I am a totally disabled veteran who served this nation in two wars, from the Vietnam Era October 1973 thru Desert Storm and my discharge in May 1991. I was lucky and spent the Vietnam war era on the DMZ in Korea and I spent my time in the Middle East in Oman at Khasab Air Force Base which is as far notrth in Oman as you can get, at dusk we would watch the smuggler boats go into Iran to sell their goods.
I started using the VA healthcare system back in 1997 when I went to them with a series of TIA's, which then led to a triple bypass in Feb 1997. I spent the next 2 years in and out of surgery for heart caths and stints to be placed, these seemed to be about every 4 months for the next 2 years. Then I spent a few years with no problems, until June 2002. Then the chit hit the fan again, Congestive heart failure showed up and led to my medical retirement as of June 2002, I was only 46.
The VA health care was as good as I could get anywhere and in some cases better than I was getting thru Blue Cross and Blue Shield thru my employer, the US Postal Service. In some cases I saw the same doctors at MCG that I was seeing at the VA hospital as they treated patients at both hospitals, if I saw them at the VA, I had no co-pays, if I saw them at MCG I had to pay the co-pays the union contract called for thru the Post Office, 15 dollar office visits and 250 for hospital admissions and 80% of medications, if I got them from the VA, they were free, so it was a no brainer where I went for treatment.
I actually had a quiet life from October 2002 thru April 2011, I saw the doctors at the VA on average of every 3 months since I was medically retired in Oct 2002, my VA claims for service connection were granted in stages, PTSD in 2004, and after appeal raised to 100% PTSD effective back to Dec 2003. They denied my cardiac issues and I had to appeal their denials, which I kept active and open until it got to the BVA or (Board of Veteran Appeals) in Feb 2009 when my attorney presented our arguements to the BVA Judge on how my PTSD aggravated my cardiac issues and and it was made worse by my military service and the attempted murder and robbery by 6 of my fellow soldiers, who were found guilty in a general court martial and sent to Leavenworth for 15 years.
This past year has been extremely hard on me physically, in early April on the 7th, I had a heart attack which put me in a local hospital, (lucky for me) this happened on a Thursday evening, on Friday they did a heart cath which showed a mild heart attack. However it had me in the hospital on Saturday morning when I sufferred a major heart attack, where I flat lined and when I awakened on the 14th from the medically induced coma I had been put into, I was told my ejection fraction was 10% and my heart had been severely damaged, they were transferring me from the local hospital to the state medical center in Charleston that specialized in heart transplants or in a surgery that placed a device called a VLAD that would assist my heart in keeping my heart pumping blood, until I could obtain a heart or heart and lung transplant. I was transferred by ambulance from their ICU unit to MUSC ICU in Charleston, where they discovered I was also dealing with a severe case of pnuemonia.
After the extensive work up, on the 27th of April the team of doctors informed my wife and I that I was not a candidate for any of their procedures, there would be no VLAD device, no transplants of any kind and a new bypass surgery was also impossible due to the severe damage to my heart, it was thier opinion I was a medicate only patient.
My wife was under the impression she was bringing a man home to die, none of the doctors would give us any type of time frame that we would be looking at.6 months, a year 2 or 3 years just nothing all they would say is they did not know.
So we came home with the idea to keep living each day to the most, a week after leaving MUSC in Charleston my wife and brother took me to Biloxi for the blackjack, the buffets and the beach, we spent a wonderful week there and even drove over to New Orleans to see the French Quarter.
I spent a few great weeks at home and in the beginning of June I started feeling sick again, this was different though, I was having trouble breathing, we went to the VA doctor and he put me on O2 due to low oxygen levels of 84 and 86, so know I have a huge machine I am hooked to at night and portable tanks when I leave the house.
On 8 June I had to be taken to Lexington Med center again, the same hospital I went to in April and the doctors knew me, needless to say the O2 was masking another episode of CHF, I spent the first week in and out of sanity and ended up being strapped down with straps and padded hands to keep me from pulling my IVs out. They kept me until 28 June and recommended that I have a biventricular pacemaker installed to keep my heart functioning to an optimal level and if I had another electrical event that I would stand a better chance of survival if I was not in the hospital at the time of the event.
Since I had to go thru the VA Medical system for installation or approval for it to be done at a civilan hospital this process too a few months, at first the VA in Augusta wanted to do it, and the clinic cardiologist prety much stated it is done free here you take it or leave it regardless of who is assigned to do the surgery and if you want a good dcotor go to a civilan hospital and pay for a good doctor.
My wife was mad at his attitude and contacted the CHF program at Dorn VA where due to my 100% disability status they gave us the option of having the implant done at Augusta VAMC or going to Providence here in Columbia and having a civilian cardiologist do the surgery, that was a no brainer, we selected the Providence option and the surgery was set up for the 14 of of September.
I am now completed with the office visits after the surgery and for them to adjust the pacemaker and clear me for release back to the VAs CHF clinic for all my follow up care from now on. They have a telemedicine device set up, where every day I answer medical questions related to my cardiovascular health, weight, blood pressure, meds I take, O2 levels, questions about general medical health etc. They also see me once a month in the clinic to download date from the implant.
I don't know how long I will live, but I am no longer afraid of dying in the next few months, I feel I have recieved the best possible medical care available to me thru the VA. I recived a statement of bills they paid for the April and June medical expenses in later September, they paid about 40,000 dollars for all of the hospital stays minus the implant surgery in September that bill was not covered by this statement, I am sure they did not pay what the facilities billed, I am sure the government said here is what we are giving you to cover these bills, and it appears they have accepted them as payment in full as I have never recieved any type of follow up bills demanding any type of co-pays.
My wife resented the doctors attitude in Augusta when he declared the medical care was free, she told him off and explained I paid for this medical care more than 20-40 years ago, by my military service and being harmed while doing that service and there was nothing FREE about it. It is the debt this nation accepts when it inducts the men and women into military service, if they are harmed while on active duty this nation promises to care for them and or their family if they are medically harmed or killed while on active duty.
That is why, this recent one trillion dollar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan very well may end up costing this nation as Dr Stiglitz and Dr Lind Blimes wrote in their book the "Three Trillion Dollar War" while the was itself cost one trillion, the after math and care and benefits for the injured may veru well over the course of the next 50-70 years may run 2 trillion more. Just because the war ends the costs incurred by it will last for generations to come.
It is now up to this nation to either keep their promise to care for these men and women or in the years to come decide to break these promises, which would be a very wrong decision to make, we are an all volunteeer force and if these veterans are disrespected and or ignored and lose the benefits they were promised, it will affect this nations ability to field all volunteer forces in the future.
Broken promises will only hurt the future of this nation.
I apologize for not writing much for thes epast few months, but as you can tell I have not been in the best of health and am just now returning to form and being able to sit at a keyboard for any amount of time other than a minute or two here.
I hope to be at my veterans advocacy on a more regular basis, I have missed talking with my friends here at Daily Kos, this is my window to the world, as I seldom leave the house except for medical appointments.