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 Vallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | March 2007 
The Push Down, The Push Out
 David Lord - PVNN
| | A US Army soldier, a double amputee who was injured in Baghdad, Iraq, tries out his prosthetic limbs after having them adjusted at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington. (AFP/Jim Watson) |
The situation is getting out of hand at the Veterans Administration's Hospitals across all of the 160 plus locations in America. As priorities shift to provide care for the Iraq Veterans, the older disabled Veterans of past wars suffer the result of the current neglect in active duty Hospitals like Walter Reed.
The Bush Administration's reaction to the media's exposure of ghetto-like conditions in the Nation's premiere Military Hospital, Walter Reed, has quickly shifted the responsibility of caring for Iraqi Veterans into the V.A. system.
Those Veterans that depend on the V.A. system of care for past wars, whose wounds were incurred in past wars, are pushed down the category list and if possible being pushed out of the system to make room for the two hundred thousand that have come for their needed care.
The huge backlog is in waiting for medical discharges from active duty, it is in these holding companies that they are lingering, waiting their adjudication for wounds (per cent of disability ratings.) This wait will determine if they are discharged or remain in the military.
When they are discharged the ones that need treatment are shifted into the Veterans Health Care system for further treatments. But the better treatment for one group of Veterans means the immediate neglect of another group, those that suffered their wounds and resulting complications many years ago now face new assaults to their medical rights.
I called my Houston V.A. last Friday to see if the M.R.I. images had been read to determine if my bi-weekly injections (a very expensive drug) were really able to slow down the ankolysis of my cervical spine, which was probably the result of exposures to Agent Orange decades ago.
I have the good fortune (so to speak) to have priority for treatment in the V.A. hospitals. Being 100% service connected disabled Veteran, then retired from Marine Corps for combat wounds, with additional priority as a Purple Heart recipient, my treatment should be guaranteed because I meet all the essential guidelines.
Because I earned Veterans Administration Accreditation for National Service Officer, I know the laws and I donate my time for Veterans Service and continue to attend annual training courses, so I maintain the Accreditation that allows me to help Veterans gain their rightful benefits.
I always donate a minimum of a thousand hours per year, maybe twice that, but last week I was informed that I no longer have any primary care doctor to even read my recent M.R.I., the voice on the phone saying I must have fallen through the cracks as they (V.A.) shifted priority to Iraqi Veterans.
I am now wondering what will be the future of care for all who have fought the V.A. to gain real medical care. Those that are less knowledgable, those that are less informed, less able to appear on the V.A.'s doorstep to demand answers, are very likely to also fall through the cracks and into the abyss.
So the consequence of the Department of Defense's failure to care for active duty military, results in the failure of the V.A. to care for Veterans. The melt down of a military victory in Iraq is the beginning of a massive failure in health care for those that have been wounded in previous wars.
The failure to provide care for the wounded is not acceptable to me, but that is what's happening. The treatment I expected, that all Veterans expected, is becoming a casualty of the Iraq War.
The United States suffered a great loss on 9/11, but none have suffered that cost more than those that serve the country and are wounded. An unhappy conclusion of this Iraq War is far in the future, but we, as Veterans, and you, as taxpayers, will continue to face the senseless waste of money not spent on recovering our economy or providing needed preventive care.
Instead, we will go on repairing the Iraqi's life, building that which we destroyed and that which we had nothing to do with. The welfare of the Iraqi people is the Bush's Administrations priority, making the welfare of the US, especially Veterans, just another casualty of war. Maybe when this foolish war is over we can rebuild the trust in government by caring for America and her Veterans.
I will be at National training by the Military Order of the Purple Heart starting on March 25th, I will answer my e mails after hours but will have no in-person meetings or phone calls until I return.
 David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at david.lord@yahoo.com.
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