Keep the VA

Another fan letter for the Veterans Affairs hospital in Spokane. Talk is that veterans will be provided with vouchers to get medical care outside the VA system. None for me, thanks.

My experience with a civilian hospital went thus: I couldn’t make it to the VA, so I went to an emergency room three times and was sent home with no care. I eventually lost my right leg. Then an inept nurse cut the toenails on my left foot, and they became infected, so they were amputated.

I maintain that if I could have made it to the VA, I would not now be a multiple amputee. Added to the care given by the Spokane VA is something that pleases all vets: respect, except from the hospital administrator.

We are different and like to be treated so. So I will wait for the VA, something I have never had to do – just a 10-minute wait for appointments. When is the last time you waited only 10 minutes to see your doctor?

Terrance Wolferman

Coeur d’Alene