The Broken Soldier

Adding to what was already a bad mood, my wife shared a disquieting Fox News story regarding 19 deaths due to substandard health care - a combination of doctor inexperience and slow hospital administration reaction to the deficiencies of their doctors - at a southern Illinois VA Hospital. VA officials reacted with anger, heaving apologies on the dead patients’ families, promising them assistance in their push for compensation. Members of Congress echoed this sentiment, but also expressed feelings of shock that such things could happen. VA undersecretary for health Michael Kussman offered assurances these are aberrations in an otherwise quality health care system, and vows reform.

But those of us in the military health care system understand this brand of malpractice, while perhaps not representing the majority of medical outcomes, is hardly unusual. Poor treatment takes many forms. From poor bedside manner to the sort of egregious malpractice leading to the deaths of these 19 veterans. The serious shortcomings of military medicine are discussed more candidly now, but not candidly enough.

Whether members of Congress or VA/military medical facility administrators, no one wants to treat this matter with the honesty and frankness it deserves. Doing so isn’t expedient. For elected officials, the fear is angering and or alienating military members and those supporting them. For administrators, it’s angering or alienating their staff. But neither seem motivated to address what is possibly the single greatest challenge to national morality and honor of our time: Keeping our promise to service members and veterans to provide timely, quality health care.

The time to play tip-toe around the problem is over. The time to make excuses for negligent and incompetent doctors and health service staff is over. The time to prioritize our fears of ruffling the delicate plumage of VA/military officials and doctors with criticisms is over. The time of service members honoring long traditions of accepting whatever crap is thrown on their plates is over.

Until we stand together, Republicans and Democrats, service members, veterans, and citizens, and proclaim in one voice, “We aren’t going to accept this anymore!” nothing will be done. More service members and veterans will be harmed. More families will be without spouses, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. What is more important to us as a nation? The risk of offending incompetent and negligent medical professionals and the staff covering for their bad behaviors by calling them out and demanding they be accountable (possibly making them leave their posts), or the risk of not taking sufficient action to minimize the likelihood of more hurt and/or dead service members/veterans (harmed not on the battlefield, but by those ostensibly ‘on our side’)? Time to decide America.

The original story can be found here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,326187,00.html