The VA failed me, so I’m making sure other veterans have the options I didn’t

[rangerrebew]

 The VA failed me, so I’m making sure other veterans have the options I didn’t

Team members of the Belvoir Hospital's 7 Medical/Telemetry Unit prepare for the start of a new day April 22, 2020. (Department of Defense photos by Reese Brown)
January 28, 2022 Ben Rangel - Concerned Veterans for America
 

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I had been in Iraq for only a few weeks when I was hit by an improvised explosive device. 

During a convoy in October 2004, the IED detonated just feet from me, and I sustained shrapnel wounds along my left side. I spent half a day in medical care, just long enough to be cleaned up before I was sent back onto the battlefield.

For that incident, I received the Purple Heart, an award given to men and women who are wounded in combat. But war wears down the bodies of those who fight it, and many of us   have come home with injuries, pain, and chronic conditions that aren’t directly tied to engagement with the enemy. 

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2022/01/the-va-failed-me-so-im-making-sure-other-veterans-have-the-options-i-didnt/

[sneakypete]

The VA hospital system is WORSE than useless,because if it were merely useless,they would do less damage.

Can't afford for rage reasons to get too deep into this,but just ONE example is my left leg,which swole and burst due to all the fluids in my body from lymphoma.

The VA has decided that I only need to change bandages once a day,instead of the 2 to 3 times a day the civilian doctors recommended,so they only provide me with bandage changes for once a day.

Which means I mostly stay home with my foot over a towel on the floor to soak up the drainage.

Now they have cut off my access to local doctors by refusing to pay them,and insisting I make a 120 mile round trip to the VA hospital to spend all day standing in different lines to see a doctor that pretty much doesn't give a damn. He,or she gets paid the same amount of money no matter what they do,or don't do,and since they can't be sued for malpractice,they have no incentive to do the best they can do.

Also,I am unable physically to walk from the parking lot to the hospital. Sometimes they have valet parking,but sometimes they don't. Depends on their current budget.

AND.........,if a vet DOES have a serious medical problem,they usually have to refer them to an outside doctor anyhow.

In other words,the VA hospital system exists to protect them and keep them in business,not to serve the veterans.

Don't get me wrong,there ARE a few good,caring docs in the VA system,but the way the system is set up you see a different doctor every time you go there.

BTW,I quit going to the VA hospital in the early 80's after they kept telling me I didn't have fluids in my stomach and that I needed to stop drinking so much DESPITE me telling them I don't drink alcohol.

The swollen stomach full of fluid was the first sign of lymphoma,and they completely missed it. By the time it was discovered to be what it is,I had Stage 4 Lymphoma and it is considered to be incurable at this point.