Sick Veteran Battles Bureaucracy Back Home

[Guest guest]

> Sick Veteran Battles Bureaucracy Back Home

> By Lolita C. Baldor

> The Associated Press

>

> Tuesday 12 August 2003

>

> WASHINGTON - After Army Sgt. Vannessa Turner survived a still-unknown

> illness doctors feared would kill her, she thought her toughest battle was

> over.

>

> But since a military flight brought Turner home she says she's had to

> fight to get medical treatment and can't even get personal items returned.

>

> The homefront, she's finding, can be as daunting as the front lines in

Iraq.

>

> " It's easier to stay a soldier and be in harm's way than to come home

> and get care, " said Turner, her quiet voice quaking with emotion.

>

> Arriving at her mother's home in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood last

> month after hospital stays in Germany and Washington, the six-year Army

> veteran says she was told that despite severe nerve damage in her right

leg

> she'd have to wait until mid-October to see a doctor at the local Veterans

> Affairs hospital.

>

> She sought help from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and eventually

got

> an appointment scheduled this week, but the experience was frustrating for

> Turner and her family. They look at the hero's welcome given to former

> prisoner of war Pfc. Jessica Lynch, who was in one of Turner's

> rehabilitation sessions, and see a double standard.

>

> " Some people are getting scholarships, my sister can't get a doctor's

> appointment, " said her sister Nicole. " To me, they threw her away like a

> piece of trash. She served her country and now nothing is being done for

her. "

>

> Veterans' advocates said Turner's frustration is not unusual. More than

> 110,000 veterans are waiting six months or more for their initial visit

> with a VA doctor or to see a specialist, the VA acknowledges.

>

> " Is this what our returning heroes from Afghanistan and Iraq can expect

> from their elected officials as they seek health care for their painful

> injuries sustained in the line of duty? " Veterans of Foreign Wars

Commander

> Ray Sisk said.

>

> VA undersecretary for health Robert Roswell said everyone who served in

> Operation Iraqi Freedom is entitled to two years of VA health care

> benefits. And the benefits are available to those wounded in combat as

well

> as those injured in accidents or who suffer illnesses.

>

> He blamed Turner's treatment on errors at the VA's West Roxbury

> facility. Officials there failed to recognize her as a newly released

> veteran needing immediate care.

>

> " We made an admitted mistake. But it was caught, " Roswell said, adding

> that changes are being made to ensure it doesn't happen again.

>

> Turner's ordeal started in Camp Balad, 42 miles north of Baghdad. One

of

> the more than 150,000 American soldiers dodging bullets and toiling in the

> searing Iraqi heat, Turner was suffering from severe mosquito bites when

> she collapsed on May 18.

>

> The next thing she knew medics were giving her shots, cutting off her

> clothes and rushing her to the hospital. As they wheeled the gurney down

> the hall, the 40-year-old Army cook could hear the doctor's terrifying

> words: " She's not going to make it. "

>

> " I tried to move my hand, I wanted to signal them I was trying to say,

> 'Hey, I'm alive, don't let me die.' But I couldn't move. I couldn't talk, "

> Turner said.

>

> Doctors still aren't sure what caused her illness, though they suspect

> it could have been a reaction to the ointment she used on the mosquito

bites.

>

> Turner's recovery presented a new set of problems for her family.

> Because of her severe condition, the military quickly classified her as

> medically retired so her 15-year-old daughter Brittany could get increased

> benefits.

>

> But because she no longer was an active member of the military, the

> Pentagon couldn't transport her family to her bedside in Landstuhl,

> Germany, where Turner had been airlifted for treatment.

>

> " They told me she had no heartbeat, that she wasn't breathing, " said

> Turner's mother, Beverly. " They said she had 36 to 72 hours to live. "

>

> Turner's family couldn't afford airline tickets so they turned to

> Kennedy and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., for help. Through their offices

> family members got flights to Germany courtesy of the United Service

> Organizations, and they received lodging and food from the Fisher House

> Foundation, which provides housing for military families.

>

> Turner's fitness aided her recovery. An avid weightlifter, she began to

> slowly improve and by the end of May was flown to Walter Reed Army Medical

> Center in Washington, where she stayed for about six weeks before going to

> her mother's home.

>

> For Turner, the work to rehabilitate the damaged nerves in her leg is

> compounded by confusion over her benefits, her quest for a doctor, and the

> Pentagon's initial assertions that she go back to Germany herself to get

> her belongings.

>

> Turner is hesitant about the future. A year from now she'll go before a

> military board to see if she should be retired permanently or if she's

well

> enough to be reinstated.

>

> " Half my brain says yes, half my brain says no, " she said. " But, ma'am,

> I'm a soldier. I love being a soldier. This is what I do. "

>

> (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is

> distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in

> receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)

> http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/081303B.shtml

>

[Guest guest]

Yeah, it's bad. I suspected that i might have cancer in November, 2000. It took

until April to get in to see a Dr. The VA budget has been cut several times, the

latest being the Bush Crime Family's recent cut of $14.6 BILLION over the next

10 years in order to pay for the tax cuts for their rich buddies! This criminal

act was performed on the eve of Bush using lies to send our troops to fight in a

War to increase the Bush Crime Family's net worth. These thugs have the gall to

tell us to support the troops. Is this what the Shrubs call " supporting our

troops? " Hell no! I believe that our troops deserve our support -- bring them

home now, and restore the benefits that they were promised!

 

> > Sick Veteran Battles Bureaucracy Back Home

>> By Lolita C. Baldor

>> The Associated Press

>>

>> Tuesday 12 August 2003

>>

>> WASHINGTON - After Army Sgt. Vannessa Turner survived a still-unknown

>> illness doctors feared would kill her, she thought her toughest battle was

>> over.

>>

>> But since a military flight brought Turner home she says she's had to

>> fight to get medical treatment and can't even get personal items returned.

>>

>> The homefront, she's finding, can be as daunting as the front lines in

>Iraq.

>>

>> " It's easier to stay a soldier and be in harm's way than to come home

>> and get care, " said Turner, her quiet voice quaking with emotion.

>>

>> Arriving at her mother's home in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood last

>> month after hospital stays in Germany and Washington, the six-year Army

>> veteran says she was told that despite severe nerve damage in her right

>leg

>> she'd have to wait until mid-October to see a doctor at the local Veterans

> > Affairs hospital.

>>

[snip]

--

Neil Jensen: neil

The WWW VL: Sumeria http://www.sumeria.net/

" Dragons is sooooo stupid! " -- Yosemite Sam