Ignoring Private Ryan

[broncovet]

Va's newest method of reducing the backlog:
Give bonuses to VA officials whose conduct results in death of Veterans, thus reducing the backlog:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-september-5-2013/ignoring-private-ryan?xrs=share_copy

[jbasser]

That was an awesome story.

J

[me.plum]

It hurts down deep,when they someone else life and family in their hands. Then getting paid extra to destroy everything you touch. While Veterans dies before he or she received any benefits.

[harleyman]

Interesting, but it does show the VMAC, that's Medical Center, not Benefits Adminstration, is where the "big" bonuses are going. Personally, I think bonuses should be done away with, and time off or a pay raise would be more in order for exceptional work product. Why should anyone get a bonus for doing their job as expected.- just saying

[GuaymasJim]

Harley, I couldn't agree with you more!

[Jumpmaster]

Bronco, thanks for sharing. It a true story with a humor twist but still reveals the facts, VA collects bonuses while Private Jane and John Ryan die. When will it stop!

[GuaymasJim]

Jumpmaster, it will stop when we as veterans say, "STOP!" And not a second earlier. I sitting here are the computer trying to write a claim for a malpractice that will probably kill me in the next two years or so. I am also trying to write a non-medical appeal of a decision with which I don't agree, have provided the relevant 38 CFR and 38 USC laws and regulations. None of that make one whit of difference if the person you are dealing with has what appears to have 6th grade education and no motivation what so ever to resolve the issue. I probably will not out live the FTCA claim and the odds are that I don't out live the non-medical appeal either. The nasty thing about it, is that if the VA would approve the appeal I may survive the FTCA malpractice for a longer life span. I don't think it is going to happen. The denial of my request was delivered to me by phone at 3:55 on Friday by a secretary that hadn't the faintest idea what she was talking about. Her advice was that the VA will not purchase the high flow 02 Concentrator that has been formally and officially prescribed by 5 different VAMC doctors, so I should go out and purchase it privately ($10,000 with spare filters etc. and then submit bill to the VA who would immediately reimburse me. This is a contemporary to the person who suggested that I abandon my family in Mexico and move to Arizona, lie about my address, get the equipment and then go back to Mexico with it.

We need to call out every single error that anyone from the VA makes when they make it or it will come back to bite you in the ass. I had a CT scan in Feb. 2006 which showed PAD and arthritis but the reviewer forgot to mention them. I had second CT Scan in Jan 2007 showing progression of both diseases. I was never informed of either. The conditions were never treated and no mention of them appears anywhere in my VAMC medical records. I found them by searching for the word "atherosclerosis" to help find the write ups about the three stents in coronary arteries. The 2007 CT scan report came up first and last. I demanded another CT scan to quantify the progression, if any, of the PAD. My worst fears were realized:"high grade stenoses and occlusions of infarenal aorta , calcified plaque involving the iliac vessels." I demanded an ABI which turned out to be invalid because of hardened arteries. Now I need a CT angiogram from my waist to my toes. I demanded a carotid ultrasound which my provider was elated to see that my external carotid arteries were less than 50% occluded. I demanded a critical MRI two weeks ago but it was canceled because the GS-5 whose job it was to check the pre-MRI check list couldn't read and understand my VAMC medical records. I have several pieces of metal in me that pose no danger during a MRI of my head. It is written my medical records in dozens of places, but she would not accept the records because they were on my flash drive connected to my tablet computer and not directly from the manufacturer like I was falsifying my records just in order to get the MRI which had already been ordered.

On Tuesday, I have an appointment for a cardiac echo cardiogram and a meeting with the Patient Advocate, but still no MRI even though the manufacturer faxed all the information last week. Should prove to be interesting as I have no intention or rolling over and playing dead. (However, I might end up dead any way.) I have no intention of provoking a confrontation, but I won't shy away from one either. These incompetent bastards have at the very least made what ever life I have remaining painful; but really they have shortened my lifespan by not treating the PAD when it was discovered instead of now when it has progressed up my aorta and began its synergy with the severe CAD from which I suffer. Who knows if it has spread to the arteries in my head!