Bob Woodruff - Traumatic Brain Injury Special, part 3
Now, we see the soldiers. All of these soldiers have TBI, traumatic brain injuries. This story ties in with the Walter Reed story (which I have several posts - here, here and here)
What no one has adequately explained to the American public is how the VA works. The VA is set up to take care of veterans before we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. So, the majority of VA’s are set up to care for older patients with chronic illness - lung disease, prostate cancer, lung cancer and heart disease to name a few. The VA is NOT set up to handle acute traumatic illness. As a matter of fact, most VA’s in the country will shunt their trauma to the trauma center which is usually near by. Therefore, when complex trauma patients leave the major military hospitals and are transferred to the VA’s, they aren’t ready to care for these patients. As far as I know, I haven’t heard of any major recruitment of trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists or other trauma specialists by the VA system. Maybe I missed those recruitment posters but I doubt it. This is why the VA is struggling right now (and the fact that the Republicans have tried to cut the VA budget last year and the year before and the year before).
This is an excellent piece.
