Veteran, ('rickie M. Mcqueen'), 'urgently' Needs Help!

[BlakePaigeStone]

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The U.S. Veterans, who are members of the expat community, here in La Union, Philippines, (U.S. military retirees) ...have been attempting to help one of our own, ('Rickie M. McQueen,' from the Houston, Texas area) '...survive!'

We have already contacted the offices of the... "U.S. Embassy/ACS, Manila; U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson; U.S. Senator John Cornyn; and House Representative Michael McCaul ...to help us get 'Rickie M. McQueen to proper medical care, after his recent foot-amputation surgery, to the closest U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Wing/U.S. Naval Hospital, on the Pacific island of 'Guam." This life-saving trip is only a 3.5 hour flight!

I need some emergency help/suggestions ...helping my friend, ('Rick'), to get to a VA Medical Center in the U.S. from the Philippines.

He has recently undergone foot-amputation surgery; and ...his health has been slowly, and consistently, declining since the operation. This 'public' hospital want to do additional surgery to take-off his right leg. We have been attempting to get him on one of the irregular, weekly, 'Space-Available' flights to U.S. Anderson Air Force Base, on Guam, (so he could be admitted to the VA Medical Center-Wing ...there), but ...he does not, normally, qualify for 'Space-A' flight status ...since this veteran is not a 'retiree!' You'd think they'd make some type of waiver for such life-or-death situations ...right?!

There is also the issue of his limited funds for anymore medical treatment from any private institutions here; as ...this veteran is also a recipient of U.S. Social Security Disability Insurance monthly benefit payments.

We have been attempting to contact the VA Outpatient Clinic in Manila, Philippines; but ...they will not help since he is not a 'service-connected' veteran, however, he had been planning to file a claim for service connection before his health crisis.

My next step has been to contact his, ('Houston, TX'), representative's offices in Congress to see if anyone from their offices can help. We have also been in-touch with the U.S. Embassy, and ...plan to contact the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs in Washington, DC to see if our requests for help, in his case, will be heard. So far, those cries have fallen on deaf ears!

Any email addresses of the VA Secretary's office, (or any other suggestions), would be of great assistance.

We need your help in contacting his representatives, via email, to save this veteran's life! If we flood their offices with emails, we just may get their attention! Please follow the following links:

Senator John Cornyn - http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index...

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson - http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Congressman Michael McCaul - http://mccaul.house.gov/index.cfm?sec...

U.S. Embassy/ACS, Manila, (email address) - acsinfomanila@state.gov

"Please help us save this veteran's, ('Rickie M. McQueen'), life!!!"

Positions

Veterans who gave; should be able to receive!

Don't allow our Congress to turn their backs on Veterans!

Check-out:

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[broncovet]

Thank you for coming to the aid of one of our own. I dont have facebook, so I will take your word for it...if you are a Vet, and you served, you deserve to be honored and trusted, in my book, at least until/unless you prove yourself untrustworthy.

If you really want to help, maybe you can set up a fund thru your local bank and leave us a link to donate, and maybe contact the media.

The only issue I have with it, is that I am not sure Rickie should be going to a VA hospital because I dont even know if they will clean their equipment before they do surgery on him or not, according to what I have read. The VA is not good at training those people who clean that equipment. More here:

http://www.vawatchdog.org/vaoigreports.htm

Better look through this list and try to send him to a VA hospital that isnt on the report. However, just because they are not on the VAOIG's "bad VA hospital" list, does not mean they are a "good VA hospital".....it probably means the VAOIG has not had time to inspect them yet.

If your friend has social security disability, I think he has, or is eligible for medicaid, so he wont need to take his chances at a VA hospital, trying to find a good one.

[deltaj]

Those of you who are Facebook members, check-out the following link:

http://apps.facebook.com/causes/462653/682...c0c7&ref=mf

All others, please read the following:

The U.S. Veterans, who are members of the expat community, here in La Union, Philippines, (U.S. military retirees) ...have been attempting to help one of our own, ('Rickie M. McQueen,' from the Houston, Texas area) '...survive!'

We have already contacted the offices of the... "U.S. Embassy/ACS, Manila; U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson; U.S. Senator John Cornyn; and House Representative Michael McCaul ...to help us get 'Rickie M. McQueen to proper medical care, after his recent foot-amputation surgery, to the closest U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center-Wing/U.S. Naval Hospital, on the Pacific island of 'Guam." This life-saving trip is only a 3.5 hour flight!

I need some emergency help/suggestions ...helping my friend, ('Rick'), to get to a VA Medical Center in the U.S. from the Philippines.

He has recently undergone foot-amputation surgery; and ...his health has been slowly, and consistently, declining since the operation. This 'public' hospital want to do additional surgery to take-off his right leg. We have been attempting to get him on one of the irregular, weekly, 'Space-Available' flights to U.S. Anderson Air Force Base, on Guam, (so he could be admitted to the VA Medical Center-Wing ...there), but ...he does not, normally, qualify for 'Space-A' flight status ...since this veteran is not a 'retiree!' You'd think they'd make some type of waiver for such life-or-death situations ...right?!

There is also the issue of his limited funds for anymore medical treatment from any private institutions here; as ...this veteran is also a recipient of U.S. Social Security Disability Insurance monthly benefit payments.

We have been attempting to contact the VA Outpatient Clinic in Manila, Philippines; but ...they will not help since he is not a 'service-connected' veteran, however, he had been planning to file a claim for service connection before his health crisis.

My next step has been to contact his, ('Houston, TX'), representative's offices in Congress to see if anyone from their offices can help. We have also been in-touch with the U.S. Embassy, and ...plan to contact the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veteran's Affairs in Washington, DC to see if our requests for help, in his case, will be heard. So far, those cries have fallen on deaf ears!

Any email addresses of the VA Secretary's office, (or any other suggestions), would be of great assistance.

We need your help in contacting his representatives, via email, to save this veteran's life! If we flood their offices with emails, we just may get their attention! Please follow the following links:

Senator John Cornyn - http://cornyn.senate.gov/public/index...

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson - http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.cfm

Congressman Michael McCaul - http://mccaul.house.gov/index.cfm?sec...

U.S. Embassy/ACS, Manila, (email address) - acsinfomanila@state.gov

"Please help us save this veteran's, ('Rickie M. McQueen'), life!!!"

Positions

Veterans who gave; should be able to receive!

Don't allow our Congress to turn their backs on Veterans!

Check-out:

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note...

There is an organization I've heard about called Angel Flight which flies some people to medical appointments using volunteer pilots but I'm unsure if it operates outside the U.S. If this veteran is low income he would possibly qualify for nonservice-connected disability pension. Does anyone know whether filing a claim for nonserviceconnected disability pension would get this veteran entitlement to any benefits for travel for needed medical treatment? Why did this veteran have his foot amputated? Sometimes amputations occur because of disease. Did this veteran develop hypertension in service which later resulted in kidney disease?

[broncovet]

"McDonald's House" also is a charity giving away money for things like this, too.