference in getting funding if they were not focused on the mold and turned the high beams instead on the stories of these soldiers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. I'm thinking of your regular civie

unfortunately it will be up to the miltiary families and families of vets to take care of our own, AGAIN

[LSK]

3. did you see this story?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=254174&mesg_id=254174

[Mojorabbit]

27. No, I hadn't

Thanks for the link. It boggles the mind.

[Monkeyman]

4. 150,000 RETURNING TROOPS ON WAITING LIST

Total of veterans put on waiting list last year alone 600,000. 45,000 out right denied health care. Cat 7-8 Vets in Bush's 2008 Budget to cut. Cost of co-pays going up by 100 percent. TRICARE cost will rise do to Doctors not being paid as much. If the War stopped today cost 600 Billion for life time care. Ya I think your right

[Canuckistanian]

13. You mean there are some still WAITING to enter the system?

Unbelievable. Has ANY military ever treated their returning soldiers so bad in the "civilized" world?

[redwitch]

17. A returning Iraqi vet killed himself recently

went to a VA hospital with PTSD, was told that he was on a waiting list for a bed (26 people on the list). Four days later he hung himself in his basement. Sorry I have no link, I heard it on the radio last week.

Minneapolis, Jonathon Schultze

I just did a google search and edited to add information. January 27th was the date

[Canuckistanian]

19. Are we just hearing these stories now?

Or has it been happening for years?

[Ilsa]

21. Tweety on Hardball was saying it is ridiculous that

there is any "surprise" that this is happening; this misadminsitration calls everything a surprise like the insurgency, need for more beds at Walter Reed, need for more post-discharge living quarters, medical follow-up, etc. There should be no surprise at this point in the war.

[Canuckistanian]

24. Is he drinking again?

This is HUGE, considering all the "support the troops" bullshit.

[Ilsa]

28. I think he loves the troops. He is so angry over Dana Priest's report

in WaPo. Not at her, but about what troops have to put up with.

But I can never tell about Tweety. Maybe he's on a new drug.

[Canuckistanian]

30. But to say he's NOT SURPRISED?

I think the magnitude of this caught nearly everyone by surprise.

[Ilsa]

31. Yeah, I think he's in shock, but he's saying it should be no surprise.

Why couldn't the Army anticipated the need for follow-up care with the number and severity of injuries? I think that is what he was trying to say. Maybe he wasn't surprised because there has been so much incompetency so far.

[redwitch]

22. I don't know.

A customer of mine is a psychologist who specializes in addiction. He told me last summer that he is just beginning to see Iraqi vets. Considering all the WWII era vets who are old and ill, add the Korean vets, the VietNam vets and Iraq 1, it is not a surprise that the system is overloaded. And it is just going to get worse as lots of VA hospitals have closed, and all the injured from Iraq and Afghanistan are returning.

[Canuckistanian]

25. Not to mention the fallout from "the surge"

But, as is typical of the Bush administration, "nobody could have foreseen this".

Bastards.

[flamin lib]

39. Link to marine denied PTSD suicide here:

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/11/told_to_wait_a_marine_dies/

[slipslidingaway]

7. K&R n/t

[Olney Blue]

8. Yes, I noticed that too. It's a LIFETIME sentence of suffering....

[alfredo]

9. It's not just that. The bush administration underestimated the

injuries they would have to handle. Why haven't they done anything about that? They've had years to ramp up the medical care, why haven't they?

Walter Reed is to be closed. That will mean less room for our soldiers.

[Squatch]

10. They = the Veteran's Administration

The absolute most bureaucratically inept organization in our Government. The WG/GS employees of the VA treat their customers...us veterans...with unveiled contempt.

[Solly Mack]

11. I think it is all part of the same thing

Poor treatment, cutting benefits, cheating them out of benefits in many, many cases (many many many)

Denial of purple hearts in order to deny the full benefits that come along with that is just one way that comes to mind

I'm hoping a little light will cause those with the power to do something to take a closer look into everything

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. I sent a letter to my rep

DEMANDING Congressional Hearings

[Solly Mack]

16. Excellent!

We've got a letter going around now being signed by other military families asking Congress to do something and do it now. Goes in the mail on Friday. It's going to the Senate Armed Services/ Carl Levin

Nautrally it's politely worded. You know how it is

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Yep

I demanded the investigations and attached the Post article... so they don't have no damn excuses

[GenDem]

12. Proud to K & R

That many of these veterans can only get their disability status when a congress member intervenes is just criminal. How many just give up and accept their release with no disability compensation, when they clearly deserve that compensation? And how many of these discarded vets will end up the next generation of homeless? Where's the yellow ribbons to support the broken veterans?

I look forward to seeing the McCaskill/Obama bill. I'll be calling and writing my representatives urging their support. Our veterans deserve so much more than this humongous fuck over.

[pecwae]

36. Giving up is what the VA

is counting on them doing. The paperwork involved is intimidating and meant to be so.

[Ilsa]

20. Mike Malloy is covering this now on his show...

Insufficient healthcare budget because they are underplaying # of injured, real cost of the war. Coverup or moronic management?

[Turn CO Blue]

23. And if the facilities are this bad,

then how can the level of medical advice or care be good?

We already know that the physical therapy facilities don't measure up to the public's standards which will impact these guys for the rest of their lives, but back to the beginning of the wound or trauma - - what about diagnoses and prognoses? Are the troops being told that they should have that arm amputated at the elbow, when a doctor at Johns Hopkins would have been able to save more of the arm or all of it? How good can the surgical equipment be? What about prosthetics? These guys aren't getting the best technology and materials available, as they deserve, they're getting prosthetics from the provider who was the "lowest bidder" or who had an understanding (wink wink) with a procurement officer (or however the supply chain works in the military.)

Walter Reed gets its budget to care for wounded troops from the Department of Defense (not the VA).

But DOD is also over the triage, trauma centers, and hospital care in Iraq -- so how can I still keep trusting that the medical advice and care given to wounded in Iraq is even adequate? It's the same guys at the very top, isn't it?

[Canuckistanian]

26. Just a question here. How was this handled during Vietnam?

Didn't thousands of wounded come back from a war that lasted years before?

How were they treated? Any complaints about the VA back then?

[frogcycle]

32. The system was woeful in VN time

but the ratio of severely wounded is far greater in this war. back then it was something like a 1-1 ratio of wounded to killed, now it is more like 5-1. I probably misremember the numbers, but the gist of it is that we have 7500 severely long-term disabled needing rehab as a result of 3.5 years of war after having downsized the military and the VA. VN produced many more, but over a 10-yr period, concentrated mostly in about 6.5 years. And treatment back then was far less extensive. If you lost your legs, they gave you a chair with wheels and sent you on your way. So the comparison is hard to make. Too many independent variables. Bottom line: any damned fool idiot could have foreseen this, but remember these are people who did not expect the levees to be breached.

I visited a friend's friend in Walter Reed during VN. No physical injury, but profound mental issues. The place was busy then too.

[Canuckistanian]

33. Thanks

Good perspective.

[Kat45]

29. K & R

The lack of care for our vets needs to be more widely known.

[mwb970]

37. No story on Walter Reed in the Columbus Dispatch today.

Feels like old times! I'd settle for hearing about the mold & roaches instead of nothing at all.

[progressoid]

38. Not to mention...Walter Reed is just the tip of the iceberg.

When we finally get out of that hell-hole, ALL of our medical facilities around the globe will be stressed beyond their means. Thousands more disability claims will be ignored, shelved, or abandoned.

[lebkuchen]

40. Guys returning w/their bowels hanging out and limbs missing

are eligible for a mere 20% disability, from what I read in a recent article.

Lunacy.