COLUMBIA, 4/30/10 (Beat Byte) --
Following Jennifer Truesdale's poignant letter about patient conditions at
Columbia's Harry S. Truman Memorial VA Hospital, Columbia Heart Beat
readers responded strongly, a few with personal stories of their
own.
"I want to thank you for bringing this to light," wrote
Columbia resident Lola Carey. "My father too was at the VA, and the care was
very similar to what the Truesdale family encountered. My dad has now passed
away, but the time he spent there was awful."
Carey said that although her family "stayed with him as
much as possible" to assure he got necessary care, they couldn't be at the VA
hospital 24/7. Feeding, bathing, and basic patient services were continual
problems, she explained.
"It has been 3 years, but it was an experience I will
never forget," Carey wrote. When I had to leave him, I would cry and so would
he. When I drive down Stadium Blvd., I get chills when I go by the
building."
Former Missouri Patient Care Review Foundation chief
executive officer Sarah Grim, MSPH, CHE -- a Columbia-based health care
management consultant -- wrote that she wished Truesdale and her father Roy -- a
retired Marine Corps Lt. Colonel -- "all the best. The VA has been treated
poorly since Vietnam. There is no lack of funding to go to war, but after care,
the medical, mental, and housing assistance Veterans require becomes an
unnecessary expense."
Slamming Congress' lackluster interest in Veteran's
Administration priorities "over the last several years," Grim -- who also
directed the South Florida and Greater Dayton, Ohio Area Hospital Associations
-- said "the Truman VA Hospital never fills any of the tens of physician and
dentist positions they have open. I suspect they advertise, but have no
funding."
Acknowledging that Truman VA chief of staff Lana Zerrer,
M.D. -- to whom Truesdale addressed her letter -- is "a fine physician,"
palliative (end-of-life) care expert and Ellis Fischel Cancer Center oncologist
Clay Anderson, M.D. nonetheless said he wasn't surprised at the problems
Truesdale detailed in her 6-page letter, about a week in the life of her father,
a brain cancer patient, at the hospital.
Similar problems plague a number of hospitals, where
striving for absolute excellence has to be a 24/7 priority, Anderson explained.
Finally, retired Boone County National Bank president Al
Price said he forwarded Truesdale's story to MIssouri Congressman Blaine
Leutkemeyer and Senator Claire McCaskill. "Press on. This is a worthy cause
and needs to be addressed," Price wrote.
Since removing her father Roy from the Truman VA, Jennifer
Truesdale said, "Dad is hanging in there, but he is getting weaker." She
also said she appreciated the community outpouring.
Referring to her father, Lola Carey reflected a
sentiment -- feeling abandoned -- thousands of veterans have expressed over the
decades. Ernest Hemingway wrote about it in the classic short story "Soldier's
Home," and many movies -- from Born on the 4th of July to Coming
Home -- attempt to come to grips with its complex impact on the men and
women who protect us from harm.
"My dad was a WWII Vet, and truly believed that his
country would take care of him," Carey wrote. "It hurt him so bad that his
country ultimately let him down"
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