Helping heal hundreds of service members at Fisher House

October 2, 2007
Helping heal hundreds of service members at Fisher House

After helping heal hundreds of service members at Fisher House comfort homes across the nation, Ken Fisher said the failures in the health care system for wounded troops and veterans that have been revealed in the wake of the controversy at Walter Reed Army Medical Center have both surprised and angered him.

And he's still mad: As the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs search for solutions, Fisher said they keep stumbling over delays in staffing, technology and ingrained bureaucratic culture.

"I don't understand why anything is held up anywhere," he said. "We've lost a little momentum and we need to get that back."

Fisher, chairman of the Fisher House Foundation that builds the comfort homes near military and VA medical facilities so families of the wounded can be near them while they recuperate, recently served on the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, which ultimately recommended more than 40 changes, all but six of which require no congressional action.

Governor strips VA director of nursing home oversight

March 26, 2007
Governor strips VA director of nursing home oversight

Gov. Janet Napolitano on Monday removed the director of the State Department of Veterans Services from running a veterans' nursing home that was fined this month for patient neglect.

Patrick Chorpenning will stay on as director, but will not have any responsibility over the Arizona State Veterans Home in Phoenix where some of the state's oldest veterans are cared for, said Jeanine L'Ecuyer, a spokeswoman for the governor.

The nursing home is the department's top priority, accounting for $12 million of the department's $18 million budget and offering long-term care for as many as 200 patients, most of whom are World War II and Korean War veterans.

VA hospital in New England: mice, bugs and leaks

March 27, 2007
VA hospital in New England: mice, bugs and leaks

A review by the Department of Veterans Affairs in the wake of the scandal at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center has cited scores of substandard conditions in its New England hospitals and clinics, including the presence of rodents and bugs, chronic leaks, and dilapidated furniture.

The nationwide review, ordered by Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson, reported mice at the VA Medical Center in Providence, recurring reports of flies at an outpatient clinic in Hyannis, and mismatched, stained, and broken furniture in Manchester, N.H.

"This report highlights conditions that are unacceptable, and we must fix these problems immediately," Kennedy said. "The findings are just one more reason why the Veterans Administration needs additional funding and increased oversight. Our veterans and soldiers deserve medical facilities that match their enormous sacrifices."

Inspectors review documents dumped at VA clinic

March 3, 2007
Inspectors review documents dumped at VA clinic

LAS VEGAS — Federal inspectors are reviewing a whistleblower's report about unshredded files found in the trash behind a veterans health clinic in Las Vegas last month, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson said.

"We are now investigating that case, and the IG is out there," Nicholson said Thursday, referring to the VA's inspector general.

Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., requested the review after a security guard from the West Clinic in Las Vegas came forward with a sample of discarded records the guard said he found Feb. 6 in trash bins behind the building.

VA: 400,000 case backlog

February 19, 2007
VA: 400,000 case backlog

Soldiers go to VA to try for more benefits, but the department had a staggering 400,000-case backup on new claims in fiscal 2006, according to VA.

Pfc. Martin Jackson, 30, spent 16 months in Iraq as a supply sergeant with 4th Brigade, 27th Infantry Battalion. Two years ago, while running from a mortar round in Balad, Iraq, he tripped and twisted his leg.

"I thought it was just an ankle sprain," he said. "One day I woke up and just couldn't move."

He had twisted his spine. Now the soft-spoken soldier cannot sit or stand for too long, or lift anything over 10 pounds, which limits his work as a supply clerk.

He has spent two years at Walter Reed going through rehabilitation and waiting for his discharge, which means he hasn't lived with his wife of 10 years for more than three years.

"She's been talking about a divorce," he said. "I just signed [my rating] so I could go home and be with my family."

"If Iraq don't kill you, Walter Reed will."

February 19, 2007
"If Iraq don't kill you, Walter Reed will."

Perks and stardom do not come to every amputee. Sgt. David Thomas, a gunner with the Tennessee National Guard, spent his first three months at Walter Reed with no decent clothes; medics in Samarra had cut off his uniform. Heavily drugged, missing one leg and suffering from traumatic brain injury, David, 42, was finally told by a physical therapist to go to the Red Cross office, where he was given a T-shirt and sweat pants. He was awarded a Purple Heart but had no underwear.

David tangled with Walter Reed's image machine when he wanted to attend a ceremony for a fellow amputee, a Mexican national who was being granted U.S. citizenship by President Bush. A case worker quizzed him about what he would wear. It was summer, so David said shorts. The case manager said the media would be there and shorts were not advisable because the amputees would be seated in the front row.

" 'Are you telling me that I can't go to the ceremony 'cause I'm an amputee?' " David recalled asking. "She said, 'No, I'm saying you need to wear pants.' "

David told the case worker, "I'm not ashamed of what I did, and y'all shouldn't be neither." When the guest list came out for the ceremony, his name was not on it.

Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

February 18, 2007
Soldiers Face Neglect, Frustration At Army's Top Medical Facility

They suffer from brain injuries, severed arms and legs, organ and back damage, and various degrees of post-traumatic stress. Their legions have grown so exponentially -- they outnumber hospital patients at Walter Reed 17 to 1 -- that they take up every available bed on post and spill into dozens of nearby hotels and apartments leased by the Army. The average stay is 10 months, but some have been stuck there for as long as two years.

Yet at a deeper level, the soldiers say they feel alone and frustrated. Seventy-five percent of the troops polled by Walter Reed last March said their experience was "stressful." Suicide attempts and unintentional overdoses from prescription drugs and alcohol, which is sold on post, are part of the narrative here.

Staff Sgt. John Daniel Shannon, 43, came in on one of those buses in November 2004 and spent several weeks on the fifth floor of Walter Reed's hospital. His eye and skull were shattered by an AK-47 round. His odyssey in the Other Walter Reed has lasted more than two years, but it began when someone handed him a map of the grounds and told him to find his room across post.

A reconnaissance and land-navigation expert, Shannon was so disoriented that he couldn't even find north. Holding the map, he stumbled around outside the hospital, sliding against walls and trying to keep himself upright, he said. He asked anyone he found for directions.