Dr. Todd Hatch wants other doctors to step up for OEF and OIF veterans

Local doctor has a plan to help the VA treat America's vets -- for free

by Kevin Reece / 11 News

Posted on April 2, 2010


HOUSTON—The Veterans Administration more than has its hands full when it comes to caring for aging and injured veterans.

Even under the best of circumstances, they have millions of patients to care for each year.

But a Houston-area doctor has a plan – he wants the rest of the medical community to step in and do their part.

John Thompson is one of those veterans. He makes monthly visits to Dr. Todd Hatch for neck, back and foot pain.

That pain started on the other side of the world, when Thompson spent a year with the Army in Iraq.

Thompson’s supply convoys criss-crossed the country, and day-to-day life was mostly uneventful. But even though he was never injured in battle, the wear and tear of being on the road led to back problems.

When he came home, he initially sought help at the Houston VA.

"They, uh, you know, threw some medicine at me and said, ‘Here you go. This will take care of it.’ But over time, it progressively got worse, and I really didn’t know where to go," Thompson said.

That is, until he drove past the readerboard at Sunrise Chiropractic, where Dr. Hatch Works, and saw that Iraq and Afghan war vets could get help there – for free.

"They have a lot of pride, and they don’t want to ask for help. But they’ll take help if it’s offered," Hatch said.

Hatch began offering that help, because soldiers told him the VA often can’t.

"The government cannot take care of all these soldiers. There’s no way they can meet all their needs. So I think it’s time for the citizens to step up, say what we can do for our own people," Hatch said.
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Local doctor has a plan to help the VA

also

Wounded Warriors Volunteer Association Web site
MISSION STATEMENT

The Wounded Warrior Volunteer Association (WWVA) recognizes and appreciates the willingness of our veterans, active duty and reservists to serve and protect. While the United States government attempts to meet the health care needs of those brave men and women there are times that some of those needs are not meet. Additionally we are concerned about those warriors that did not sustain injuries that “qualified” them for health care under such programs, warriors that have been “released” from such programs and those warriors that have given up on seeking care through such programs due to the extenuating bureaucracy involved. The primary mission of the Wounded Warriors Volunteer Association (WWVA) is to connect Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with healthcare providers and services who agree to provide quality care at no cost to the warrior. Some providers may also elect to offer the same benefit to the warrior’s spouse or primary care giver.

"Where Honor Lives" until nursing home veterans are abused

Elder abuse investigations linger in incidents at state veterans home

11:55 PM CDT on Saturday, April 3, 2010
By JAMES DREW / The Dallas Morning News
jdrew@dallasnews.com

BIG SPRING, Texas – The Veterans Land Board promotes its seven state-owned veterans homes with a glossy brochure titled "Where Honor Lives."

But there was nothing honorable about what allegedly happened to World War II Navy veteran John Harris in the final months of his life in 2007 at the Lamun-Lusk-Sanchez State Veterans Home in Big Spring.

A certified nurse aide said she saw a co-worker grab the 97-year-old from his wheelchair and slam him into his bed. Harris, suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was taken to the hospital that night when he complained of hip pain, according to a state inspection report.

That same year, another employee at the home was accused of punching and trying to choke Albert Teague, 84, a Marine who fought at Iwo Jima.
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Investigations linger in incidents at state veterans home

Service dogs help ease veterans' postwar pain

Service dogs help ease veterans' postwar pain
Government to test how dogs can help troops cope with post-traumatic stress disorder.

By Janie Lorber
THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: 11:00 p.m. Saturday, April 3, 2010


WASHINGTON — Just weeks after Chris Goehner, 25, an Iraq war veteran, got a dog, he was able to cut in half the dose of anxiety and sleep medications he took for post-traumatic stress disorder. The night terrors and suicidal thoughts that kept him awake for days on end ceased.

Aaron Ellis, 29, another Iraq veteran with the stress disorder, scrapped his medications entirely soon after getting a dog — and set foot in a grocery store for the first time in three years.

The dogs to whom they credit their improved health are psychiatric service dogs specially trained to help traumatized veterans leave the battlefield behind as they reintegrate into society.

Because of stories like these, the federal government is spending several million dollars to study whether scientific research supports anecdotal reports that the dogs might speed recovery from the psychological wounds of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In dozens of interviews, veterans and their therapists reported drastic reductions in post-traumatic stress symptoms and in reliance on medication after receiving a service dog.
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Service dogs help ease veterans postwar pain

Hundreds honor wounded Marine

Hundreds honor wounded Marine
Sunday, April 04, 2010
By MICHAEL McAULIFFE
mmcauliffe@repub.com
HOLYOKE - In big letters, on a queen-sized bed sheet, was spray-painted the message Dennis S. Marini and his 12-year-old daughter, Kylie Kuhn, wanted Joshua J. Bouchard to see Saturday afternoon: "Welcome Home Josh! We Love You."

Hundreds of people who gathered along Beech Street and in the parking lot of the Anne H. McHugh Educational Center appeared to feel the same way.

The throng, which included Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, were there to honor the 27-year-old Bouchard, a Marine Corps sergeant who had lost his left leg, broken his right arm, and had part of his spine crushed in an explosion in Afghanistan in July.
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Hundreds honor wounded Marine

A Marine's father fights on for his son

A Marine's father fights on for his son
He took case to highest court after Kan. church protested at funeral

By Tricia Bishop tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

April 4, 2010


YORK, Pa. — - Albert Snyder is a soft, bear of a man - more teddy than grizzly - with thinning hair, a trim goatee and tired eyes. He has a folksy, polite manner and speaks with the gentle tone and tempo of a storyteller.

But if you mess with his family, he turns fierce. You can see the change whenever the Westboro Baptists of Topeka, Kan., are mentioned. They messed with his son in what he considers an unimaginable way.

"You don't go after one of my kids," Snyder said from his lawyer's office in York, Pa.

Marine Lance Cpl. Matthew A. Snyder, 20, was killed in a Humvee accident in Iraq on March 3, 2006. A week later, church members stood outside his funeral at St. John's Roman Catholic Church in Westminster waving signs that said "Thank God for dead soldiers" and "God hates fags" while mourners grieved inside. Later, they posted a diatribe on their Web site claiming that Matthew's divorced parents raised him "to commit adultery" and to support "satanic Catholicism."

The Westboro church members had never met Matthew, who wasn't gay, nor his family. Yet seven of them - adults and children - traveled 1,100 miles across a half-dozen states to celebrate the young Marine's death as part of their anti-gay gospel aimed at the military. They contended that the protest was directed not at Snyder but at the U.S. government and its tolerance of homosexuality and gays in the military.

Snyder sued Westboro Baptist Church and its leaders in Baltimore federal court a few months after Matthew died, contending that they invaded his privacy and intentionally inflicted emotional distress. He testified that the defendants placed a "bug" in his head so that he could no longer think of his son without thinking of them and their signs.

The trial, too, took its toll, wearing on him physically and emotionally as he relived his son's death each day.

Snyder won a multimillion-dollar jury verdict, with the judge calling Westboro's actions "outrageous" and "highly offensive," but an appeals court reversed it. The Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case during its fall term, vaulting Snyder's personal fight onto a national stage.

He appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" last week, and taped an episode with MSNBC's Chris Matthews the week before. On Tuesday, shortly after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that Snyder would have to pay some costs of Westboro's appeals, Bill O'Reilly of Fox News pledged to pay the $16,000 bill.

Snyder's lawyers have become part-time publicity agents and celebrities. And military families across the country consider Snyder - a man who never wanted his son to be a soldier - a champion for basic human decency.

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A Marine's father fights on for his son
A Marine father fights on for his son

Rolling away the stone

Was I worth dying for? Today as Christians around the world take time to honor the day Christ surrendered His life on the cross, many will attend church wondering if they were worth dying for. Good Friday, the day Christ was nailed to the cross is a time for reflection on our own lives. Then there is Easter, Pascha, the day we celebrate our new life, redeemed from sin.

It is mostly forgotten about during the rest of the year that Christ forgave the people calling for His execution with His last few breaths. Imagine what that must have been like for the people who were screaming "Crucify Him!" to hear those words from Him. Did they regret what they did? When the temple curtain was torn, did they understand? Did they understand when the ground beneath their feet shook or when the sky turned dark? What did they do the day after? How did this change them? Did they even understand what happened a few days later when the tomb was empty?

Christ had a choice to lay down His life or walk away. He had the power. When He was on His knees in the garden grieving over destiny, He asked God to find another way and "let this cup pass" from Him. He did not want to die but put His life into the hands of God, leaving it up to Him. This we also forget. Christ knew His time here was nearing the end. It also proves that He knew how His life would end all along.

Abiding in the Light of Pascha
Fr. Christopher Foley

It is the feast of feasts, the holiday of holidays, which surpasses not only human feasts, but even feasts of Christ, as the light of the sun is brighter than that of the stars. It is the day of resurrection and the beginning of true life."

St. Gregory of Nazianzus

We have just celebrated the true Pascha, or passover, of our Lord. This is the passing over from death to life, from bondage to freedom, from darkness to light, from suffering to healing. We are now reveling in the light of His glorious resurrection. The brightness of these days is our participation in this "true life" that St. Gregory speaks of above. We can see it all around us in nature. St. Gregory goes on to list many things in nature that reveal to us this new life springing up in his homily on Pascha. He says that everything is "conspiring together, rejoicing together, for the beauty of this feast." Everything all around us is hymning Christ who has sprung up from the tomb in order to bestow life on the whole world. He begins, "Now the heaven shines more brightly, the sun stands higher and glows more golden; now the moon's orb is more radiant, the chorus of stars gleams more clearly. Now the sea's waves make their peace with the shores, the clouds with the sun, the winds with the air, the earth with the plants, the plants with our eyes. Now the springs gush forth with a new sparkle; now the rivers flow more abundantly, released from the bonds of winter's ice. Now the meadow is fragrant, the shoots burst forth, the grass is ready for mowing, and the lambs skip through the rich green fields... All things sing God's praise, and give Him glory with wordless voices. For God receives my thanks for all these things: so each of their songs becomes our hymn, for I make their hymnody my own!... Now is the world's spring, the spiritual spring, spring for our souls, spring for our bodies, spring visible, spring invisible."
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http://holycrossoca.org/newslet/0805.html

Christ's message of love, forgiveness, mercy and compassion was delivered everyday when He spoke to the huge crowds but it was fulfilled when He clung onto all of these with His life was being sacrificed. As He healed the lame, restored sight to the blind, fed the hungry, forgave the sinner, He knew how His life would end. When He spoke to some people He knew hated Him, He also knew He would forgive them.

Matthew 17
22When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life." And the disciples were filled with grief.

How can any of us still think there is something we cannot be forgiven for? There is nothing beyond His mercy.

Consider Saul of Tarsus. Saul was determined to see all Christians put to death because he truly believed he was serving God and this mission of death was his duty. He was very good at tracking down the followers of Christ until one day on the road to Damascus, he was blinded, feel to his knees and heard a voice calling down to him asking why he was persecuting Him. It was the voice of Christ. In that moment, Saul understood how wrong he was and he must have remembered all the lives lost because he was wrong. Christ not only forgave Saul but Saul, renamed Paul went on to reach the gentiles and convert them into Christians. He also wrote most of the New Testament. Christianity spread because Christ was able and willing to forgive him for all he had done. Paul was willing to be forgiven and change his ways.

We can all be forgiven by God, Christ and other people. The problem most of us have is forgiving ourselves. Thoughts we've had, things we've done, selfish acts, all come back to haunt us but if you believe, if you walk away from church, especially after Easter services, you are cleansed. You are forgiven. From that moment on, you can be the type of person Christ talked about once you begin to forgive yourself.

The stone you need to roll away, trapping you is what you hold against yourself. Let that stone roll away!

Female Afghan war vet dealing with PTSD

Afghan war vet dealing with PTSD, motherhood and normalcy of life
April 1st, 2010 @ 5:45pm
By Jill Atwood, Veteran Affairs Salt Lake City
The following story was sent to us by the VA Salt Lake City Healthcare System. It is factual and shines the spotlight on women in combat environments and the emotional toll it can take. It also focuses on the broader issue of PTSD for all returning Veterans and their willingness to reach out for help.
SALT LAKE CITY -- Before 2006 There was nothing Marlo Anderson couldn't handle. She was tough, confident, and in charge. It's why she signed on the dotted line and why she was the first one packed for deployment to Afghanistan.

This highly motivated Air Force Sergeant went on mission after mission, patrol after patrol in a high stress combat environment.

"You're on edge 24-7 and you are always waiting for something to happen," Marlo said.
She served proudly for the 419th Security Forces out of Hill Air Force Base and performed at the highest level.

Marlo was stationed at Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan which is a small state just north of Afghanistan. She was deployed as part of Operation Enduring Freedom. During her time there in 2006 it was considered "Washington's sole front line state for confronting terrorism in Afghanistan." She was a Sergeant when she was discharged from the Air Force.

Did you know...
The VA Salt Lake City Health Care System has a weekly PTSD intake session. Every Tuesday, (except holidays)
11:00 a.m.
Building 47 (Outpatient Mental Health)
George E. Wahlen VA Medical Center
No appointment necessary
Bring a copy of your DD Form 214

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Afghan war vet dealing with PTSD

Only a fraction of wounded veterans apply for benefits

Report: Some vets miss out on better benefits

By Kevin Maurer - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Apr 2, 2010 16:53:13 EDT

WILMINGTON, N.C. — Only a fraction of wounded veterans who could get better benefits have applied in the two years since Congress, acting on concerns the military was cutting costs by downplaying injuries, ordered the Pentagon to review disputed claims.

As of mid-March, only 921 vets have applied out of the 77,000 the Pentagon estimates are eligible, according to numbers provided to The Associated Press by the Physical Disability Board of Review. The panel was created in 2008 but started taking cases in January 2009.

More than 230 cases have been decided, about 60 percent in favor of improving the veteran’s benefits, while 119 cases were dismissed as ineligible.

Advocates and even the board members themselves want the review panel to do a better job of getting the word out.

“Quite frankly, I would like to see more opportunities for us to reach out to these people,” said Michael LoGrande, president of the three-member board that has a staff of 10. “But we are doing the best we can with the limited people and resources we have.”
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Some vets miss out on better benefits

Tears, honor greet Marine

The Patriot Guard Riders group welcomes home U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Rick J. Centanni carried by a color guard upon arrival Friday April 2, 2010 at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, Calif. Centanni who was assigned to the 4th light armored recon, 4th Marine Division, Marine Expeditionary Brigade, Camp Pendleton, Calif., died March 24 from injuries while supporting combat operations in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Nick Ut) (Nick Ut)

Tears, honor greet Marine
http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14810148
Photos by Nick Ut
The Associated Press
Posted: 04/02/2010 06:18:17 PM PDT


Tribute to a fallen Marine

Hannity insults "tea party" audience with McVeigh comment

Tim McVeigh wannabe's? Is Hannity implying that McVeigh was someone to be proud of? Is this possible?

Who can forget the despicable actions of McVeigh when he slaughtered people just because he could? The "tea party" people are made up of grandparents, moms and dads, average citizens doing what they believe is right because of what they have been told all these years by people like Hannity. Now Hannity compares them to McVeigh? How many people in that audience were appalled by the reference while others disgustingly cheered what he said?

Did Sean Hannity call his audience Tim McVeigh-wannabes?
By Ron Brynaert
Thursday, April 1st, 2010 -- 1:40 pm

A video posted on YouTube two days before April Fool's Day asks, "Did Sean Hannity call his audience Tim McVeigh-wannabes?"

Well, the answer is... sort of.

At the very end of this video clip taken from a FOX News Channel broadcast on March 30, and uploaded by the website Mox News, conservative radio host and Fox anchor Hannity can be clearly heard telling his audience, "Can I add one thing. I think we won the debate."

"When you think of the vast majorities they have in Congress, and they had the bribe back room deals, corruption," Hannity continued, "that's because of the Tea Party movement, all these Tim McVeigh wannabes."

Fox News Channel viewers, at the time of its broadcast, wondered why a crowd full of conservatives would cheer being compared to the white supremacist sympathizer who was executed for killing 168 people in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing which destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

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Did Sean Hannity call his audience Tim McVeigh wannabes

Find more videos like this on www.truveo.com.

Vietnam veterans and Hepatitis C jet gun delivered?

Roger That: Local vet wants others to be aware of hepatitis C dangers
April 1, 2010, 6:10 pm


Shaun Brown is on a campaign to make Vietnam veterans aware that their segment of the population faces what he calls "a grave epidemic."

Shaun is from Newfield, the son of a Vietnam vet who died last year -- the result, Shaun says, of the hepatitis C virus that he believes can be traced to his dad's service in the war.

"Medical professionals believe the high prevalence (of HCV in veterans) points to a single causality," Shaun wrote recently.

"Jet gun injectors have been at the forefront of possible causes."

Well, certainly one possible cause. There are many others, but let's go with this for now.

The jet gun, for those who haven't had the pleasure, was used to administer several immunizations at once by firing the fluids, with high pressure but no needles, into the upper arm.

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Local vet wants others to be aware of hepatitis C dangers

One in three young vets now unemployed

Smart enough to learn new skills? Yep. Dedicated to the mission? Yep, can't beat willing to lay down your life to do it. Physically able? Yep, boot camp alone proved that one. Works great on team efforts? Ever see a soldier fighting alone and doing his own thing? That one's covered too. What more can an employer ask for? Considering they spent at least a year in combat, unable to call in sick, or take the easy way out of anything, the list of reasons to higher a veteran is a lot longer than the reason to pass them over. What kind of "grateful nation" is this when they come home after serving in the military and find out they don't have a job?

One in three young vets now unemployed

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Apr 2, 2010 15:12:51 EDT

Disturbing new statistics from the Labor Department show that one in three veterans under age 24 is unemployed — and that the unemployment rate for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans has jumped to 14.7 percent, half again as high as the national employment rate of 9.7 percent.

The March unemployment rate of 30.2 percent for veterans aged 18 to 24 is a big jump from February’s figure of 21.7 percent, although it may be partly the result of a small sample used by the Labor Department in determining unemployment, said Justin Brown, a labor expert for Veterans of Foreign Wars.
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One in three young vets now unemployed

Grass-roots effort tries to fill needs while veterans wait

Help returning war vets
Grass-roots effort tries to fill financial and counseling gaps
Updated: April 01, 2010, 11:23 pm
Published: April 02, 2010, 6:51 am

For many veterans returning from both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and for their families, there are continuing issues that governmental entities may not be fully equipped to handle. Western New York veterans want to bridge that gap, and they deserve community support.

WNY Heroes, a grass-roots effort by the veterans and their supporters, is designed to help fill the financial and emotional gaps facing returning service members and their families, who face delays in getting medical treatment and financial hurdles worsened by deployments overseas. Through "A Salute to Service: Our Community Cares," a fundraising effort under the auspices of the Mental Health Association of Erie County, the group hopes to raise more than $535,000 over 60 days.
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Help returning war vets

KBR sued by Uncle Sam after new contract

Why does this sound like something out of a bad movie?

US Sues Contractor KBR Over Iraq Bills
April 02, 2010
Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The federal government sued KBR Inc., the largest contractor in Iraq, on Thursday over what prosecutors say were improper charges to the Army for private security services.

Houston-based KBR Inc. is a former subsidiary of Halliburton Co. It recently won a new contract potentially worth more than $2 billion for support work in the country.

The lawsuit filed in federal court in Washington charged that KBR and 33 of its subcontractors used private armed security at various times from 2003 to 2006. The suit claimed KBR knew under the terms of its contract the company could not bill the U.S. government for such services but did so anyway.
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US Sues Contractor KBR Over Iraq Bills

New Agent Orange Rule to Allow Retro Claims by 86,000

Agent Orange Retro Claims Allowed
Tom Philpott April 01, 2010
New Agent Orange Rule to Allow Retro Claims by 86,000

About 86,000 Vietnam War veterans, their surviving spouses or estates will be eligible for retroactive disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs -- an average of 11.4 years for veterans and 9.6 years for survivors -- under a draft VA rule to expand by three the number of diseases presumed caused by herbicide exposure in the war.

The 86,000 are beneficiaries who can reopen previously denied claims for these conditions: ischemic heart disease, Parkinson's disease and chronic B-cell blood cancers including hairy cell leukemia. But another 29,000 claims are expected to be approved this year for Vietnam veterans suffering from these diseases but applying for benefits for the first time.

The projected cost of this dramatic expansion of claims linked to Agent Orange and other defoliants deployed four decades ago is $13.6 billion this fiscal year and $42.2 billion over 10 years. VA plans to hire 1772 new claims processors, starting this October, to be able to handle these claims "without significantly degrading the processing of the non-presumptive workload."
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Agent Orange Retro Claims Allowed