Good morning, Netizens...

Because I know and love Bob, and have been following what I would term his descent into Hades courtesy of the Veteran's Administration, and because what the VA is doing is both unethical if not immoral, this morning I am going to post Bob's comments from his Blog, http://www.deludia.com/ in the hopes that someone at the Veteran's Administration will either read it or take action. That is because I am past disgusted; I am totally revulsed at what they have done to my friend.

And then, last night…

By bk

We interrupt the pleasant reminiscences to give an update on the Quality of Care the Spokane VA hospital provides.

Drawn again to the hospital by a tight chest, productive cough, intermittent chills and hot flashes, weakness and sleeping a lot; sounds like bronchitis to me and since that turns into pneumonia easily, I trudged, reluctantly to the Spokane VA. I got there at 9:40 pm and by 10:00 I had been triaged and sent up to x-ray for a chest view. I was impressed with the speed and efficiency and wondered what had changed to improve service so much.

It was a premature thought.

I was sent back to the waiting room where I sat until midnight. Then a lab tech showed up to finally take some blood. It took her two tries to get a vein. This is surprising because I have very prominent veins that stick out and don’t roll. But it took her two painful tries but she got the needed blood and mentioned that the lab results would be ready in an hour to an hour and a half. The charge nurse then commented it would probably be that long again before a doctor could see me. In other words, I and my wife would have to spend the night in the waiting room with no access to my pain meds which I need every three hours. Sitting 20 minutes in a waiting room habituated by sick people is a bad idea for a Myeloma victim’s dysfunctional immunity; six hours is reckless and besides, it causes me to miss two pain medication times leaving me in a lot of discomfort for that whole time.

I went home without help, told that I could call my medical team in the morning and they could get the lab results to the doctor so I could get the antibiotics I went there to get. so I call in the morning and they tell me they cannot do that and the earliest they can get me a doctors appointment is September.

That’s not unlike four weeks ago when my oncologist ordered his nurse to give me a sot of Demerol because the pain in my feet was so intense. The nurses refused and instead sent me to the ER who told me they could get me to a doctor for the shot in about 3 hours. I went home and took morphine and got relief 2 full hours before I’d have seen the doctor.

The quality of care at the Spokane VA has gotten atrocious and has reached the level of insult. The care given there is a slap in the face to those who gave and suffered so much with the promise of the best possible health care being abrogated by the VA.

I don’t understand why the people in the Spokane area are not outraged; how many of them have loved ones stuck in the failing system. It disappoints me that everyone ignores the situation, which only gets worse day by day.

Dave

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