Last week was my annual Veterans Administration physical. Despite the appointment being made a year in advance, it was cancelled by phone two hours prior to the appointment. My residential situation is not ideal, so in order to make the appointment on time, I slept overnight in a nearby highway rest area. Cancelled appointments are a fact of life with the VA.
Due to circumstances beyond my control, I had no choice but to turn to the Veterans Administration for health care. I had been sprayed with some sort of agricultural chemical that left me unable to breathe. After nearly being killed by a doctor who prescribed medication to which I had a severe reaction, I needed to find healthcare that put the patient’s well being ahead of cash or I would suffocate to death.
In this rural area with limited health care facilities, my only choice was the VA. Sure, there are a few hospitals and plenty of medical offices, but like much of America, your health care depends on your insurance provider, so most of the medical care is not available to lower income insurance plans like Medicare and Medicaid. The facilities that do accept Medicare and Medicaid, like the one I went to, are set up to extract the maximum amount of money from low income residents without providing meaningful and timely health care services.
The first time I went to the VA, a saw an actual doctor in person. He was young and had just moved to the area. He prescribed a couple tests, I was diagnosed with COPD and prescribed medication that allowed me to breathe again.
One visit to the VA and my breathing problem was under control, something the private medical clinic was unable to do with at least three doctors and months of office visits that racked up a sizable bill for not doing anything.
On October 11, 2018, I was hit by a semi truck while stopped for a construction zone flagman. I was seriously injured and my truck and most of the contents were destroyed. Both my insurance company and the insurance company for the truck driver who hit me refused to pay for damages or medical expenses. This wiped out my entire savings and I wound up living in my truck with serious injuries and no money.
In addition to the physical injuries, my hearing aids that I need to hear had been lost when I was hit by the semi. The truck driver’s insurance company refused to replace them so I asked the VA for replacement hearing aids. I didn’t hear from them, the COVID epidemic hit and it would be more than two years before I could get replacement hearing aids from the VA. Injured, broke and deaf, there would never return to a normal life.
On my next annual VA checkup, I told the doctor that I was hurt and living in my truck, I could use a little help. Even though I was homeless, I was signed up for a home yoga class. That would be the last time I would speak to a human doctor at the VA. As they switched from in person to various stages of “tele-med”, which is a video conference or meeting with no physical contact, the results were pretty much the same. I say I’m hurt and homeless, they do nothing.
Over the years, the untreated injuries from the accident have gotten worse. Once a physically active person, I can barely walk. My left hip has “popped out” several times and my left arm, especially my shoulder, is permanently damaged. I am awakened several times a night, every night by pain in my hips. Since October 11, 2018, I have not had a night’s sleep. Pain wakes me up every morning, already exhausted from a painful night of no sleep. It’s painful to stand, sit, walk or lie down. Constant pain 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Seven years now.
Last year, six years after the accident, I went for my annual VA physical. I told them that my health situation is getting worse, I’m not getting any younger, I could use a little help. This time, the tele-med person, I couldn’t tell you his qualifications, told me “he didn’t believe me” that my story “sounded like a movie” and that I need to see a psychologist.
After years of asking the VA for help and recieving none, now I recieve a completely incorrect diagnosis. Not getting the help I need is bad, but now the VA has made it even worse. At this time, I realize there will be nothing positive from the VA for me.
Before I started this article, I was going to say that I have no complaint against the people who have treated me at the VA facilities I have visited, including the small rural VA clinic I usually attend that is almost certainly understaffed and underfunded. However, I can’t say that. I have been asking for help for years without any consideration whatsoever. Perhaps the VA does not believe they should offer any. I was under the impression that the VA was legally obliged to provide treatment to all qualified veterans, but that’s not the case. VA employees are not required to treat veterans based on political party or beliefs, or if the veteran is unmarried. All right here in an executive order from draft dodger and convicted felon, President Donald Trump. Maybe the people at the VA want to help me, maybe they don’t. It’s official now, but how long has this been going on? Maybe they are being nice to my face while refusing to treat me, At this point, I just don’t know. I feel that I need to trust that a doctor will do what’s best for me. There is no trust here.
Still, in order to recieve the COPD medication I need to breathe, I have to have a physical every year or two years, I don’t know for sure. That’s why I made the appointment last year even though I knew there would be no medical assistance of any kind. The appointment was cancelled, so here I am.
With no further medical care from the VA and only questionable health care available, it’s the end of the road for me. I just turned seventy three years old. Living on the street for seven years with crippling injuries has cut years from my life. One way or another, I think I’ll be dead within six months, maybe a year. You see, veteran suicide is not suicide at all, it’s slow torture and murder to get a sick veteran off the books. Veterans know the truth, almost everything Americans believe is a lie. Vets know this, because they rarely hear the truth. A lifetime of lies, pain and suffering with no relief, your entire life wasted because you served your country. With no hope for the future, no relief from pain and suffering, a vet puts a bullet in his head to stop the lies and “he killed himself”. He did not kill himself, he was skillfully guided to that end. But the government is saving money, that’s how it works.
Check back soon, watch me die.