Military 1 Newsletter reported today that 1,700 vets were left of f the VA "waiting" list here in Phoenix AZ.
This comes as no surprise to this widow of a disabled Navy Veteran who gave his country 20 years of his life, earned the Navy Achievement Medal (as a Preventive Medicine Corpsman) and was treated like absolute garbage not only by the Navy Medical Department while on active duty but even worse upon retirement by the VA...
For five years prior to retiring out of the Navy at 20 years, he complained periodically of back pain, difficulty in breathing etc. His parents both had heart problems. His grandparents (both sides) had heart problems. He, himself, had high blood pressure from the time he was 19. The wonderful Navy doctors declared him a malingerer and sent him to a psychiatrist. When he suffered his first heart attack at the age of 37, the wonderful Navy Doctor at the Pensacoal Naval Hospital told me (upon my arrival at the Cardiac Care Unit) that Doug did not have anything conducive to a heart attack. I asked him, at that point, what cracker jack box he bot his degree from. The next morning, after running a stress test on Doug they evaced him to the airforce hospital in Biloxi Mississippi; one artery totally blocked and three veins in the left ventricle had collapsed.
While performing an angio plast at the Biloxi facility, the "doctor" nicked the opposing artery with the catheter and tore it wide open.. subsequently they had to inflate the balloon in Dougs Artery and chemically paralyzed him. They had to wait for me to decide whether to deflate the balloon and let, what they felt, would be a serious if not fatal heart attack ensue or perform a triple bypass on Doug... at the age of 37. I opted for the by pass.
The surgery lasted longer than expected and they basically butchered him. The scars he was left with were horrendous and he never got over them. One of the wires in his chest eventually broke and you could feel it whenever you laid your head on his chest. His lungs then collapsed and I nearly lost him... three days later he rallied and on day four was on his feet... however he was never himself again.
THEN the wonderful government (with Doug only having 8 months left to serve until he could retire out at 20 years) tried to medically board him out... what a good way for our government, who denied him proper care while he was serving them to begin with, to get out of paying Doug his full retirement benefits. They lost that battle and Doug was given a desk job for his remaininh 8 months.
Then, he suffered another heart attack 2 years later... this time, we were told he was terminal... What happened then, due to the wonderful VA was a nightmare that I fought for over 16 months and wound up losing everything... including Doug
They had a "glitch" in their system and instead of having him down as dying.. had him down as improved. We lost our VA... we then began to lose everything else. When I moved out here to Phoenix in an attempt to save Doug's life... the AZ Heart Institute was highly recommended, the VA "LOST" his records... How they lose microfish is beyond me, but that was their claim
For 16 months I sent letter after letter to John McCain, Alphonse D'Amato, the Secretary of the Navy and the head of the VA. Finally I received a letter back from the VA in July of 1998 telling me, no threatening me, that every time I sent a letter to a Senator it "slowed down" the claim.
We lost our VA mortgaged home... neither they, the bank nor a Judge in Pensacola Florida by the name of Bell gave a damn that we had no money due to an error made by the government. We lost our car... and then I lost Doug on September 2 1998. I received a letter about 5 days later with a check in it from the VA reinstating his benefits...dated September 3, 1998. I had to return that check because he had died and it was then cut in half...
I had no home, no vehicle, three children and was unemployed... I have been fighting EVER since just to survive.
I now have to accept Tricare as my insurance (3rd stage cancer patient) and most doctors don't want to take it any longer because the government pays them a fraction of what other insurance companies pay them and it takes them months to receive payment. I can't blame them I am also limited as to the types of drugs that can be supplied despite the fact that in many instances the doctors do NOT want me on the generic forms.
Yet our wonderful Poser, Obama, in the White House... proudly proclaimed in his first term in office that the VA was a wonderful example of how health care should be ... and that is what Obamacare is patterned after.
You voted for this... guess you will get what you wish for. Sad thing is, those of us who knew better will suffer for your stupidity Say good by to the best health care system in the world... welcome to your third world country... who despises the very Veterans that tried to protect your freedoms.
