At Veterans Hospital in Oregon, a Push for Better Ratings Puts Patients at Risk, Doctors Say New York Times By DAVE PHILIPPS JAN. 1, 2018
“The doctors were mad; the nurses were mad,” said Mr. Savage’s son-in-law, Mark Ridimann. “And my dad, he was mad, too. He kept saying, ‘I’ve laid my life on the line, two years in Vietnam, and this is what I get?’”
ROSEBURG, Ore. — An 81-year-old veteran hobbled into the emergency room at the rural Veterans Affairs hospital here in December, malnourished and dehydrated, his skin flecked with ulcers and his ribs broken from a fall at home.
A doctor examining the veteran — a 20-year Air Force mechanic named Walter Savage who had been living alone — decided he was in no shape to care for himself and should be admitted to the hospital. A second doctor running the inpatient ward agreed.
But the hospital administration said no.
Though there were plenty of empty beds, records show that a nurse in charge of enforcing administration restrictions said Mr. Savage was not sick enough to qualify for admission to the hospital. He waited nine hours in the emergency room until, finally, he was sent home.
Fewer patients meant fewer chances of bad outcomes and better scores for a ranking system that grades all veterans hospitals on a scale of one to five stars. In 2016, administrators began cherry-picking cases against the advice of doctors — turning away complicated patients and admitting only the lowest-risk ones in order to improve metrics, according to multiple interviews with doctors and nurses at the hospital and a review of documents.
Those metrics helped determine both the Roseburg hospital’s rating and the leadership’s bonus checks. By denying veterans care, the ratings climbed rapidly from one star to two in 2016 and the director earned a bonus of $8,120.
read more here
UPDATE
Roseburg VA official calls New York Times story about patient care 'false'
"At its core, the Roseburg VAHCS is primarily an outpatient center, and that’s why the hospital’s clinical leadership has made clear to its physicians that the facility has limited capabilities to care for patients with certain clinical conditions that are far better treated in nearby community hospitals.
This is precisely why we’re being transparent with our doctors about the conditions that the facility is unable to treat, because it’s in Veterans’ best interests for them to be seen at other hospitals in the community with greater capabilities to deliver them the best care for those conditions." You can read the rest here
Welcome to 2018, looks like we're about to enter into another decade of people getting publicity for something they didn't bother to learn anything about! Another mindless stunt sold as raising awareness that veterans are committing suicide, when they cannot even get the number right...or even ask what they can do to change the outcome. This is from WAAY News. Reporter didn't care about the story either!
Miles helps organize the event every year to raise awareness about mental health issues and suicide rates among veterans."The VA reports that about 22 veterans a day, from Vietnam veterans to today's war veterans, take their life and that's unacceptable," said Miles.
Yes, it is unacceptable that Miles did not read the report to know that number was an average of limited data from just 21 states. Also unacceptable is that apparently the report afterwards by the VA putting the number at "20" a day had pretty much been unchanged SINCE 1999!
Too many veterans have committed suicide because they did not know that tomorrow could be any better than their last worst day was! Veterans don't need awareness they want to die. They need to know they can heal and take their lives back instead of ending them!
Korean War vet keeps homeless warm at night San Diego Union Tribune Pam Kragen January 2, 2018
Since 2011, the campaign has distributed more than 3,250 sleeping bags. About 40 percent of downtown’s homeless population are veterans, Field said, but the bags are distributed to any one in clear need.
San Diego Veterans for Peace volunteer Stan Levin, 88, gives Shayne Dunn, who is homeless, a package of food before he and Gilbert Fields, background, a new sleeping bag in downtown San Diego on Friday. (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)
At age 88, Korean War veteran Stan Levin has earned the right to spend all his evenings in the warm comfort of his Serra Mesa home.
But several nights a month for the past six years, Levin has patrolled the streets of downtown San Diego, handing out free sleeping bags, socks and snacks to homeless men and women he finds sleeping on the sidewalks.
More Australian Defence Force veterans have killed themselves this YEAR than those who died in combat in Afghanistan due to post-traumatic stress disorders
More soldiers committed suicide in 2016 than were killed in Afghanistan
The Department of Veteran Affairs have been slammed by former soldiers
They said the Department force them into lengthy battles for support
So they pulled stunts, just like here in the US. The headline from 2017 is this. Veterans' 2017 suicide toll is 84, say activists
Loren Ries drew this on a road in Huonville, Tasmania, for the Veteran Chalk Challenge to draw attention to 84 Australian veterans' suicides in 2017. Photo: Supplied
Mr Steley said the 84 figure "is a conservative estimate and only the deaths that veterans themselves can confirm as the government is still unwilling to even attempt to keep a record of the number of deaths".
Mr Steley said the veterans had "offered so much to Australia and our government to protect them; now when they need help they are being either ignored or actively targeted by an uncaring, inflexible system." read more here
Trauma is what happens but surviving is what we make it!
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos January 1, 2018
By the time this picture was taken, I had already survived five times. Before I turned six, it was already three times. There was a car accident and I still have the scar on my chin from hitting the dashboard while my head hit the windshield. I was pushed off a slide, had a concussion and scull fracture (along with brain damage) but the Doctor missed all that and told my parents to let me have a good nights sleep. The next day, it was obvious I was in trouble. The next Doctor told my parents that I should have died twice the night before. Not "could have" but "should have died." There was no reason I was still alive. Then there was the health scare that was caused by shingles. Yes, the one that "old people" get. It was horrible, painful and terrifying but usually not life threatening. It only seemed that way. My Dad turned into a violent alcoholic but I was not his target. My oldest brother was. He kept drinking and causing misery until I was 13. Then he stopped after the was pulling apart the living room, threw a chair that almost hit me. He didn't know I was there. Years later, another car accident. That was followed by my ex-husband coming home from work one night and deciding I needed to die. He stalked me for over a year. By the time I met my Vietnam veteran husband, I understood what trauma could do to a person first hand. While I did not know what war was like, even though my Dad and Uncles were veterans, I just knew what war was doing to them. I miscarried twins and hemorrhaged. By then I knew what PTSD was but what I didn't know was that night was PTSD was about to get worse. He totally changed. When our Doctor explained the egg split wrong, he refused to listen and blamed himself for having Agent Orange. After our daughter was born, I had an infection that did not totally clear up and I ended up in the hospital. Yet again, I heard the words "should have died" when my Doctor said he had never seen a bacteria count that high on a live patient. That was the last thing I could take. My husband was no longer my best friend. He was a stranger and he was standing by the hospital bed holding our baby, listening as the nurse told him I was fighting for my life. They didn't know I was praying to let go of it. I lost all hope and the will to fight. Then I understood what drove people to commit suicide. The only thing that stopped me was when I was able to open my eyes long enough to see our daughter's big brown eyes looking right back at me. I couldn't leave her. Why am I telling you all of this? Because while trauma cannot be prevented, what it does can be stopped from taking over your life. In my family, there were no secrets. Everything was talked to death. Turns out that is what Crisis Intervention does. It takes you out of the abnormal moments of facing death and brings the survivor back into a safe place within what "normal" life should be. I knew the worst that could happen but also knew how to take back control over the rest of my life. I became a Chaplain for that reason and trained with the IFOC so that I could help first responders and veterans better than I could have on my own. That training was followed by two more years worth of every free training I could get here in Florida. I refuse to be called a "victim" of anything. I AM A SURVIVOR! I do not have PTSD because of what was done soon after the times that tried to take my life. We learned a lot of things from Vietnam veterans coming home and fight for all the research. I learned a lot about veterans because of the veterans in my life. I learned a lot about about lives can be so much better when we fight to take back control and heal. Over 35 years later, researching, living with PTSD, I am living proof that tomorrow does not have to be another dark day of misery. It can be a brighter day with the hope of healing. I also became a leader with Point Man International Ministries because of the spiritual healing that must be included when treating PTSD, especially within those who faced multiple traumatic events. Some advice on this first day of the New Year. Take the negative energy you are using up and use it to put something good into your life. Fight as hard now to heal as you did to survive the "IT" that could have killed you and stop thinking it "should have" killed you. Defeat PTSD and fight to take back your life! I did!
Details in soldier deaths show cases of hanging, gunshot wound
The Mercury
Stephanie Casanova
December 31, 2017
The U.S. Army has provided details on investigations into three Fort Riley soldier deaths that occurred in 2017, two of which appear to have been self-inflicted.
Records indicate the cases are still under investigation by local agencies, and the Army continues to say the cause of each death is undetermined. The Mercury requested information on seven of the 12 non-combat-related soldier deaths that have occurred since June 2017, those that appear to have been suicides. The Army so far has returned documents on three.
In the first, a Junction City Police Department detective found Staff Sgt. Garett Swift, 37, “hanging in the backyard of his residence” in Junction City at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 4, according to one report.
Turned away at Bedford VA hospital, a life lost Veteran's suicide adds to questions about response, policies Lowell Sun
By Todd Feathers UPDATED: 12/30/2017
He sought care at VA hospitals in Arizona, Wyoming, and South Dakota. About three years ago, Earles decided to move to Massachusetts.
BEDFORD -- Byron Wade Earles sat hunched over, his head resting in his hands, by Building 78 of the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital.
The nurse who rushed out to help found him bleeding and despondent.
"They wouldn't admit me," he told her, according to an account of the incident in Earles' medical records. "They wouldn't help me."
As the nurse spoke with him, Earles took out a knife and began to cut his throat.
Byron Earles, a homeless Army veteran, tried to commit suicide on Nov. 7, 2016 after the Bedford VA hospital s mental health clinic denied him admission. He died by suicide two months later. (PHOTO COURTESY OF PAUL EARLES)
The 44-year-old Army veteran had arrived at the Bedford VA mental health walk-in clinic on Nov. 7, 2016 -- days after being discharged from the Brockton VA -- asking to be admitted to the hospital because he was thinking about hurting himself and others.
The Bedford clinic turned him away, according to a portion of Earles' medical records obtained by The Sun, because a mental health worker did not believe his account of a recent suicide attempt and suspected he wanted to escape the cold. Maureen Heard, a spokeswoman for the hospital, said Earles left of his own accord after a psychiatrist suggested he seek a homeless shelter. Hospital administrators declined an interview request, but Heard said several clinic policies changed as a result of the Earles incident.
While Earles didn't die that day -- two VA police officers convinced him to drop the knife so the nurse could treat his wound -- he did die by suicide two months later, on Jan. 6, after walking out of a counseling session at the Bedford hospital.
read more here
This is the Eve of a New Year. I hope it can be the the beginning of the year you stop feeling so much pain and begin to rejoice for all the love you still have within you. Strange idea since right now you may be feeling as if love left you a long time ago, but I can assure you, it is all still there. It is trapped behind a wall of pain and bad memories. The truth is, it was love that caused you to put your life on the line in the first place. What did you think it was? Courage? You could have done other things if that was all there was to it. You needed courage to do your job but you needed love to even want to do it. I have a confession that isn't easy to open up about. As a Chaplain, it is hard to admit that I am struggling with hope right now. Don't worry because I've been in this spiritual place many times before. Maybe it is good to be reminded of what it is like to be in darkness from time to time and that way, I stay more connected to the very souls I am here to help. I was searching my site to find some words of wisdom for myself. Oh, I've been known to do that a time or two. When I read it, I decided to share it because it actually helped lift me up a bit. I know that right now, I couldn't write anything better. So, here is a repost of something I wrote back in 2014. Out of the shadow of death comes hope Wounded Times Kathie Costos August 6, 2014 There is plenty of time to talk about veterans suffering, families suffering, instead of healing and living better lives. With only so many hours in a day, we have to make times to talk about what is hopeful as well. There is a beautiful line by David Rossi on Criminal Minds (Joe Mantegna) "Scars remind us where we've been. They don't have to dictate where we're going." When you are wounded and your skin is cut, you expect to stop bleeding and see your scars to heal. If you have a broken bone, after your skin has healed, the bone will heal but the scar remains. No one can see it but you can still feel it. So why not when your soul is wounded? Why wouldn't you assume that the scar you can only feel inside your body would heal as well as what is outside of your body? Combat changed you. It changes everyone. For some it is because you have a great strength within you to feel things more deeply. That strength also allowed you to feel more pain. It does not mean you are stuck the feeling it. PTSD is part of change and you can change again. Your life is determined by you and what you do to heal. Everything you need to heal is already inside of you.
“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is great if you go to church but you don't have to. Most of the veterans I know believe in God and Christ, but they do not attend church. When you consider Christ prayed more outside than inside, praying where you are when you want to is not that unusual. How do you pray if you believe He judged you? How do you ask for help when you think He did it to you as some sort of cosmic judgment to teach you a lesson? Well, if that is the way you think then it wouldn't make much sense. Try it this way. He put that tug into your soul to join the military so that you could save others. You did it because He gave you everything you needed to do what you had to. That also includes healing. Why did you want to risk your life for total strangers? Endure countless hardships and sacrifices? Was it for glory? No, most veterans don't want to be called "hero" and even most Medal of Honor recipients take no credit for what they did. By the way, many of them are talking openly about their own battles with PTSD. It wasn't for the money because when you break down how many hours you put in, especially when deployed, you'd probably make more working less dangerous jobs. It wasn't for personal security because any day could have been your last day. It was because you were created to be what you were. Remember God created a warrior before He created mankind. The Archangel Michael. Michael is an obvious identity for a tattoo, as this is the most powerful of angels. Maureen Tilley, professor of theology at Fordham University.
The Book of Revelation (12:7-9) describes a war in heaven in which Michael, being stronger, defeats Satan: "...there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven." After the conflict, Satan is thrown to earth along with the fallen angels, where he ("that ancient serpent called the devil") still tries to "lead the whole world astray". Separately, in the Epistle of Jude 1:9 Michael is specifically referred to as an "archangel" when he again confronts Satan:
What is going on inside of you is a battle between good and evil but not the way you may think. It is a fight between what is "good" about you that caused you so much pain and what you may think is "evil" about you and it is a spiritual battle you can win. One other thing you need to know right here and right now is a very simple fact. Evil people do not grieve for someone else. They do not feel guilty about surviving and they do not feel pain the way you are. It is what is good within you that grieves. You can find peace and change for the better. Psalm 23 King James Version (KJV)
"Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart."Peter 1:22
This is the kind of love that you have within you.
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away"
"Sixth beatitude of the Sermon on the Mount: Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8). The Greek word καθαρος translated pure, literally means: "free from the admixture or adhesion of any thing that soils, adulterates or corrupts,"F1 hence, "clean, pure." The lexiconsicographers define the term as: "pure or clean," i.e. "unsoiled or unalloyed."F2 Some believe this verse has reference to "the moral blamelessness of the inner life, the center of which is the heart."F3 Others believe Jesus is referring to one who is "clean, pure, in a spiritual sense, from the pollution and guilt of sin."
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
You did not "want" for yourself more than you "wanted" for others or you wouldn't have joined the military prepared to sacrifice and endure hardships for their sake.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
The valley of the shadow of death is a place you can leave. The shadow of war does not have to follow you for the rest of your life and you don't have to forget about it in order to heal from it. The "house of the Lord" is the body your soul lives in. He knew you before you came into this body of yours. "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart"Jeremiah 1 Everything was already in your soul when you were sent to this earth. When given a choice which path to take, you decided to serve others. Your courage was there just as much as your compassion was there. Many times soldiers in battle still manage to reach out an arm for a buddy, shed a tear, offer a prayer or a kind word. That requires goodness within you so strong that even the horrors of war cannot defeat it. "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."Jeremiah 29:11 War caused the pain you felt but you refused to allow it to stop you. You still risked your life no matter how much turmoil you were experiencing. Begin to heal by looking at yourself the way you were before military life, before training, before combat and remember what love was in John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Being willing to die for the sake of someone else, came from love and that has always been within you. Forgive yourself for what you feel you need to be forgiven for and forgive anyone you need to. This is how you start to change again and heal. Then you can help someone else heal as well. Right now, get stronger so you can be there for them.
Iraq war vet's battle to overcome PTSD Grimsby Telegraph By Jack Longstaff 31 DEC 2017
46-year-old Iraq and Afghanistan war veteran, John, struggled to reintegrate back into society after leaving the army
PTSD war veteran 'John' has spoken about his struggle to reintegrate himself into society after leaving the armed forces. Pictured are British soldiers from 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery return from a security patrol to their camp in the Kuwait desert near to the Iraq border March 15, 2003
An Iraq war veteran who struggled to adapt to life outside of the army has spoken of how if it wasn't for "life saving" intervention by a Grimsby mental health crisis team, he would take his own life.
Sitting in the crisis assessment room at Navigo's mental health clinic in Grimsby, wearing a Help for Heroes shirt and clasping a mug of black coffee, John (not his real name), bravely opened up to talk about his struggle to reintegrate himself into society after leaving the armed forces.
For the 46-year-old army vet, who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan between 2003 and 2010, wants to use his story of suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to encourage other men to talk about mental health troubles.
"Nothing makes you any less of a man because you've got mental health issues. Don't feel ashamed", says John, whose life spiraled out of control when he left the army in 2012. read more here