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Not just Walter Reed: More tales of poor care

By ANNE HULL and DANA PRIEST Washington Post
Published March 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - Ray Oliva went into the spare bedroom in his home in Kelseyville, Calif., to wrestle with his feelings. He didn't know a single soldier wounded in Iraq, but he felt he knew them all. He worried about the wounded who were entering the world of military health care, which he knew all too well.

His own Veterans Affairs clinic in Livermore was a mess. The gown he wore was torn. The wheelchairs were old and broken.

"It is just not Walter Reed," Oliva, 70, tapped out on his keyboard Friday. "The VA hospitals are not good either except for the staff who work so hard. It brings tears to my eyes when I see my brothers and sisters having to deal with these conditions."

Oliva is one voice in a vast outpouring of accounts filled with emotion and anger about the mistreatment of wounded outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Stories of neglect and substandard care have flooded in from soldiers, family members, veterans, doctors and nurses working in the system.

They describe depressing living conditions for outpatients at other military bases around the country, from Fort Lewis in Washington state to Fort Dix in New Jersey.

They tell stories - their own versions, not verified - of callous responses to combat stress and a system ill equipped to handle another generation of psychologically scarred vets.

Swift response

The official reaction to the revelations at Walter Reed has been swift, and it exposes the potential political costs of ignoring Oliva's 24.3-million comrades - America's veterans - many of whom are among the last supporters of the Iraq war.

In just two weeks, the Army secretary has been fired, a two-star general relieved of command and two special commissions appointed; congressional subcommittees are lining up for hearings; and the president redoubled promises to do right by the all-volunteer force, 1.5-million of whom have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But much deeper has been the reaction outside Washington, including from many of the 600,000 new veterans who left the service after Iraq and Afghanistan. Wrenching questions have dominated blogs, talk shows, editorial cartoons, Veterans of Foreign Wars spaghetti suppers and the solitary late nights of soldiers and former soldiers who fire off e-mails to reporters, members of Congress and the White House - looking for attention and solutions.

"It all adds up and reaches a kind of tipping point," said Ron Glasser, a physician and author of a book about the wounded. America had believed that the wounded were being taken care of and "is embarrassed" to know otherwise, he said.

The scandal has also been "a potent reminder of past indignities and past traumas," said Thomas Mellman, a professor of psychiatry at Howard University who has worked in VA hospitals. "The fact that it's been responded to so quickly has created mixed feelings: gratification, but obvious regret and anger that such attention wasn't given before, especially for Vietnam veterans."

Across the country, some military quarters for wounded outpatients are in bad shape, according to interviews, Government Accountability Office reports and congressional testimony.

Nearly 4,000 outpatients are currently in the military's Medical Hold or Medical Holdover companies, which oversee the wounded. Soldiers report bureaucratic disarray similar to Walter Reed's: indifferent, untrained staff; lost paperwork; medical appointments that drop from the computers; and long waits for consultations.

Outpatient horrors

Sandy Karen was horrified when her 21-year-old son was discharged from the Naval Medical Center in San Diego a few months ago and told to report to the outpatient barracks, only to find in the room a swarm of fruit flies, overflowing trash and a syringe on the table.

"The staff sergeant says, 'Here are your linens' to my son, who can't even stand up," said Karen, of Brookeville, Md. "This kid has an open wound, and I'm going to put him in a room with fruit flies?" She took her son to a hotel instead.

Soldiers back from Iraq worry that their psychological problems are only beginning.

Nearly 64,000 of the more than 184,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have sought VA health care have been diagnosed with potential symptoms of post-traumatic stress, drug abuse or other mental disorders as of the end of June, according to the Veterans Health Administration. Of those, nearly 30,000 had possible post-traumatic stress disorder, the report said.

The VA has a backlog of 400,000 benefit claims, including many concerning mental health. Vietnam vets whose post-traumatic stress has been triggered by images of war in Iraq are flooding the system for help and being turned away.

Reaction

Soldiers pour out their complaints

Hundreds of soldiers contacted the Washington Post through telephone calls and e-mails, many of them describing their bleak existence in the military's Medical Hold companies.

From Fort Campbell in Kentucky: "There were yellow signs on the door stating our barracks had asbestos."

From Fort Dix in New Jersey: "Scare tactics are used against soldiers who will write sworn statements to assist fellow soldiers for their medical needs."

From Fort Irwin in California: "Most of us have had to sign waivers where we understand that the housing we were in failed to meet minimal government standards."

A deluge of mail

Hundreds of soldiers contacted the Washington Post through telephone calls and e-mails, many of them describing their bleak existence in the military's Medical Hold companies.

From Fort Campbell in Kentucky: "There were yellow signs on the door stating our barracks had asbestos."

From Fort Dix in New Jersey: "Scare tactics are used against soldiers who will write sworn statement to assist fellow soldiers for their medical needs."

From Fort Irwin in California: "Most of us have had to sign waivers where we understand that the housing we were in failed to meet minimal government standards."

[Last modified March 5, 2007, 01:31:43]