Ailing war vet dies after VA hospital calls 911 for help

[razors edge]

A Spokane veteran of three wars died after collapsing in the parking lot of a veterans hospital where staffers called 911 instead of helping the man.

Clinton L. Fuller had a friend take him to Veterans Affairs Medical Center for treatment of asthma and emphysema when he collapsed mid-afternoon Sept. 30.

"This man who fought three wars was dying in front of the VA Hospital, and no one inside would help," said the Rev. Eugene Singleton, who drove Fuller. "I thought a professional person, no matter who you are, who has taken an oath to save lives, would help."

Medically, the patient was handled appropriately, said Joe Manley, director of the VA center, which had stopped offering nighttime care and was now closing at 4:30 p.m.

http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=16686

[spotbird]

1. "Medically, the patient was handled appropriately"

....he wouldn't be complaining if he had survived.

What kind of a moron makes a statement like that?

[atfqn]

33. I hope someone is kind enough

to extend his next of kin an invitation. You know, to the $20,000,000.00 "We Kicked Diplomatic Ass and Won Two Wars" party the shrub is throwing with the money he ransacked from the Veterans Affairs.

[Monkeyman]

2. I posted this for two days after it happened

Larry Scott has made a statement and hits the Republicans. This soldier died due to budget cuts by the Replugs . I call it murder. http://www.vawatchdog.org Du Learn about the budget cuts here
http://www.house.gov/budget_democrats

[razors edge]

5. sorry, never saw it here. n/t

[Monkeyman]

9. No Sorry needed here this should be out as many times as it takes

People this is only one story out of many. THEY ARE KILLING US

[barb162]

7. This soldier died due to budget cuts by the Replugs

Treating vets this way is SOOOOOO wrong.

[sandnsea]

24. I didn't see it either

That or it just seemed like another bad vet story and there are so damned many of them. This one is particularly stunning. I can't understand the complete lack of just plain decency that used to be so commonplace in this country. Maybe it's got something to do with telling a generation of people that they don't have any more of a voice than a dog, less of a voice in many cases.

Thank you for your work though, it does sink through more often than you think, just not in this particular case.

[beyurslf]

3. I'd imagine that they dn't have emergency care so calling 911 was the

correct thing to do medically. Of course, someone should have assisted until paramedics arrived as well.

[atreides1]

4. So where did the money go????

The VA hospital, which underwent a $3.2 million expansion in 2005, eliminated the center's nighttime hours in July. Hospital officials said very few patients visited after 4:30 p.m.

I'll bet the director got a new computer and office furniture?

[BOSSHOG]

6. VA Hospital closes at 1630? Thanks george bush and thanks

to your fellow fucking republicans. What fucking arrogance you have for a bastard who deserted his military unit to avoid a drug test.

[razors edge]

8. seems like 3.2 mil

to keep the old facility open as it was would have been a better investment.

[cynatnite]

10. This is tragic...

They didn't have the equipment needed and had to shut down their nighttime services. Bush budget cuts show again how little they care for vets. :(

[niyad]

11. NONE of their people knew how to do a trach??? this story is

beyond disgusting. way to support the troops, you a**holes.

[cynatnite]

21. uh...the breathing problem was in his lungs...

the biggest trach in the world would not have saved this man. What he needed went far beyond what they had on hand to help him.

[Warpy]

28. Intubation, bagging with 100% O2, and a vent ASAP

might have saved his life.

They might have been able to use a bag & mask, chances are there was no 02, and there was certainly no vent in the parking lot.

They would have done the first two on the ambulance during transport to a fully staffed ER with a vent on hand once they'd been notified via radio.

There was no reason to do a trach.

[roguevalley]

12. how could there NOT be someone to help him. they were a VA hospital

[Monkeyman]

13. Look at the link above the reasons are there

[cynatnite]

20. They didn't have the equipment...

People were there to help him, but without the right equipment to handle this emergency they couldn't do anything.

[gratuitous]

14. I don't think anyone could have predicted this

I mean, a sick person showing up at a hospital? How often does that happen? Hard to place blame in this situation, and certainly none should accrue to the folks running the country or allocating funds or anything else that might attach to Republicans. Besides, Democrats seem to know all about hospitals and sick people showing up at hospitals for treatment, so it's probably their fault. Besides, without having his voter registration on him, Mr. Fuller couldn't prove that he was a deserving Republican instead of a mooching Democrat, so the hospital did the medically and politically appropriate thing.

Gee, isn't this a wonderful country?

[madokie]

17. no no this is bush* country

things are done differently now.

[Richard Steele]

18. Clinton left them no specific plan for helping this man....

And I'm sure BushCabal™'s MASSIVE cuts in the VA budget
have nothing to do with the massive cuts in VA service.

:sarcasm:

[Historic NY]

15. This just ..................

pisses me off.........:nuke:

Why do Republican hate our Veterans.........they do medical swiftboating to them.

[Hubert Flottz]

16. So what if the GI's who were lifting the flag in that famous photo had

Just laid old glory down in the mud and the blood and said "WELL HELL, FORGET THIS SHIT, IT'S QUITTIN' TIME?"

My dealings with the VA would cause me to believe every word of this story. The VA guys I ran into while trying to get any "HELP" from the VA, were all in it to help themselves, the veterans be damned!

[Warpy]

19. Here's the operative sentence

"'The patient arrived at our facility in respiratory distress," he said. "The most skilled people we had went out to the patient, but you have to have the professional equipment to do the work."'

He wasn't left alone on the pavement in the parking lot, in other words, while nothing was being done.

The response time for the ambulance was likely far quicker than getting a gurney out of the hospital (finding one is always problematic at a VA), loading him onto it, and opening up the emergency department to get him treated would have been.

Full respiratory arrest requires quite a bit of equipment to treat, equipment that would have been available on the ambulance rig.

But yes, that emergency department should have been OPEN and STAFFED.

This is murder by budget cut.

[cynatnite]

22. Well said! n/t

[bleedingheart]

25. I agree...murder by budget cut

[Monkeyman]

26. Your on the money

Right now because of the lack of the FY 2007 budget Department after Department in the VA are closing. X RAY and MRI machines are breaking down. Vets are being turned away. Last year alone 600,000 vets were denied or put on huge waiting list. They only left the VA with a budget that keeps the VA open till maybe middle of the month. No Appointments no meds

[cynatnite]

27. The only reason my hubby isn't one of those 600,000...

is because he walked in the VA with such high blood pressure it was dangerous. One of the doctors attending him cut through the red tape and made sure he had a regular doctor. The copay on the meds helped, but they're much higher than it used to be. Some meds have to be gotten outside of the VA because the government refuses to carry them. This is becoming more and more common.

Try getting surgery in a VA hospital these days. It's getting harder and they are doing less surgeries.

[Ken Burch]

29. Another story on this theme that people should find on the web...

Anybody remember Spanky and Our Gang, the 1960's pop group? one of its members, Oz Bach, was a Vietnam-era veteran and died when the VA hospital in his area refused to treat him because his cancer couldn't be shown to be directly service-related. They made him leave even though he was standing in front of the reception desk bleeding rectally. Oz could have survived had the VA taken him in and treated him when he first presented with symptoms.

[Fierce]

23. Medically, this may have been handled appropriately. But...

...Morally, this is a crime.

[Az_lefty]

30. The VA hospital I go to tells their patients to call 911 for emergencies

they don't have the staffing to handle it at all. Budget cuts and tax cuts for the rich are the root cause for this discrace.

[cynatnite]

31. It's the same at the VA hospital here...

They don't have the beds, the staffing or the equipment to handle life-threatening emergencies.

[Rosemary2205]

32. Yep. Same here.

Even when you call in, the answering system tells you to call 911 for an emergency. Quite a few 24hr VA hospitals have been downgraded to clinics. How unfortunate this dear veteran or his wife didn't get that message. Shameful.

[pecwae]

34. In 1992 at the Columbia, SC V.A.

one of our employees was crushed under a pneumatic scissors lift. We were within a 30 second run to the ER department. The first person on the scene happened to have a radio like all of us in Engineering carried and called into the hospital operator who in turn called 911. It was the biggest clusterfuck you would ever imagine! The poor guy was dead immediately after the lift hit since 2000 pounds to the skull isn't survivable.

After that incident all employees were cautioned to ALWAYS call 911 first if we came upon an accident.

[KatyaR]

35. OMG, are you telling me that they didn't even have a crash cart?

If they have patients, they should have a crash cart and staff trained to care for a patient in an emergent situation. I work for a company that manages ambulatory surgery centers, and this is a REQUIREMENT, not an optional service.

This is total ridiculous. I hope his family sues the crap out of them.

"Handled appropriately," my ass. :argh: