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Veterans Disability

• Increase in suicide rate of Veterans
  Jan 12, 2010

  The suicide rate among 18- to 29-year-old veteran men who have left the military has gone up significantly by 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to data from the Veterans Affairs Department. Veterans Affairs officials said they assume that most of the veterans in this age group served in Iraq or Afghanistan.

  The military has also struggled with an increase in suicides, with the Army seeing a record number last year but it has been more difficult to track suicide information on veterans once they've left active duty.

  More than 30,000 suicides each year in America, about 20 percent are committed by veterans.

  - 71 - 80

• Military misconduct may be symptom of stress disorder
  Jan 12, 2010

  It was reported that the service may be discharging soldiers for misconduct when in fact they are merely displaying symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. When soldiers are discharged they can be denied their rights to Veterans Affairs Benefits like treatment for medical conditions they incurred while serving on the battlefield.

  Screenings for post-traumatic stress disorder would help avoid sending troops back into society without the ability to get treatment for combat-induced illness from the very government that dispatched them to the battlefield.

  Veterans' mental health issues have come under increasing scrutiny during the years of the war on terrorism. The latest example is Monday's release of a government study showing a dramatic increase in suicides among young veterans.

  - 72 - 80

• New Veterans Affairs Patients are Younger & More Likely to be Women
  Dec 15, 2009

  Female veterans are arriving in Veterans Affairs hospitals and clinics all over. A system long geared toward treating an aging male population is scrambling to care for thousands of female veterans. They are younger, too. Most of the women who served in the recent wars are under age 40.

  In the last budget year, the Veterans Affairs saw 281,000 female veterans, a 12 percent increase from two years earlier. Women represent one in 16 veterans in the system, but in 15 years are projected to represent one in seven.

  The hospital sees nearly twice as many women it did before the Sept. 11 attacks. Administrators opened a women's clinic and are trying to take female veterans into consideration when deciding everything from the color of the walls to the size of the prosthetics offered. Waiting areas soon will have kid-friendly tables. An onsite day care for veterans with medical appointments is under review.

   

  - 73 - 80

• Veterans Affairs Adds to the List of Health Issues Caused by Agent Orange
  Oct 13, 2009

  The Department of Veterans Affairs plans to add Parkinson's disease, ischemic heart disease, and hairy-cell leukemia to a growing list of health issues caused by Agent Orange, used during Vietnam. This will make it easier for veterans to claim those ailments were a direct result of their service in Vietnam however it will not apply to sailors on deep-water ships, though the department plans to study the effects of Agent Orange on the Navy.

  Lately the department of Veterans Affairs has come under sharp criticism from Congress and veterans groups for long delays in processing disability claims.

  - 74 - 80

• VA hospital ignored vet's stroke, report finds
  Sep 21, 2009

  The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general has found the Hampton Veterans Affairs Medical Center at fault for a Chesapeake veteran who was left permanently disabled after a stroke. The Chesapeake veteran's medical records contained lab results from another patient causing the medical center staff to fail to diagnose the veteran's stroke.
  
  "The veteran's complaints and the ensuing investigation prompted a series of corrective measures at the Hampton center, which serves a population of more than 200,000 veterans in eastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. John Morgan, 53, a Marine veteran, was in the process of moving from Roanoke to Chesapeake in November when he began suffering slurred speech and weakness in his left leg."

  - 75 - 80

• Jacksonville Naval Hospital has settled three negligence claims in past month
  Aug 25, 2009

  "In the past month the federal government has agreed to pay $2.77 million to settle three medical negligence claims against Jacksonville Naval Hospital, the Navy said. The U.S. Attorney's Office negotiated settlements with three separate plaintiffs and has mediation scheduled to attempt to resolve four other negligence lawsuits against the hospital at Jacksonville Naval Air Station." Attorney Sean Cronin, "who represented many of those plaintiffs, said the timing of the recent settlements is coincidental and doesn't represent a policy shift. 'What it does show is the U.S. Attorney's Office is drawing a line in the sand and saying if a patient wants to get more than $1 million, they will have to have a trial and appeals and all that,' Cronin said." - 76 - 80

• Agent Orange linked to heart disease, Parkinson's in Veterans
  Jul 28, 2009

  "Medical researchers say there may be a link between exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War and an increased chance of developing serious heart problems and Parkinson's disease.

  A study from the Institute of Medicine released Friday contains several caveats, but suggests there is a stronger connection than previously thought about the health risks to Vietnam veterans.

  The research was sponsored by the Veterans Affairs Department, which will decide what to do with the findings. A VA spokeswoman said the department is reviewing the study to determine the full extent of the toxic effects of Agent Orange so exposed Vietnam veterans get the disability benefits they are entitled to.

  American forces sprayed millions of gallons of Agent Orange and other defoliants over parts of Vietnam from 1962 to 1970. Military authorities used the defoliants in an attempt to massively prune away the dense jungle cover used by North Vietnamese forces to hide."

  - 77 - 80

• Suites Settles Over Wrongful Death At Veterans Affairs Hospital
  Jul 15, 2009

  "The second of two Kentucky widows has settled her federal lawsuit over surgical care they say killed their husbands at an Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital where major surgeries have been halted for nearly two years after a spike in patient deaths... Of an additional 34 cases the VA investigated, 10 patients died after receiving questionable care that complicated their health, officials said. Investigators could not determine if the actual care caused those deaths. The VA's own investigations of the surgical deaths often have been blistering, at times labeling the hospital's previous management as 'dysfunctional and inefficient.'"

   

  - 78 - 80

• Congressman Nye hopes to get help for veterans
  Jun 29, 2009

  Many down and out veterans in Hampton Roads end up at the Vetshouse in Virginia Beach--an organization that provides food, clothing, and a place to stay.

  It's a twelve month program that gets servicemembers back on their feet.

  According to Willard Smith, Executive Director of Vetshouse, one out of every three homeless persons in Hampton Roads is a military veteran.

  - 79 - 80

• At V.A. Hospital, a Rogue Cancer Unit
  Jun 22, 2009

  For patients with prostate cancer, it is a common surgical procedure: a doctor implants dozens of radioactive seeds to attack the disease. But when Dr. Gary D. Kao treated one patient at the veterans’ hospital in Philadelphia, his aim was more than a little off. Most of the seeds, 40 in all, landed in the patient’s healthy bladder, not the prostate...Had the government responded more aggressively, it might have uncovered a rogue cancer unit at the hospital, one that operated with virtually no outside scrutiny and botched 92 of 116 cancer treatments over a span of more than six years — and then kept quiet about it, according to interviews with investigators, government officials and public records.

  
  For more of this article visit Rogue Cancer Unit.
  
  For a video of the correct procedure versus what was done incorrectly at the VA Hospital visit, Failed Prostate Procedures at the Philadelphia V.A. - 80 - 80

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