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Walter Reed's War

March 01, 2007 9:46 AM

"SHE ONCE VISITED A SOLDIER LYING IN URINE ON HIS MATTRESS PAD IN THE HOSPITAL"

WHAT A SURPRISE!  nasty problems at WALTER REED have been known about for years and apparently ignored for years!

this morning's WASHINGTON POST installment by anne hull and dana priest says things got so bad that representative bill young, r-fla., and his wife bev who had often visited soldiers at the hospital and complained to commanders about conditions there got so frustrated that they stopped going. 

NOW THERE'S A SOLUTION FOR YOU!   the newspaper article talks about one visit when the florida republican's wife beverly visited a soldier lying in urine on his mattress pad in the hospital. when she failed to get the attention of a nurse, hull and priest report she went flying down to kevin kiley's office, then the commander of walter reed, and got nowhere.

"he has skirted this stuff for five years and blamed everyone else," mrs. young told the post.

kiley is now the army surgeon general.

the article says back in 2005 sgt. 1st class john allen, injured in afghanistan told a CONGRESSIONAL HEARING about a "dysfunctional system" at walter reed where "soldiers go for months without pay, nowhere to live, and their medical appointments canceled.  the result is MASSIVE STRESS and MENTAL PAIN causing further harm.  IT WOULD BE VERY EASY TO CORRECT THE SITUATION if the command element climate supported it.  the command staff at walter reed needs to SHOW THEIR CARE." 

individual members of congress knew firsthand how bad it was.  at least one congressional hearing listened to accounts describing the mess.  BUT it took the reporting of hull and priest and stories on the evening news shows to finally get the attention of congress. 

now there will be hearings galore---ONE PLANNED AT WALTER REED ON MONDAY---and today presidential candidate barack obama along with senator claire mccaskill and others will introduce the "WOUNDED WARRIORS ACT of 2007."   

the press release says the bill is supposed to ensure that the injured returning from iraq and afghanistan receive the care they deserve.

what took congress so long?

March 1, 2007 in Weblogs | Permalink | User Comments (1)

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I work in the medical community. The problem with the VA system is not a great surprise to me. From what I have seen, many of the physicians that work for our VA are those that for whatever reason don't have regular practices in the civilian world. My impression is that they are not the "cream of the crop". If they were, they would be making a whole lot more money in the civilian setting. It seems that going to the VA is the same as going to the local medical school / charity hospital. My father is a WWII Vet. Recently he went to his VA clinic and was given a prescription. The prescription was for double the dosage of the correct medication and was told to cut the pill in half. This may make sense for some people in order to cut costs, but older people sometimes get confused. Our grandfathers, fathers, brothers, sons and now grandsons have served their country by putting themselves in harmsway. Thankfully, they came home. They deserve the best our country can give them. Believe me, I understand what it means to save money, but our VA needs a re-vamping.

Posted by: HeyBlueRef | Mar 1, 2007 9:07:43 PM

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