Since the breaking of the news about veterans dying while waiting for care at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs facility in 2014, good news about the agency is still difficult to find.
The real estate-rich West Los Angeles facility had to be sued in order to build a small facility to help the numerous homeless vets in the neighborhood where I live that surrounds it. Despite an influx of cash and increased scrutiny after the scandal, veterans still face long delays, even in the Phoenix facility.
Sadly, as recently noted here in the Washington Examiner, a new glitch is preventing vets from even getting on the rolls to receive benefits.
When I was approached to do an op-ed follow up to the above-mentioned post about my father’s overall VA experience, I had only good things to say. It was suggested that it might be nice to hear from that side. In any scandal-plagued large organization, there is usually some good to be found, and it is often helpful to focus on that as a reminder that some sort of fix is not impossible, even in a bureaucracy. My father was a patient in the Tucson VA system, just 120 or so miles from ground zero of the 2014 scandal, so I was always especially grateful that his experiences were very different.
At the time of my dad’s eligibility for VA benefits he had been suffering for years from a host of chronic problems with his back, neck and hearing, as well as blood pressure issues. For years, these had been taken care of in a piecemeal fashion by a host of doctors. His enrollment for VA benefits went smoothly, and he began receiving care as quickly as possible. He was in the system for a dozen years before he passed away earlier this year.
The Tucson VA people immediately began helping him manage his medication in a more coordinated manner that made things easier on a man who had always been somewhat forgetful (yeah, it runs in the family). After being diagnosed with COPD, they made sure he had plenty of oxygen at home, as well as a portable tank.
Whenever I spoke to my dad about his various medical concerns, he didn’t fail to praise his VA doctors, nurses and other caregivers there. He was obviously thrilled with them, and it was a great relief to my sister and me, who were always worried from afar.
My father had suffered almost complete hearing loss in one ear, which most likely was attributable to his time in the Navy (long story), although that had never been clearly determined at the time. His happiest moment in the last years of his life was when his VA doctor informed him that they were going to give him a cochlear implant. He sounded like an excited school kid getting ready for his first Disney trip when he told me. He wept when he told my sister.
When he went into the hospital late last year, he was delirious in the ICU for over a month. Because of his condition, he had been taken to the closest hospital, not the VA. My sister and I spent the first few weeks calling the VA frequently for different information. They were always quick to respond and very helpful. When my dad finally succumbed to COPD last February, the VA pulmonologist he had relied upon so much in recent years wanted to come to his funeral but had to work, so she sent her husband to pay her respects. Unbeknownst to us, this same doctor was out of state at her mother’s funeral when my dad was first hospitalized yet responded to my sister’s initial call to her.
While this may all be anecdotal, it is twelve years’ worth of anecdotes that make up the story. During his lengthy hospitalization last year, I talked to a lot of his friends who were also treated at the Tucson VA. Every one of them echoed my dad’s experiences. I’m sure there are veterans who have had bad experiences with the Tucson VA, I just haven’t encountered any.
The VA is obviously still flailing about for ways to fix itself. Perhaps it should closely inspect its more functional facilities to find out what it is already doing right and build upon that. Our veterans deserve to have every avenue explored to make sure they don’t continue to be ignored and endangered by the system that is supposed to be caring for them.
Stephen Kruiser is a professional stand-up comic, writer and conservative political activist. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
