Especially the wounded? Look:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070929/ap_on_he_me/coming_home_wounded_the_price
2007-09-29 14:37:38 · 7 answers · asked by Semp-listic! 7 in News & Events ➔ Current Events
I agree mudslide. I too, am a veteran.
2007-09-29 14:55:53 · update #1
I am a Viet Nam era veteran. I have bipolar disorder, PTSD, panic disorder, anxiety attacks, a fused left ankle from a parachute accident, arthritis in both knees and lower back. I am 100% disabled according to the VA. However, It took me 20 years of fighting to get the 100%. I am totally disabled according to the Social Security Administration. Yes I have free health care and mental health care at the VA Hospital, but I cannot afford Medicare. All my income is tax free so that worry is gone. But my income is not enough. I cannot sleep at night because I am afraid of the dark. I cannot sleep enough during the day, because of the light and the noise. I wake up screaming from a horrible dream. I roll over in bed and fall on the fall. I walk with a cane and get yelled at when I am at the supermarket when my wife parks in a handicapped spot (I have plates) because I don't look handicapped. I cannot drive anymore because of all the medicines I have to take. My life is a series of great mania and severe depression. I feel like I am swimming upstream in molasses. I am lucky that my wife of 37 years is by my side and understands. Yet the VA says she does not qualify as a care giver and I cannot have the $700 a month it supplies.
Yes the VA does offer 2 years of free help for returning Vets from the Middle East. They have doubled the size of the Mental Health Departments. I really feel sorry for today's youth who are fighting this damn war. No one cares. The public is fast becoming antiwar but is still pro the soldier. The VA is slow. It takes on average about 2 years to have a claim approved or disapproved. I really hate the Veteran's Administration. I really respect the care I get at the Veteran's Administration Hospital with the limited money they get. The staff really cares about the Veteran.
The answer to your very good question is we owe the Veterans more than money. Wounds do not always have scars. These men and women are giving there all for one thing, your freedom. Your freedoms listed in the Bill of Rights. Your freedoms to live.
Sorry I got on my band stand, but your question hit a good nerve and I felt it necessary to type you an honest answer.
2007-09-29 15:07:53 · answer #1 · answered by ? 6 · 9⤊ 0⤋
Certainly but part of the problem is that veterans are using a socialized medical system. As always, government run organizations are inefficient and under funded. It requires long drives (three hours in my case) to get to a VA hospital and even though I was diagnosed in 1999, I have yet to receive treatment for an illness serious enough for a medical retirement (one symptom is being treated despite medical journals saying that approach is all but doomed). The amount received from disability is enough to live on but not enough to transition to so bankruptcy is the usual result. I don't even have plumbing where I live and I am much better off then many of my fellow veterans. Money to do this will be tough to come by but eliminating the waste called the VA and replacing it with some sort of privatized system would go a long way towards a cure.
2007-09-29 18:37:30 · answer #2 · answered by Caninelegion 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
absolutely! I am a veteran and I feel I got the shaft. Although I wasn't a foot solider and did not see action first hand( i was on a ship off the coast of Iraq and Iran), I left the military a disabled veteran. probably due to all the chemicals they inject in our body as warriors to keep us safe from the enemy but who is keeping us safe in out own land. Sorry *** Walter Reed Hospital managed to KILL my 23 year old friend last year. They were charting her vital signs on a napkin! yes a napkin. I asked why, the nurse if he was indeed a nurse said they didn't have anymore charts or the supplies that was needed. the VA hospital in Hampton is a joke! a veteran, if seen, will most likely get crappy diagnosis and sent on their way. Then what about all these folks driving around with the support the troop stickers, want to support us give us decent paying jobs when we get back from Iraq.
2007-09-29 14:54:02 · answer #3 · answered by mudslide_23511 4 · 6⤊ 0⤋
oh my goodness yes. I work part time at the bronx VA hospital, I have seen some pretty fantastic men in need of more than what is currently being provided for them. These men put it all on the line for their country and we repay them this way. Alot more needs to be done, especially in light of the new war. theyr will be many new faces coming home and they are going to need the help of our government. I believe we should all contact our congressman/woman, start petitioning for more funding. I feel for the men and their medical treatment or lack thereof. Hubby is an ex marine, brother is a veteran of the army. I love and support our troops.
2007-09-30 02:42:03 · answer #4 · answered by KARMA IS IT THOU? 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I honestly do have a fear that when my husband gets back from Iraq, he will need a lot of medical care (for his knee injury) and won't get the help he needs. I hope that AMerica really appreciates all that the soldiers are doing and will step up to the plate. Put your rescources, and support where your mouth is. It's easy to paste up a bumper sticker." I support our troops"Whyi s it hard to live by those words.
2007-09-30 00:22:45 · answer #5 · answered by Honee-Bee93 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Most definitely!!! My dad is a veteran and disabled and he gets the worst medical care from the VA.
Thank you to those of you that served our country as well as others.
2007-09-30 00:56:10 · answer #6 · answered by Ladybugs77 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I support the vets and believe they should get all the help they need (100%).
2007-09-29 17:18:10 · answer #7 · answered by robert p 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
you bet ye.
2007-09-29 16:45:05 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋