I once heard my LTC uncle state that he had a medical emergency, he'd prefer going to the local veternarian. He wasn't kidding.
@catfish1957 I don't know your uncle,but he wasn't kidding.Trust me on that one. Last operation I had there they destroyed the circulation in my leg when they cut out the "growth" they refused to name,and forgot to reattach the blood vein that was feeding it when they sewed me up. As a result they killed the circulation in my left leg,and it was so swollen I had a hard time getting it in "boot cut" Levi's. Their "solution" was to tell me to take more fluid pills. When it turned black and purple in places,they told me "Take more fluid pills,and not to worry if it gets worse because we can always amputate and give you a new high-tech leg."
I told them to go piss up a rope because I was getting a second opinion,and went to see a local surgeon who treated the infection for about a month with neoprene that was saturated with silver (silver kills infection like nobody's business!),and once he got the infection cured,he restored some of the circulation with varicose vein replacement surgery right there in his office,in about 30 minutes. My leg is still huge,but it's not black and blue anymore,and I do have SOME circulation and feeling in it.
The next time I went there with abdominal pain,the doc told me I had liver cancer and wanted to operate right away. I told him to get the bleep away from me,and that I was going to get a second opinion. Which I did at a local hospital,and found out my it was my gall bladder that was infected. They scheduled me for surgery to remove it,but it literally exploded on me about 1 AM a day or two afterwards,and I had to go to the ER for emergency surgery.
This was a few years ago,and when I was in the same hospital recovering from heart surgery this year,damned if that same doctor from the VA didn't come into my room for a consult! I ran his ass off,and told the attending physician why. I guess he got fired from the VA,and eventually got a job at the local hospital by lying about his past. He was from and went to medical school in Columbia,so he probably told them he was fresh off the boat to avoid telling them he had been fired.
Been there several times since,and haven't seen him. I am guessing they started asking questions,and fired him,too.
BTW,for my two heart surgeries and my cancer surgeries and treatments,I went to a local hospital without even bothering with the VA system. I am rated at 100 percent service-connected,and MY understanding was the VA would have to pay for emergency surgeries for me because of the distance I would have to travel (about 60 miles) to get to them.
Guess what. They are refusing to pay because according to them,I was supposed to have notified them within 24 hours of being released from the hospital. I was still in intensive care from the heart surgery when I found out I had Stage 4 Lymphoma,and my heart surgeon had the cancer surgeon come by and see me before I was discharged so she could run tests and schedule surgery and treatment. I was literally in her office getting tests a hour or two after being released from intensive care,and then getting massive doses of chemo and some radiation within a day or two. Hell,I couldn't remember anything before it was over. Chemo WILL make you mindless.
