I was so disappointed to read about the abominable conditions at
Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but based on my experience working
with Veterans Administration A organizations, not that
surprised.
I was so disappointed to read about the abominable conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but based on my experience working with Veterans Administration A organizations, not that surprised. Two weeks ago, The Washington Post broke the story after hanging around WRAMC, talking with soldiers and their families and observing operations over long stretches.
They found mice infestation, broken ceilings, moldy rooms and other abysmal conditions that jeopardizes the recovery of wounded inpatients, and shoddy, disrespectful treatment of outpatients.
I’m disappointed because our soldiers deserve better. Their lives – and their families – have been turned upside down by their injuries attained from serving their country.
I’m also disappointed because I expect better from a hospital that was reputed to provide some of the best care on the planet. Walter Reed has been the site of some exciting medical advancements. One of them is the use of “natural anesthetic” for surgery. By placing clamps on certain nerves, they found they can avoid the risks and complications of general anesthesia and operate on wounds in a timely manner. The lack of general anesthesia also increases healing and recovery and reduces the psychological stress that comes with recovering from major surgery to address wounds from battle.
But, I am also not surprised. Health care for our military service people is headed by the VA and from the top down to its toes here in Santa Clara County, it is a nightmare. My experience with them has been in the area of homeless veterans and trying to get eligible vets into a system that doesn’t want them.
Of all the agencies that are involved in the issue of homelessness, the VA is by far the worst system I’ve come across. On the national level, although they’re at the table, the VA has been glacier-moving slow to respond to the needs of homeless veterans; aggravating, as veterans are a significant number of chronically homeless people. A recent article about homeless veterans reveals the cluelessness the VA has toward the issue, as they claimed to have served a low number of homeless veterans, and then said “this is how many there are,” ignoring that many other agencies serve many, many more, and that many more remain on the streets unserved.
This kind of insular, “we’re the only ones on the planet” attitude prevails at our local VA as well.
I’d be rich if I had a dime for the number of separate phone calls I’ve had to make over the years just to obtain data, or the numerous calls I had to make to different people to educate VA staff on funding opportunities in which they didn’t have to do ANY work, just sign a piece of paper to receive millions. How do you turn down millions of dollars set aside for you to do your job?
I’d slit my wrists if I had a family member or a client I was trying to navigate through their maze. The VA has terrible communication, national to local, but even within the same building, people don’t talk to each other, and their record keeping is even worse than their communication.
The claim that Walter Reed is slated for closure should not even show up on the radar of excuses, but it has. The base closure and reuse process is years long, and the person(s) who made the decision to stop maintaining buildings that were providing medical care didn’t do enough by simply resigning.
The sad thing is that in such a broken system, there are some stellar support organizations, including our local veterans service organizations. They must bleed all over again to hear this stuff. Also, there are a few employees who it seems have been sent by God to help people from falling further into the depths of VA hell.
Those of us who’ve been bounced around between Menlo Park, San Francisco, Tampa and Washington D.C. in the quest to get something done all know Bobbi Rosenthal, a firebrand who manages to boost us past imperious, but ineffective doctors and administrators.
President Bush has formed a task force and Congress is all over this – today. Let’s hope their attention span and effectiveness is longer and greater than when they took up the noisy but do-nothing immigration debate before the election. Ensure this by calling your congressional representative and your senators and get on record. Our soldiers, current and former, deserve much, much better.
Columnist Dina Campeau is a wife, mother of two teens and a resident of Morgan Hill. Her work for the last seven years has focused on affordable housing and homeless issues in Santa Clara County. Her column will be published each Friday. Reach her at dc******@*****er.net.
