VA Nurse Gave Disabled Vietnam Veteran Shoes Off Own Feet

Nurse at Salisbury VA hospital gives veteran the shoes off his feet
News and Observer
BY MARTHA QUILLIN
January 27, 2015

Most of his family had given up on him, he told Maulden, but his nephew still cared enough to bring him to the hospital that night for treatment.

Homelessness remains a major issue for veterans, and the Salisbury VA hospital serves its share – 4,227 last year, said Jennifer Herb, director of health care for homeless veterans at the Salisbury VA. Often, Herb said, those veterans have multiple issues, including medical problems, mental health conditions and substance addictions.

One quality that makes Chuck Maulden a caring emergency department nurse is his ability to put himself in someone else’s shoes.

Recently, he’s been lauded for putting someone else in his.

Maulden, 33, had been working in the emergency department at the Salisbury Veterans Affairs Medical Center for a just a couple of months when a patient came in near the end of his shift one night in November.

The man appeared to be in his mid-60s, Maulden said, and he was there because his feet were causing him such pain he could hardly walk.

“He kept talking about being in bad water in Vietnam,” Maulden said, though Maulden doesn’t know if the man served there during the war. Many soldiers who did suffered from trench foot, caused by long exposure to cold, damp conditions.

The man took off his tattered tennis shoes, and Maulden could see the soles were worn through and coming unglued. The balls of his feet were covered in huge blisters, and his compression stockings had matted to the skin where the blisters had drained. A doctor instructed Maulden to bandage his feet and give him fresh stockings.
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Marine Makes Hard Choice, Amputate Leg

Barely able to walk, injured Marine decides to have leg amputated 
The Wilson Daily Times, N.C. (Tribune News Service)
By Lisa Boykin Batts
Published: January 26, 2015

The consensus among Duncan’s medical team now is the infection did more damage than the body can heal.

In this Sept. 14, 2013 file photo, U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Duncan Mathis, right, is greeted by his mother, Theresa Mathis, as he finishes the Run for the Fallen 5K/Half-Marathon at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C. Mathis was wounded in action during a deployment to Afghanistan, falling 75 feet and breaking his legs, ankles and right arm. BRITTAIN CROLLEY/U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO

(Tribune News Service) — Lance Cpl. Duncan Mathis said it was an easy decision to amputate the lower portion of his left leg.

"I don’t have a doubt in my mind,” the Beddingfield High School graduate said. "I want to live my life as a 21-year-old.”

In recent months, it was getting harder and harder for Duncan to do the things he wanted to do and to live an active lifestyle. He was in tremendous pain and had decreasing mobility. In June, he was able to run in a brace, said his mother, Theresa. 

By November, he was barely walking. Duncan’s problems stem from a May 2013 incident in Afghanistan.

He fell 75 feet down an unmarked well while on a nighttime mission with his unit. He fractured both legs and ankles as well as his shoulder and arm. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury.
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VA: biggest organizational change in VA history?

New simplified map for Veterans Affairs 
Military Times
By Leo Shane III, Staff Writer
January 26, 2015

The Veterans Affairs Department says that by midsummer all offices should be coordinating efforts along a newly drawn five-region map. (Photo: Veterans Affairs Department)

Veterans Affairs Department officials who promised to simplify the agency are touting major progress after settling on a single map of the United States. If that seems overly bureaucratic, keep in mind the department currently uses at least nine maps of America, subdividing the country into dozens of regional networks and administrative responsibilities for hundreds of programs.

By midsummer, all VA agencies should be sharing the same latitude and longitude, coordinating efforts along a newly drawn five-region map to allow veterans a single point of entry for a host of office offerings.

Officials offered few specifics on what they called "the biggest organizational change in VA history" but said the work will not immediately mean cuts to the 340,000-plus workforce. 

 "This is not about losing jobs," said Bob Snyder, executive director of the MyVA program office.

"There is more than enough work to do at VA. ... This is about improving the veterans' experience."
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Bowe Bergdahl WIll Face Charges for Desertion

UPDATE
No big shocker here the press got the story wrong.

Army: Bergdahl reports are untrue, no decision made
KENS5 News
January 27, 2015

The Army says there is no truth to media reports claiming a decision has been made to charge Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl with desertion.

The Army continues to review the case against Bergdahl, said Paul Boyce, a spokesman for Forces Command, on Tuesday morning.

"Sgt. Bergdahl has not been charged with any crime," said Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby during a press briefing Tuesday afternoon.

"No decision has been made with respect to the case of Sgt. Bergdahl," Kirby said.

"None. There is no timeline to make that decision, and Gen. [Mark] Milley is being put under no pressure to make a decision."

In a report Monday citing two anonymous military sources, retired Lt. Col. Tony Schaffer told Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" that the Army plans to charge Bergdahl with desertion. Schaffer also told the outlet his sources confirmed to him that Bergdahl's lawyer has been given a charge sheet. read more here

Bowe Bergdahl to Be Charged With Desertion, Officials Say
NBC News
January 27, 2015

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was held captive by enemy forces in Afghanistan for five years, will be charged with desertion, senior defense officials tell NBC News. The officials say the charges could be referred within a week.

According to the officials, the desertion charges would be based on allegations that Bergdahl abandoned his remote outpost in June 2009 to avoid hazardous duty or important service, which are grounds for charges of desertion under the Uniform Military Code of Justice, or UCMJ. According to one senior official, Bergdahl's actions in Afghanistan go well beyond the lesser offense of AWOL, absent without leave, because he allegedly abandoned his post "in the middle of a combat zone, potentially putting the lives of his fellows soldiers at risk."
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The 6 U.S. Soldiers Who Died Searching for Bowe Bergdahl
TIME
Mark Thompson
June 2, 2014

Troops suggest that Bergdahl's desertion makes him more traitor than hero

Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was freed by the Taliban over the weekend after they held him for nearly five years, in exchange for five Taliban leaders, who will spend a year cooling their heels in Qatar. Chances are you haven’t heard of the six soldiers who died hunting for him after he went missing, according to military officials. Now that Bergdahl has been sprung—in exchange for five senior Taliban officials, who had been imprisoned at Guantanamo—soldiers who served with Bergdahl are grumbling that he deserted and shouldn’t be hailed as a hero, especially given the resulting cost in American lives.

Staff Sergeant Clayton Bowen, 29, of San Antonio, Texas, and Private 1st Class Morris Walker, 23, of Chapel Hill, N.C., were killed by a roadside bomb in Paktika province on Aug. 18, 2009, while trying to find Bergdahl. Like Bergdahl, they were part of the 4th BCT from Fort Richardson, Alaska.

Staff Sergeant Kurt Curtiss, 27, of Murray, Utah, died Aug. 26 in Paktika Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when he was shot while his unit was supporting Afghan security forces during an enemy attack.

2nd Lieutenant Darryn Andrews, 34, of Dallas, Texas, died Sept. 4 in Paktika Province when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device and a rocket-propelled grenade.

Staff Sergeant Michael Murphrey, 25, of Snyder, Texas, died Sept. 6 in Paktika province after being wounded by an IED. Like Bergdahl, Bowen, Walker, Curtiss and Andrews, Murphrey was part of the 4th BCT.

On Sept. 4, 2009, Private 1st Class Matthew Martinek, 20, of DeKalb, Ill., was seriously wounded in Paktika province when Taliban forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device, a rocket-propelled grenade and small-arms fire.

Second Veteran Received Wrong Records From Tampa VA

Second Tampa Bay veteran received someone else's medical records
WFLA News
By Shannon Behnken
Updated: Jan 26, 2015

A second Tampa Bay area veteran received someone else's confidential medical records in the mail.

8 On Your Side reported about a case last week when a woman found another veteran's records in her mail, and now another veteran has stepped forward.

Randy Blackford, of Port Richey, received a letter denying his disability compensation from the Veteran's Administration. That was bad enough, but, tucked inside, Blackford found the name, social security number and medical information belonging to another veteran.

"I'm worried somebody's information," Blackford said. "I've got this guys'. Hey, they probably got mine somewhere floating around."

The same thing happened to Carol McBride, who served in the Navy, when she got copies of her medical file from the Veteran's Administration.

When her 1,500 pages of medical records arrived, she found someone else's records sandwiched between hers. There are three EKG reports and doctor's notes for a man who was in the Army in the 1980's. His name, social security number and date of birth are right there: Everything someone would need for identity theft.

"I know more about him than I should know about him, and had it been someone who's not honest, they could have taken quite a bit of advantage of him," McBride said. "I shouldn't have to deal with this ... "I don't want to be responsible for someone else's medical records."

McBride also worries that if she has someone's records by mistake, someone else could have hers. After all, she ordered her file to make sure all of her records are there. She's battling with the VA over her compensation amount for a disability. She questions whether all of her records are there and wonders if this man needs the documents she now has.
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