"Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'"

"Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (Full Version)

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Vendaval -> "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/21/2007 6:49:42 PM)
Galloway: Walter Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw' By Joseph L. Galloway (February 21, 2007) Except from article - "The Washington Post published a probe, complete with photographs, revealing that for every in-patient who's getting the best medical treatment that money can buy at the main hospital at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, there are out-patients warehoused in quarters unfit for human habitation. Some of the military outpatients are stuck on the Walter Reed campus, a couple of miles from the White House and the Capitol, for as long as 12 months. They've been living in rat and roach-infested rooms, some of which are coated in black mold. There was outrage and disgust and raw anger at this callous, cruel treatment of those who have the greatest claim not only on our sympathies, but also on the public purse." http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/columns/shoptalk_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003548374 (Edited for formatting)

SusanofO -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/21/2007 6:53:21 PM)
Isn't George Bush due for an emergency appendectomy there soon? Hehehe... - Susan

Vendaval -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/21/2007 7:03:58 PM)
Sure, send him and Cheney there for their medical treatment, and then have them stay for a month or two in the out-patient housing!

SusanofO -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/21/2007 7:06:24 PM)
Yeah! - Susan

KenDckey -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/21/2007 7:28:49 PM)
where's the pictures? then maybe I will believe it

MzMia -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/21/2007 9:22:56 PM)
I heard about this abomination today, I felt very, very sad. This Administration should be totally ashamed of the conditions those serviceman are in. I have been to Walter Reed and it appeared to be clean and has a great reputation. This is just pitiful, I am glad it is public knowledge.

subrob1967 -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 2:20:33 AM)
Will you people give it a rest already, Jesus fucking Christ. George Bush is NOT RESPONSIBLE for every little ill in this country. There are 100 Senators and 439 Congresspeople responsible as well as the President and Vice President. Yes it's criminal they way Vets are treated after serving our country, but they've NEVER been treated any better or worse than they are currently. Blame ALL elected Officials, not just one party.

pahunkboy -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 3:53:26 AM)
My dad died in a Chicago VA hospital. They "got rid of him" from the regular hospital as they knew he was close to dead. looks beter for their stats. In the elevator- I heard 2 DRS discussing teh "trainwreck" and laughing it up. I was sorta mad- when I seen they were THE TREATING DRS. IMO on VA hospitals. Nurses could set up in a school gymnasium, and so a beter job!

krys -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 3:56:51 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: KenDckey where's the pictures? then maybe I will believe it http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2007/02/21/LI2007022100671.html Watch the video.

puella -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 4:17:21 AM)
Woah, settle down there, partner. I would agree that this problem is not only the fault of with Bush/Cheney specifically. It has more to do with the prioritization of the Army (I believe they are in charge of running the Walter Reed) and the very big problem of outpatient rehab as a whole in our country.... let me tell you, it is an epidemic that effects not only our veterans. The 'suck it up' mentality applied to training vital young people into fighting machines might work. The suck it up mentality applied to a traumatized person, ailing and psychologically fragile left (literally) to fend for themself in a roach infested room with black mold growing out of the wall paper.... not so much. (KenDucky... I think you need to get out of your Ren-Faire costume and pick up just about any news paper, news website or news channel from the far right to the far left and you will find all the photo confirmation you need). However, that being said... there IS some culpability here for the Bush/Cheney gang.... Support and care for the troops and veterans has been their repeated position and infarct has been used (and manipulated) as a tool to seduce the masses by this administration. They have yet to do more than pay lip service and use the troops as much more than photo op props and distant figures to achieve the means to their end. The fact of the matter is, because of the lack of proper armor, proper training, lack of down time between redeployment, and lowered standards of recruitment, many of the problems in the 'Walter Reed' story was set up to happen by the mishandling of the Commander in Chief in his own position. Notice that Cheney refused to even dignify the idea that the Congress had the right to demand these things before approving this newest, and most ill advised "surge". The number of amputees and traumatic brain injury victims from this war is shocking. That number is directly attributable to the mismanagement of this war and occupation, and Bush Cheney and Rumsfeld are the people at the top of the chain, in terms of carrying this out. When you are the 'Decider', you are also responsible for the repercussions of your decisions. This lineage of cuts to veterans funding by this administration is shameful for one who is constanly using 'support the troops' as his own personal shielding device. Congress is at fault as well... but keep in mind, the congress that allowed this to happen was the Republican led one which would not even allow for discussion of denying the administration every single point they requested. There had not been a single debate allowed in congress (debate, not vote) until the one that just took place in the House. The republicans blocked the debate in the Senate...

swtnsparkling -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 4:31:00 AM)
quote: subrob1967 George Bush is NOT RESPONSIBLE for every little ill in this country. I agree with you. I'm No Bush fan but find it ridiculous he is blamed for every thing wrong past-present-future

Sanity -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 5:03:58 AM)
It's ridiculous to expect the President to know the condition of every nook and cranny of every building in the nation, but I would say that the aforementioned Washington Post article IS an indictment of vast bureaucracies in general. Even further, I'll bet you that if we ever do get all that "free" health care that Liberals keep demanding, it'll look an awful lot like building 18 there.

tuffslave4skinbo -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 5:14:18 AM)
Shile the president cannot be expected to know every detail of every department, the conditions depicted at Walter Reed are in large part due to this administration's policy of replacing experts and career knowledgeable career staff with political appointees at all levels of the govenment. Competent qualified doctors, attorneys, diplomats and administrators have been replaced by political friends (e.g. tommy thompson's inexperienced son at HHS) to a degree that has never happened before, and this is the result.

Sanity -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 5:20:14 AM)
No, every pothole, hiccup and mosquito bite is not the President's fault. Again, that's ridiculous.

puella -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 5:37:26 AM)
I would have to disagree with you. Having lived in several countries with 'state sponsored health care', I have found the efficiency of the hospitals far superior to that I have encountered here at home. I think that the problem under the microscope at the Walter Reed is just a sample of a greater problem here. There has been an across the board defunding of almost all out-patient rehabilitation centers in this country. Different states have different programs to try to help support these facilities, many of which are burdened with the people who have been dropped from care due to the fact that they have no medical coverage, and what ails them is not something which is treated in an emergency room (rehabilitation). Universal health care has nothing whatsoever to do with actual problem that created this sad story, and the mentality that government providing help and aide to services would some how make the situation worse is, at best, backwards. They underlying problem is that when immediate care (being provided in the spit-shined and immaculately run... and incessantly photo-opped main building) has finished, the aftercare, or second tiered care facilities are not given the proper funding, staff and priority. In fact, so little thought has gone into how to treat and care for this new culture of injuries and emotional traumas, that the only policy and procedure they have to run off of is to shove them in a hidey hole (infested in this case) until they can find a way to shift responsibility for treatment from themselves (the healthcare provider) and their health care benefit responsibilities, and onto the injured persons. Many of these soldiers, especially the National Guard personnel who have been on so many tours of duty that they have, more often than not, lost their jobs, and any way of providing themselves with any health care once they are dropped from their veterans coverage. (If there were universal health care, that would be a non-issue.) The reason they are getting shuffled out of outpatient with chunks of their brains missing and denied further coverage because ' they were not good in math in highschool.. there is no way to determine that their current lack of funtionality is realated to brain trauma' sustained in combat', is because there has been a long standing defunding of veterans benefits under the course of this administration's reign, and there is simply no funding for them.

BBBTBW -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 5:45:10 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Sanity No, every pothole, hiccup and mosquito bite is not the President's fault. Again, that's ridiculous. While this might be true, at least get the potholes filled and get rid of the mosquitos in your own back yard. And give your gardener some water for his hiccups.

puella -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 5:50:52 AM)
Not if he is an illegal Mexican gardener... they know better than to ask for such entitlements when being contracted for such glamorous jobs in our country .... (TANGENTAL RANT)

soultoshare -> RE: "Watler Reed Hospital Scandal is 'The Last Straw'" (2/22/2007 6:16:25 AM)
I have had the fortune of being a victim of the military health care professionals. While in the service in Germany, I was pregnant, got morning sickness and was sent to the clinic on post by my NCOIC. When I got there, as usual, I was sent to the lab for blood to be drawn....I swear, they have Dracula back in the lab, you go in with a cold, they take a pint....but I digress. After coming back from the lab, I told the nurse I was going to the bathroom. The next thing I know, I'm being grabbed from behind, tossed into a wheelchair and rushed to the Emergency Room! I kept telling them I was pregnant, the staff started to prepare the equipment to pump my stomach, and when I tried to get off the table, one of the nurses threw her elbows into my stomach area, which caused the placenta to seperate from the uterus. I lost said baby a week later. I never did know why my stomach was pumped, or why I was sent to another hospital overnight, and the paperwork from the entire fiasco disappeared from my medical records....fortuntely, I had the foresight to sign out my records and make copies, then I sicced my congressman on them. This was treatment I received in peacetime, about 24 years ago. Had I ever gone to war, the LAST place I would go for my medical care is ANY VA facility, or military hospital. I could go to one even now as a veteran, but thanks, but NO THANKS.....i'll pay my premiums for my own health insurance. The military's healthcare "professionals" are questionable at best. The Armed Forces didn't even require the doctors to be board certified in the state they are assigned in. Some of the doctors flunked out of med school. The nursing staff is overworked, and the patient load is nuts. A friend of mine had her baby in Frankfurt's military hospital, and the baby had respiratory problems.....she and her husband went in one day to find a 10 year old girl with pnemonia watching their daughter, the staff was "too busy". I've had friends say that free medical care is one of the "perks" of being in the military....just remember, you get what you pay for.

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